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Share your quitting journey

Two Years Smoke Free

RoseH
Member
8 29 184

I am smoke free for two years tomorrow!  I will be without a computer so here is my Two Year Quit Blog…

 

So how did I get here, at BecomeAnEx.com, from smoking since I was 14 years old?

 

Way back then in the 1960’s smoking was the “in” thing to do…  There was a lot of peer pressure, and I was shy and lonesome!  However, that first puff tasted awful, and I literally fell off the stool in the “soda fountain” at the Dime Store!  That first cigarette tasted awful, but everyone was laughing and egging me on, and I felt like I belonged!

 

It took a little time to get “addicted” to the drug, Nicotine.  And it took me almost 50 years to quit!  Please do not be foolish like I was!

 

Cravings are mostly a memory now, and I can quickly move on to something else, but my advice to you is quit way sooner than I did!  Because smoking gave me C.O.P.D. (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).  I am required to take two inhalers, each and every day, to help my lungs stay clear so I can breathe easier…  My lungs will heal as much as they can, but if you quit much sooner than I did, your lungs can heal better from the ravages of smoking.

 

I had a cigarette lit near me, or in my face, most of the time, and now I feel totally complete without one!  Deep down inside, don’t you truly want that too?

 

Knowing that the “addiction” to Nicotine is something you C A N overcome…  if you just do N O T light up…  Please think about it!

 

The freedom that I regained, being smoke free…  well, it is priceless!  And you can have it too!  I wish you a very happy and smoke free “today” and let’s all keep our beautiful and precious quits, ok?  Rosemary

29 Comments
About the Author
I was 57 years old and smoking like a chimney in September 2003. I was also having medical problems and upon my doctor’s diagnosis, I knew I had to quit smoking. I was scheduled and admitted to the hospital in October 2003. I had a total hysterectomy and was recuperating, when a nurse found me upset in my room and she told me to try to calm down, and take a deep breath… I could not take a deep breath! In fact, I had to be put on oxygen immediately! I was terrified. A medical specialist was brought in, and that is when I learned I had COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). My x-rays confirmed it, and the direct cause was smoking [since I was 15 years old]. I had double pneumonia as an infant, so my lungs were fragile, even when I was very young… I had to stay an extra week and they pumped steroids and antibiotics in my arm so I could breathe on my own, again. My nose got so sore with those oxygen cannulas in both nostrils. Hindsight is always 20/20. I should have never started smoking. However, peer pressure was awful when I was 15 years old. A few of my classmates dared me to light up and smoke one… I remember that first taste and how I coughed from the smoke. It was awful! But I wanted to “belong”, so I smoked until the addiction took hold of me! Back to the hospital room… I was terrified. I quit. I stayed that way for six whole months. My husband, Ed quit with me. We were doing great and then one day I said to him, “My life feels empty. Do you think we’ve got this quitting thing under control? Do you think we can have just a few a day? Before I could say another word, he was off in the car to buy some cigarettes… We both lit up when he returned, and I felt like my throat and lungs were on fire! I smashed it out and coughed! “I will never do that again!” But an addict’s lies are just that! Before long I was smoking over a pack a day again… The truth is that I had no idea how terrible the “addiction” to the drug Nicotine was. I smoked for another decade or two and each day I would tell myself that I would quit “tomorrow”. Don’t be as naïve’ as I was about this slowly killing addiction! Quit now! I would not be using two inhalers if I would have kept my quit way back then…