Chantix update…………………the last one.

If you comb back a little way into my blog posts you’ll find a few entries talking about my efforts at smoking cessation. I am here today making my final post regarding smoking cessation and the use of the drug Chantix as my support structure for quitting.
It’s been close to 3 months since I started taking Chantix, and only a few weeks shorter than that since I quit smoking. Chantix had been great up until about a week and a half ago. (that means I had been taking it for about 10 weeks before I quit). At first I noticed I felt a bit un motivated, then I felt even more un motivated. I ended up feeling downright crappy. I started to get moody and impatient with my wife and kids and even had a few instances where I just blew up. That is not who I am.
I decided I had better quit taking the medicine due to my behavior and emotions and started to halve my dosage over the course of a week. It’s now been a little over a week since I stopped taking Chantix and I am getting back to my normal self. I am becoming more passionate about the things I enjoy doing and I am no longer losing my temper over trivial things.

Am I still not smoking? Yes…I am still not smoking.
Do I still crave cigarettes? Yes….And I am told I will for quite some time to come.
Would I take Chantix again, depiste its side effects? YES!......I like not smoking!
Would I recommend it to a friend or family member? Yes….as long as you didn’t have a pre-disposition to depression I would.

That’s all for now people.
I’ll update you on my progress in another month or so.

You were right Dave………………………………

So you all know I have quit smoking right? I’ve been taking Chantix to help with the smoking cessation and it is incredible! Almost NO cravings at all, and those I do get are so minor and mild that it takes pretty much no willpower to ignore them. And the side effects? Pretty much non existent (or they are if you follow the directions!!!!!!!). OK, I do get nausea if I take it on an empty stomach but it’s not too bad.
I was warned by a friend though that if you miss a dose it can get ugly. Well, yesterday got ugly.
I missed my dose in the morning ( I have no idea how ) and by noon I was a prick. I feel awful how short tempered I was with my wife and kids, it really kinda scary that forgetting one pill can do something like that. I had another issue going on at home that didn’t help matters either and that one still needs some resolution. I also noticed that yesterday I DID fell more inclined to be emotionally dramatic (on the depressive side, although I did my best to hide that).
Just a little background here:
I am FAR from a depressed or irrational person 99.9% of the time. I have no history of depression and I don’t get angry easily. But yesterday was an extreme departure from the norm. After experiencing that I will be damn sure to not miss another dose!

Chantix update…..two days…no smoking…no problems.

I guess the title sums this post up best. I’ve been taking Chantix for about two weeks now and Monday was my official quite date. And I haven’t had a smoke since before then so…I guess I’m done? LOL. It’s so weird to not feel that strong urge to go have a smoke. When 9 o’clock rolls around and the smokers at work are heading outdoors to smoke I just sit here and watch em go.

Yesterday I played Frisbee (yeah, you can laugh) with some non-smoking co-workers and that was a great change from just standing in one spot puffing my life away. I was even greeted with a,” welcome to the non-smoking club”. LOL. So anyways, I glad to report that I can not mention any side effects (as I know many are concerned with that regarding this drug) other than the nausea I get when first taking it. I have discovered that if I eat about 10 minutes before I take it, and also keep slamming down water (like a buddy and THE DIRECTIONS told me to!) I don’t get the nausea.

So this is the end of todays Chantix update, I now have a more depressing post to draft regarding my iMac…..Blah

24 Hours of Not Smoking…………………..

Ok, so the title is a little misleading, it’s actually been more than 24 hours now since I had my LAST cigarette…..and I am doing just fine. I’m not 100% fine, but I’m faring a lot better than I would be without being medicated. I’m still experiencing the minor anxiety one feels when they realize that “normally” they would be outside smoking, but that feeling subsides rather quickly so it is bearable.
Today I’ll start taking the 2 full doses so if I’m gonna go cuckoo then tonight’s the night baby! I suppose that I wouldn’t even miss cigarettes at work if I felt more comfortable here. I don’t really feel like I did when I was at my last job, but then again I had been there for 13 years. I just need to find things to do when I would normally go outside to smoke at break. And I guess one time killer will be updating my blog w/ my progress and other mundane happenings in my life.

On a side note, I am REALLY itching to get into better shape and am thinking that snowboarding this winter is going to be part of my fitness regime. I’m also in the planning phase of building a mini ramp to skate in the spring. I’m just kinda stuck on WHERE I’m going to build it. I’ve decided on 16’ wide by 4’ tall with on end on one side having an extension that goes to 5’ and is 4’ wide. I’ll post more on that subject as things develop.


Gotta run……

Chantix update…..Just ran out of smokes……..

So here I am sitting at work and having had an awful drive to work (spilled 44 oz. of diet Mtn. Dew in my lap) I find that I am out of cigarettes. It is also my break time, the IDEAL time to slip out for a smoke and recoup from the crappy (wet) drive to work. And yet here I am…sitting at the keyboard hammering away at this update while slugging down a GIGANTIC cup of coffee. As break time approached I started to get that anxious/nervous feeling that a smoker experiences when they know that there are no smokes to be had. My “normal’ response would have been to say ,”fuck it…I’m bumming a smoke off of someone”, but I didn’t…and I won’t (1st battle won!)

For those who are following these posts to hear about what side effects I am experiencing while taking Chantix I will of course let you know, actually I will let you know right now.
To date the only side effects I have experienced are, a little bit of nausea (short lived) if I take it on an empty stomach (thanks for the warnings Pez….) and I do seem to feel a bit more “wound up”. Not anxiety, but……energy. I feel ready to go all the time for the most part, well maybe not as much in the evening (maybe coming down from the initial dose in the morning?). I am now taking the 1 ½ pill per day dosage btw. I’ll be on the two pill a day dose in two days.
Well I’m going to have to cut this shorter than I had originally planned because work waits for no man, at least not this man.


Later.

A NON_Smoking related update........................

Brrrrr, it got pretty cold over the last 24 hrs. or so here in Michigan but that is expected this time of year. I guess the cold weather will get me into using my lighting set up for portrait work and also give me time to start learning to use my Mac a little better than I do now. I just wrote my FIRST Apple Script. It’s an Itunes monitor that pumps a Twitter update for each song I play!! But after looking at mine I realized that someone else already did this a while before me..Bummer. I’m getting ready to make an Automator action that fires up this script and gets it running every time I launch iTunes.

That’s it, nothing much to post today, haven’t smoked a cigarette today yet (damn, I DID end up talking about smoking)

Chantix, Day 6………………………….

I’m smoking still…not like I used to, but still smoking. I went most of the day yesterday only smoking two (2) cigarettes which isn’t bad, but wound up smoking a third in the evening. I gave my pack to my wife and told her to hand them out to me rather than me having possession of the pack. I took four smokes to work, but gave two to another guy who had given me cigarettes in the past. This left me with two for the day. When I got home from work I really felt the desire to have a smoke and found that my wife had hidden the pack, (smart) so I had to wait for her to get home to have another.

Later in the evening after I had already had my cigarette I asked her for another and she of course said, “no”. I of course got all pissy and tried to guilt her into giving me a smoke (awful what addiction does!). She finally got frustrated and threw the pack at me and told me that she didn’t want to be the “keeper of the smokes” anymore. I of course felt bad and put the pack away and never had that last smoke of the day I was wanting.
I HAVE decided that no matter what, when this pack is gone…I am done. Even though it will be before my quit date I figure I will have been on the medicine long enough to just say enough is enough.
As far as the Chantix goes, no bad side effects yet, BUT I do feel a bit more “amped up”. I guess just way more hyper…kinda weird, but good too.

Anyways, enough writing for now. I have a lot of work to wrap up if I want to have the weekend off.

Chantix update…………… Day 5

Ok, I’m on day 5 now folks and have regressed some. I smoked one cigarette yesterday, and one today so far. I know I know, but as far as that is concerned I was stopping altogether earlier than is recommended. I am still going by my “official” quite date of the 17th. So be gentle with the criticism because for me to go pretty much 24 hours with no smokes is good in its own right.

Other news? I am starting the increased dosage today. I will be taking the normal .5mg in the morning (did that) and now adding another .5mg in the late afternoon/ early evening. I know that only taking the .5mg has GREATLY decreased the intensity of cravings so I can only imagine what doubling the dosage will do! And same report as yesterday regarding side effects…none to date.

Day four on Chantix………………………….

Well here we are on day #4 of my attempt to quit smoking using Chantix. I’ve only been taking the .5mg dosage once a day so far (as per the directions), and am now going to start taking a second .5mg dose in the afternoon (again, as per instructions). So far everything is going well. I have not had any adverse effects from the medicine, no depression, no vivid dreams, no mood swings…nada. But I suppose that could all change once I double my dose to 1mg a day.
I will let you know right now that yesterday at 2:30p.m. I smoked what was the last cigarette in my pack during the ride home from work. I have not had one since. I do have a slight urge or craving for one, but not a strong enough urge to make me ask someone to bum me a smoke. That is a pretty big deal to me. The last time I quit the craving were about this strong after having not smoked for about 2-3 weeks, and I am already at this level after only 4 days!

That’s cool.

Well, stay tuned tomorrow for an update after switching to 1mg doses…could be interesting! Or not. ;)

Day two winds to an end..................

Day two of Chantix is winding down to an end and I haven't gone crazy and tried to kill myself, nor have I become depressed that I can't write nutty commentary like this. I will say that at times during the day I felt a little out of it but then again I was pretty exhausted.
I also had a headache for a while today but that too can be attributed to things other than the medication. I have smoked a grand total of 4 cigarettes today. That's good because I might normally smoke 2 on the drive to work, 1 at break, 2 at lunch, 1 at last break and maybe 3 to 4 after work until bed time. That's about 10-11 a day. I will probably have 1 more today and that's it.

Stay tuned tomorrow to see if I had any crazy dreams or depressing moments. LOL.

The start of day two……………………….

So here I am on day two of my quit smoking program using Chantix. I’ve read and heard first hand that Chantix can make people have incredibly vivid and sometimes disturbing dreams even after only a day or two on the medication. I’m happy to say that on my first (only my first mind you) night of Chantix I didn’t have dreams that were any more bizarre than I normally have.

I’ve taken my pill for the day already and I am currently not feeling the normal powerful urge to step out for a smoke… Don’t get me wrong, I DO have a craving…but not as strong a craving. I am hoping that the cravings do decrease in intensity to the point that I don’t have them as often, or as strong as I do currently.

I’ll update more a little later, but now it’s back to work.