Quitting Smoking: Tips and Advice

@Lee__R 

Please share your story:

When I smoked I learned early on that only I had control over what I did or didn’t do, but what I didn’t know was that smoking had control over me. I started very young with my first cigarette at age 10. Most of my peer group at the time smoked. Those young years were spent stealing away with friends somewhere to smoke without being caught by our parents. My father however did smoke. Being self employed, his office was one of the rooms in the house, walls dark blue with the tint of tar from 20 or so years of his smoke. Some of my fondest memories from so early on included the wonderful aroma of his cigarette smoke. The clean, crisp, winding white smoke emanating from his Camel cigarette mesmerized as I watched so early on. Still to this day I love the aroma of a fresh lit cigarette.

By the time I was 16 or so, I was smoking an average of one pack per day. Later on, depending on the job or activities I was involved with, sometimes two packs per day. All through those years and probably until I was around 30, I lived to smoke. I enjoyed each cigarette I smoked, and looked forward to the next. Circumstances would place me somewhere where I could not smoke, but there was always a place nearby to partake. I always tuned out anyone who tried to talk to me about quitting smoking. Former smokers, anti-smokers, whatever or whomever, I figured that I would quit or not quit whenever I wanted to.

During the early 80’s, the push to make the workplace smoke free began. We went from smoking in our offices and conference rooms to being exiled from the buildings to smoke outdoors. As the anti-smoking push became stronger, I decided to enter a company, healthcare benefits sponsored, smoking cessation program. The program consisted of group counseling sessions with other smokers on a few evenings a week. As we progressed through the program, I cut back on the amount of smoking, down to only one or two cigarettes per day at the end of the program. On the last day of that program, we turned in all of our smoking paraphernalia; cigarettes, lighters, ash trays, etc. , and were given medical prescriptions to purchase the nicotine patch.

For me, the patch had no effect. I was not smoking, but missed it, craved it, and ate, ate, ate. Three months later and 25 or so pounds more, I bought a pack of cigarettes and started up again. Knowing all along that I needed to quit, but also needed something else to get me there. Having no idea what that was, the cycle of events began, without me knowing. My wife became sick with a respiratory influenza. Not being a smoker herself, she asked that I not smoke in the house while she was sick. This became step one; I immediately stopped smoking in the house, only smoked outdoors. Step two; soon thereafter we bought new cars and I made the conscious decision to not smoke in the cars. Knowing how the odor remains in the cars and having a new found understanding of what my wife put up with for so many years it was easy, yet sometimes challenging on long drives. Even my daily commute to work in my own car, there was a ban on smoking. I would have a cigarette on the patio with my coffee before leaving, then not another until I arrived at work.

Now enter the late 90’s and early 2000. Bronchitis became an annual, if not semi-annual event. Each time with a little more fervor. Sometimes getting to the stage where it hurt to smoke, but I persevered. Smoked a little less, but continued to smoke none the less. Each time I would end up at the urgent care facility. Would have a chest x-ray, breathing treatment, Motrin for the pain, and a lecture on smoking. Sometimes these trips to urgent care would see me doubled over in pain from the coughing.

Step three; This started in November 2006. During one of my bouts with bronchitis, trying to let it pass, the pain in my chest became stronger and different from what I had experienced so many times before. I was at work, trying to just get through the day, soon it will pass I thought. That evening felt a little better after dinner and went to bed early. Back to work the next day, feeling ill, now with a constant pain in the center of my chest. Was I having a heart attack? I looked inward, tried to self diagnose and see if there were any other symptoms of a heart attack, but nothing. Did I mention that it was becoming more difficult to breathe? There was something different with this bout of bronchitis, so I left work early and went to the Hospital E.R. Upon arrival it was all too familiar, the chest x-ray, breathing treatment, Motrin…But then the E.R. Dr. said that this time, I would be staying there for a week or two. He brought me over to review the x-rays which clearly showed that my right lung had completely collapsed. He explained to me that they need to insert a chest tube immediately to re-inflate my lung and that the pain and pressure that I felt in the center of my chest was the lung pressing against my heart. He went on to say that I should have come in much earlier and that if not treated immediately, the pressure from the lung on my heart could stop my heart from beating.

Ok, that was the initial wake up call. Next was the actual chest tube. Right there in the E.R. the Dr. and Nurse gave me an injection of Lidocaine to numb the skin, made a small incision, inserted the forceps to stretch the opening, then inserted the tube. Imagine taking a blunt object like a rather large diameter ink pen and shoving it into your chest, between the ribs. The Lidocaine only served to numb the skin, the stretching of the opening and inserting the tube was the most intense pain that I had ever experienced in my life. I was kicking and swearing out loud in the E.R. Looking up at the E.R. Nurse to hear her words, “you’re doing just fine” were absolutely no comfort to me. Now the E.R. Dr. stitched the tube securely to my new incision and attached it to the suction device. Next came the sensation of drowning. As the suction began to remove the air from my thorax and allow the lung to re-inflate, I had the sense of being unable to breath, like I was drowning. I gasped for air and again looked to the E.R. Nurse to hear, “you’re doing just fine” once again.

It was at this point that I decided to give in, or give up to the pain and sensation of drowning. Just relax, close my eyes and take whatever came next. My breathing soon eased, I could actually get air. The oxygen mask was pumping away, the chest tube was pumping away, and now Morphine was introduced into my I.V. Within just 5 or 10 minutes I went from the most intense pain, the inability to breathe, to complete relaxation. From the thought of expiring on that table, to just being happy to be alive.

Within minutes, my beautiful wife Linda and lovely niece Monica appeared. After getting me settled into my hospital room they took my car home, searched out all of my cigarettes, lighters and ash trays and disposed of them all. The worst was over, now the healing needed to begin. Eight days in the hospital with massive doses of steroids, antibiotics, and the morphine pump. Sleeping flat on my back with the oxygen mask over my face or in my nose, the I.V. in the left arm, and the chest tube in the right chest. Chest x-rays and/or CT scans daily to monitor the lungs and see what was going on.

Growing up you learn all about the dangers of smoking and lung cancer. You hear about emphysema, but only that it is another smoking related disease. The emphysema that I had, and still have, caused a type of air bubble or pimple to form in my lung. The actual medical term for this pimple is “bleb”. This pimple burst, allowing the air to escape from inside my lung to the outside. This was called a spontaneous pneumothorax, commonly a collapsed lung. Having a hole in the lung is a very bad thing. The entire principle of breathing relies on a balance of air pressure between the outside air and the inside of your chest. Once the lung has been compromised with a hole, all of the air taken in escapes to the exterior of that lung and accumulates in the thorax. The resulting pressure then collapses the lung, thus the need for the chest tube.

So fast forward one week later, the lung has healed, the chest tube was removed, and I am up and out of my hospital room for the first time. A short walk to the outdoor patio of the hospital and guess what my first thought was? It’s been a week and I sure would like a cigarette! But no, with the assistance of the hospital stay, including the morphine, I decided at that moment that I could no longer smoke. I decided that I needed to take back control over my life that smoking had taken from me. The doctors also cautioned me that there were “blebs” in the other lung that may also burst should I continue to smoke. Enough said, the decision was done. I needed to stop smoking now or go through this again, or worse.

Step four: I was back home after eight days in the hospital. The date was November 30, 2006. At home I found that my wife and niece had missed one pack of cigarettes in the center console of my car. This temptation became my final farewell to smoking, and my way of easing out of this control. Each morning with my coffee for the next 20 days, I took one cigarette from that pack and smoked it with my morning coffee, outside of course. This was not to start smoking all over again, but my way of ending it. Ending the control that smoking had over me by taking control over smoking and showing myself that I could do it.

What year were you diagnosed with COPD?

2004

Have you quit smoking?

Yes

What year did you quit smoking?

2004

What recommendations do you have for those that are trying to quit smoking or have considered quitting? 

Quitting smoking is a process and it takes conviction to quit.  My quitting happened over many years with subtle changes in my lifestyle.  I stopped smoking in the house and cars, tried a smoking cessation program 20 years ago which helped me quit for a few months.  Not having the odors or reminders in my home or cars helped when I actually did quit.  That was after a collapsed lung and 8 days in hospital on steroids and morphine.  

If I would have known when I started smoking what I know now I would have never started I stoped with the help of Chantex I tried many other things but no success

@Nancy2020 I think a lot of us feel the same way. I started as a teen when it was "cool" and it took me decades to quit. A few too long I guess, because here I am with COPD.

The thread is a bit old but I still want to share my story because it might help someone. I was diagnosed with COPD back in 2015, and I gotta say, it was a huge wake-up call. I had been smoking cigarettes for years and I knew I needed to quit, but it was easier said than done, as you mentioned.

Eventually, I found something that helped me kick the habit: Rove carts. They're these super convenient and discreet vaporizers that use cartridges filled with THC oil. I started using them to help with my COPD symptoms, but I found that they also helped me cut back on my cigarette smoking. Long story short, I eventually quit smoking cigarettes altogether, and it feels amazing.