Hard to believe I just typed that. 200 days! Really started by accident. On May 31st 2017 I suffered a stroke at 52. Thinking all I needed was a good nights sleep I went to bed. After a very restless night I got up the next morning and realized I didn’t feel any better but I thought I should probably get to work and things would straighten out once I got moving. I made the 30 mile commute and once I got to work a co-worker saw things weren’t right a hustled me to the emergency room. With everything going on I was more concerned that I only had 2 cigarettes left and worried that I may run out before I was released. I honestly thought my smoking addiction was going to take precedence over my recovery. While in the hospital I refused the offer for the nicotine patch as it slowly began to dawn on me that this was it, I can’t smoke anymore. I figured if I was going to quit I may as well do it cold turkey. Long story short I was extremely lucky. I had always said it was going to take pneumonia or bronchitis to get me to quit. A stroke wasn’t what I had in mind but it accomplished the objective. I can’t say that it’s been a white knuckle experience this time around (about the 100th over the last 39 years) but there have been a few “Gee, I could smoke the crap out of one right now” moments that are few and far between and best of all, fleeting. I guess my advice is take it one day at a time,one hour at a timeout need be. Read the blogs here because they really helped me. I’d type in whatever day I was on as a non smoker and was always directed to a blog here and read the entry to see if there were any similarities in our journeys. Last piece of advice, just do it. Do it before something happens that forces you to quit. Because it will happen eventually.
