Day Two, Smoke Free....

Well, since I seem to be absolutely determined to be evil to myself, I decided this morning not to put a new patch on... I left yesterday's on until I started getting antsy... and then took a little bit of a nap. Woke up still antsy, so, I had some chocolate.

I may owe at least half of my quitting smoking to these little guys. More specifically, the peanut butter eggs.

Oh, and Hershey's kisses, and Dove milk chocolate eggs... it's a very cheerful bowl sitting always within arm's reach, all pastels and little cartoon bunny faces.

Doing all right now, although some of the physical symptoms (hot, then cold, then slightly nauseous, mild headache) are back. The headache goes away with Advil, the rest of it, well, none of it is so bad I can't deal with it... maybe my appetite is off for a few days. I may decide to get the step down on the patch and go ahead with it, we'll see how I feel in a few hours when the remnants of the last patch get out of my system.... Or, I may decide to go ahead and quit it all.... or I may figure out that I'm an idiot and put one of the big patches back on.

I don't know yet... but by gawd I'm going to lick this thing if it kills me. Coming up on forty eight hours without smoking... I'm pretty impressed with myself. I'll be more impressed when I can say forty eight hours without nicotine, but that may be a ways away.

The longer I've gone without lighting up, the easier it's been to not light up. Had the urge a few times today, and I leaned pretty heavily on the cig (un-lit) that I've been mauling since ten yesterday morning. Let my body go through the motions, but not get what it's wanting out of it.... it helped a lot with the nervous twitches yesterday, and seems to be helping today with the complete lack of nicotine. I've noticed that I'm "dragging" on it more today, whereas yesterday it was more just holding it... and even that is starting to ease off as my body seems to figure out that it's not working the way it used to.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling, weird post, but I promised updates. I'm not sure where Mamaw is at today, or Farmmom, but that's where I stand.... Hopefully over the hump and on the downhill side.

One day,

Smoke Free!

Huzzah!

I feel pretty safe saying it now because I'm one tired cookie and I'm about to go to bed... not much chance to slip in my sleep.

Farmmom is doing great, and so is Mamaw.... Mamaw came up with a very original method of distracting herself and keeping her hands busy...

She's got a Nicotrol inhaler, from a previous attempt to quit... and instead of the nicotine soaked filter thingy, she put a tic tac in the end. So she chews on it, blows through it, and rattles it around to keep herself occupied. It seems to be doing something for her, since she doesn't hardly put it down.

Farmmom held it down two two cigs all day at work, and two or three after she came home.

As she said when I told her I hadn't smoked all day today...

We are all made of Win and Awesome!

Update

Yes, yes, I know it's been a couple of days. Trust me, it's been a rough couple of days.

Three cigs a day total, has been my average. I was going to go for none at all yesterday but that got blown when I got my mail and had a bill from the college and they hadn't even sent my aid refund yet.

Turns out, all it was was the flu shot that Etta had to have last semester... since it was a charge on last semester, she couldn't take it out of this semester's aid, but she couldn't release the refund either. So they were holding a little over four grand, over... wait for it.... $15.

Got it taken care of, got my refund checks deposited, got my first class taken care of, learned all about what we're gonna be doing for this class, joked around with folks I haven't seen in months, went to Wally World and decided to celebrate by buying a movie.

Wanted is pretty awesome if you can turn off your "but that's not possible" button.

Managed not to smoke after dinner last night, so I may be able to make it all the way through today. Gonna try it, anyway, with the help of my magic little stop-smoking pills (Tic Tacs, flavor Orange.)

They're not food so I don't have the major craving after one, but they're something in my mouth so it kills the craving for a few minutes. It's working fairly well so far, anyway.

Mamaw is still slipping some, but still way less than she was smoking before, so major kudos to her, too!

Farmmom is on the patch now too, and she's doing really well, especially considering that Farmdad is still smoking. Having someone in the house still smoking makes it tough, as I know from experience.

We're still pluggin away, I'll update again when we have news...

*Twitch Twitch*

Well, I'm well and truly into the twitchy stage, now.... And yes, I've had some slips, but guess what? I'm not going to kick myself over them because it's counter productive, and by gawd I've already accomplished miracles, with the help of the Patch.

Instead of approximately a pack to a pack and a half, I've had less than two, count 'em, two cigarettes today. Mostly in single puffs here and there bummed from Farmmom's already lit cig.

Mamaw has done even better than I have, going from about three packs a day (about two, by this time of day) to one cigarette, right after lunch.

We're pretty danged proud of ourselves, frankly.

Quit Day

So, I was planning on putting the patch on first thing this morning.

Of course, that was before six freaking trains went by in the middle of the night, and the engineers didn't know how to get off the damn horn.

I would have slept through it. Farmdog, on the other hand, had to complain about the lack of courtesy, so I was awake.

And started craving a smoke.

And slapped on a patch....

And went back to sleep!

I'm craving, now, more because of the habit of getting up, having coffee, checking all my intarwebz things, and having a smoke... but it's not nearly as bad as it would be without the patch.

Mamaw apparently made the decision in the night to join me on my quit date, since I got up to a dining room free of ashtrays or cigarettes. That's helping, too.

We'll see, as the day goes on, how things go. I'm not twitchy... yet. I'm not cranky... yet. I also don't want to go seven weeks with this size patch... once the cranky and twitch are over for the most part, I'll step down.

So far, so good.

Quitting Smoking

Well, the entirety of the Farm Fam (with the possible exception of Farmdad,) has decided that the cigarette tax hike (about eight bucks per carton, effective Monday, according to the clerk at the stop&rob where we get our smokes) is the perfect excuse to quit.

I have six cigs left in the last pack out of the last carton that I bought. Farmmom and Mamaw are getting the infamous Patch. Here goes nothin!

I was leery of the patch, since older versions tended to drop blood pressure, and I natrually have low blood pressure. Not like, no worries about hypertension low, but like "Hey, are you sure you're alive?" low.

The pharmacist ensures Mamaw that the patches she bought will not effect blood pressure... we'll see if I die. It's not going to be fun, and it's not going to be easy, but it will help that Mamaw and Farmmom will be doing it themselves.

The timing could be better, what with going back to classes Tuesday, and all, but if I worry about that, at this point, I'll never quit.

I figure the tax is a sign from Above (and no, I don't mean Obama... if he wanted me to quit smoking he'd show up at my house and nurse me through withdrawals with his own two hands!..... < /sarcasm >) along with the Fam quitting right along with me...

I'm not going to kick myself for a slip, and I'm not going to expect it to be easy. It's a process, and I'm going to give it my best shot.

I think if I can get past the first three days or so, I'll be good.

On the other hand, this is a good thing for me gaining weight, not only because cigarettes supress appetite, (AD, can you imagine me with more appetite?!?!?!?) but because I've found that the most effective oral-fixation replacement is, you guessed it, food.

Particularly sunflower seeds, because I can nibble those suckers all day and not get full, with occasional injections of chocolate for those ever-lovely endorphines.

So, wish us all luck!

Back To School, Back To School,

Well, as of Tuesday I'll be back to classes. Monday through Wednesday as a student instructor for the freshmen.

I remember the stupid things the sophomores made us do last semester. I just hope that I don't annoy the students I'm assigned to as much as the sophomore I got annoyed me.

It's gonna be tough being at the barn and not riding. Especially since, from all appearances, they're almost done with the fancy new indoor arena.

Friday, I'm headed out of town for the weekend, so blogging will be non-existent, but I'll try to get a couple of good ones up before I leave.