I had surgery yesterday morning and was put in a bed in pain, unable to move. I lay in one position for 13 hours tied to the leg compression device, IV's and, a catheter.
The 14th hour I woke up and felt trapped. My back was sweating and itching from a lack of blood from being so long in the same position.
I wanted out of that bed. I wanted to find a stairwell where I could get some real air. (think of this as the crave...the desire to smoke at any cost)
I knew if I called the nurses, they would not be able to react in time to help me. Could i even explain the level of panic I had reached?
That scared me even more. I was trapped. Nothing could get me out of the mind funk I was in.
Liken this as the worst crave you could ever experience people. FULL BLOWN PANIC.
I tried to think of something to break the focus on the negative and you know what I came up with?
I put on my glasses...
I had not had them on all day and everything had been out of focus. Putting them on cleared my mind and calmed me down. I was then able to call the nurses to explain that I had not moved for 14 hours and I was itching to the point of going crazy. One nurse got me on my side but the itching persisted. Another nurse came in, saw my back and asked me if i had been scratching? My back was bloody from my fingernails. She washed my back and put on some powder. In 20 minutes the itching had subsided. when I got home today, I felt the scratches burning on my back and buttocks and those reminded me of the bad place I had been and prompted this comparison to a crave.
So....all this talk of distracting your focus....
Biting into a lemon, letting an ice cube melt in your mouth, laughing out loud, sticking your head in the freezer for 20 seconds and breathing the cold air ands, couting backwards from 20, etc... this is how you do it,
Changing your perspective for just that moment is all it takes...then, you are still going forward instead of backwards.
ps I never once thought of a cigarette!
