I called the quit line today. They were really nice. First I talked to an operator named Cathy. She determined that it was my first call into the quitline and asked for some information. You know, the boring stuff like my address so they could send the packet of materials to me and email address and if I wanted to quit in the next 30 days. After all the paperwork stuff was out of the way, Cathy connected me with a Quit Coach named Alice. Alice was great. She asked if I had any questions and took the time to really listen to the answers. We talked about some of the nicotine replacement therapies out there.
It turns out, no matter how many times I have heard about quitting smoking and how many smoking cessation programs I have been through (I’ve been through 2 previously), I still didn’t know a lot about the nicotine replacement stuff.
I was always worried about how the patch would work. I mean is it going to give me so much nicotine that I’m bouncing off the walls with the shakes? Alice explained how the step down process works for those. It seems that the first and biggest patch is for those that smoke a pack to a pack and a half a day. Then the second is for those that smoke about 10-15 cigarettes a day. And, the last patch which is the smallest dosage is for folks that smoke about 5 cigarettes a day. Turns out you can start on what ever patch is about the level you smoke. So I would start on the second patch. If that didn’t work for me after a day or two I could move up to the largest level and then back down the steps. I didn’t know that.
The biggest thing about the nicotine replacement stuff is that you absolutely can’t smoke when you use it. Too much nicotine in your body.
Alice and I also talked about other ways to keep my hands and mouth busy other than a cigarette. I think that is a big part of my addiction. It’s something to do with my hands. We talked about eating sunflower seeds, chewing on straws or toothpicks, gum, a whole list of stuff.
The really good news is that, Alice said that people try to quit upwards of a dozen times before they succeed. Wow. This is my second serious attempt. So it looks like falling off the nonsmoking bandwagon is something really common. That’s a big part of my reluctance to quit. What if I fail? How embarrassing is that! I would be in a large crowd though.
I did set a quit date. It’s January 23. Right now, I will not smoke on that day. When I get to January 24, I will try not to smoke on that day. The thought of never being able to have a cigarette again is a really scary one for me, so I’m taking it a day at a time.
Between now and next week, I will try to taper off the amount of cigarettes I smoke. I’ll also try to break the times I smoke. It seems like there are certain times in the day that I always have a cigarette. I will try to break that cycle before the quit date. I’ll let you know how that works for me. I’m already on my way. I’ve switched from 100’s to shorts.