I have been smoking for 34 years. I smoked what my mother and my best friend's mother smoked...Virginia Slims Menthol. Both of our mothers would buy 'cigarettes by the carton and leave them around the house - and we could just help ourselves. My father smoked 5 packs of Marlboro reds a day - both parents smoked in the house.
When I was 11 my parents bought a vacation home in Mexico and my mother would send us to the tienda to buy her cigarettes and we often picked up a pack for ourselves - so you could say I have actually been smoking for 37 years...but the real smoking started at 14. I remember telling my friends I would never spend more than 50 cents for a pack of cigarettes.
When I was 30 I moved to Davis, CA the same year they imposed the toughest anti-smoking laws in the country. No smoking in bars or within 20 feet of the entrance to any building. My X was in medical school - so no smoking in the car or in the house. I did what any sane smoker would do - I smoked while I went for my twice daily run. I was lucky enough to find a job that meant I had to be in San Francisco twice a week. I can't tell you how many times I just spent the night so I could SMOKE.
Like the stickied poster, I shamefully and secretly smoked during my pregnancy. I cried while I did it, but I did it.
When I was 33 my mother died from Pancreatic cancer. My sisters and I sat around her death bed smoking with her until the very end. She was in terrible pain and losing her was awful, but watching her endure that pain was the worst thing I can imagine. Later that year I tried to quit with Wellbutrin - which had zero effect on my smoking but made me physically ill.
Then I watched my mother's best friend die of emphysema and endure that terrible pain. I tried patches, acupuncture, hypnosis and good old will power to no avail. My jock son came home from school once and told me he'd been yelled at by his coach because the coach smelled cigarette smoke on him and thought HE was smoking. I had to call the coach and tell him it was ME.
I was fortunate enough to remarry when I was 34. My sweet husband makes plenty of money and I don't need to work anymore. I ended up spending all day every day at home, smoking as much as I wanted. As of Sept of 2010 I was up to at least 3 packs a day. More if I was with smoking friends or having drinks. I was smoking defianty. Smoking was what I did. It defined me. I stayed home from certain parties and I basically stayed home all winter because standing around outside in the freezing cold didn't sound like fun to me. This meant of course, that my gregarious husband ALSO stayed home even though he doesn't smoke. The tougher the anti-smoking laws in Austin, the more I smoked. Like my son said, I smoked with my middle finger waving.
My son is 25 now, and of course, he smoked too. Did I really think he was going to escape that? (Yes, i really did.)
Four years ago I went to Spain and the 13 hour trip nearly killed me. I was SO happy that I would be flying out of Atlanta with their smoking allowed bar. I had a 3 hour layover and was able to make myself positively ill with nicotine before I got onto the plane reeking of it...but that didn't help me a couple of hours and ten ours later when I was going OUT OF MY MIND.
I have been planning to retire in Spain ever since because (you guessed it I am sure) you can still smoke is Spain. We went to Europe again the year after and that time I was prepared - I bought a very expensive Ecig. It was terrible. It hardly worked, I didn't know how to smoke it and even if I had, it was one of those really crappy ones that give away a freeby and then charge a ton for delivery. But along with lozenges, it got me through the plane ride. No way was it going to replace smoking though.
Then, this year, my friend who started smoking with me tried an Ecig and quit with it. She didn't even tell me until she was 2 months free. I didn't believe her. She begged me to try it and I insisted that I HAD tried it - and that they were terrible and didn't work. She insisted that they had improved hugely since I had tried it, that I needed to give it another shot. So I got online, read independent reviews and bits and pieces of this forum and took the plunge.
My kit arrived the end of Sept. I tried it and coughed a lot and was ready to throw it out but my friend suggested I call Apollo and ask if there was something wrong with them. She also told me to EXPECT a different experience, to settle in my mind that I was going to be trying something NEW and to resolve to give it a fair shot. I called Apollo and they coached me on how to smoke the cartomizers and get the most out of it. As of that phone call, I have not had another cigarette.
I have been tobacco free for 3 months. I don't miss cigarettes. I don't miss the stink or the expense or the taste or the handling or the coughing or waking up with whistling, painful lungs. I don't feel as though I have given anything up. I bought my son a kit and he quit too. I talked my cousins and three other friends into using them as well and now I don't even KNOW any smokers. I never thought I could do it. I knew I would die a terrible death at a young age because of it. I knew I would put my poor son through that agony and I hated that but I knew I could not quit.
It is so nice to travel and stay in hotel rooms and not have to run out for cigarettes or pay the giant fee for having smoked anyway. We are going to Europe again this Spring and I am not stressing about the long plane ride. My husband and I can go out to sports bars and watch games TOGETHER. We can go out for dinner and I am not rushing him through it so that I can leave and SMOKE. It is all just...over. In the blink of an eye - imagine that!
When I was 11 my parents bought a vacation home in Mexico and my mother would send us to the tienda to buy her cigarettes and we often picked up a pack for ourselves - so you could say I have actually been smoking for 37 years...but the real smoking started at 14. I remember telling my friends I would never spend more than 50 cents for a pack of cigarettes.
When I was 30 I moved to Davis, CA the same year they imposed the toughest anti-smoking laws in the country. No smoking in bars or within 20 feet of the entrance to any building. My X was in medical school - so no smoking in the car or in the house. I did what any sane smoker would do - I smoked while I went for my twice daily run. I was lucky enough to find a job that meant I had to be in San Francisco twice a week. I can't tell you how many times I just spent the night so I could SMOKE.
Like the stickied poster, I shamefully and secretly smoked during my pregnancy. I cried while I did it, but I did it.
When I was 33 my mother died from Pancreatic cancer. My sisters and I sat around her death bed smoking with her until the very end. She was in terrible pain and losing her was awful, but watching her endure that pain was the worst thing I can imagine. Later that year I tried to quit with Wellbutrin - which had zero effect on my smoking but made me physically ill.
Then I watched my mother's best friend die of emphysema and endure that terrible pain. I tried patches, acupuncture, hypnosis and good old will power to no avail. My jock son came home from school once and told me he'd been yelled at by his coach because the coach smelled cigarette smoke on him and thought HE was smoking. I had to call the coach and tell him it was ME.
I was fortunate enough to remarry when I was 34. My sweet husband makes plenty of money and I don't need to work anymore. I ended up spending all day every day at home, smoking as much as I wanted. As of Sept of 2010 I was up to at least 3 packs a day. More if I was with smoking friends or having drinks. I was smoking defianty. Smoking was what I did. It defined me. I stayed home from certain parties and I basically stayed home all winter because standing around outside in the freezing cold didn't sound like fun to me. This meant of course, that my gregarious husband ALSO stayed home even though he doesn't smoke. The tougher the anti-smoking laws in Austin, the more I smoked. Like my son said, I smoked with my middle finger waving.
My son is 25 now, and of course, he smoked too. Did I really think he was going to escape that? (Yes, i really did.)
Four years ago I went to Spain and the 13 hour trip nearly killed me. I was SO happy that I would be flying out of Atlanta with their smoking allowed bar. I had a 3 hour layover and was able to make myself positively ill with nicotine before I got onto the plane reeking of it...but that didn't help me a couple of hours and ten ours later when I was going OUT OF MY MIND.
I have been planning to retire in Spain ever since because (you guessed it I am sure) you can still smoke is Spain. We went to Europe again the year after and that time I was prepared - I bought a very expensive Ecig. It was terrible. It hardly worked, I didn't know how to smoke it and even if I had, it was one of those really crappy ones that give away a freeby and then charge a ton for delivery. But along with lozenges, it got me through the plane ride. No way was it going to replace smoking though.
Then, this year, my friend who started smoking with me tried an Ecig and quit with it. She didn't even tell me until she was 2 months free. I didn't believe her. She begged me to try it and I insisted that I HAD tried it - and that they were terrible and didn't work. She insisted that they had improved hugely since I had tried it, that I needed to give it another shot. So I got online, read independent reviews and bits and pieces of this forum and took the plunge.
My kit arrived the end of Sept. I tried it and coughed a lot and was ready to throw it out but my friend suggested I call Apollo and ask if there was something wrong with them. She also told me to EXPECT a different experience, to settle in my mind that I was going to be trying something NEW and to resolve to give it a fair shot. I called Apollo and they coached me on how to smoke the cartomizers and get the most out of it. As of that phone call, I have not had another cigarette.
I have been tobacco free for 3 months. I don't miss cigarettes. I don't miss the stink or the expense or the taste or the handling or the coughing or waking up with whistling, painful lungs. I don't feel as though I have given anything up. I bought my son a kit and he quit too. I talked my cousins and three other friends into using them as well and now I don't even KNOW any smokers. I never thought I could do it. I knew I would die a terrible death at a young age because of it. I knew I would put my poor son through that agony and I hated that but I knew I could not quit.
It is so nice to travel and stay in hotel rooms and not have to run out for cigarettes or pay the giant fee for having smoked anyway. We are going to Europe again this Spring and I am not stressing about the long plane ride. My husband and I can go out to sports bars and watch games TOGETHER. We can go out for dinner and I am not rushing him through it so that I can leave and SMOKE. It is all just...over. In the blink of an eye - imagine that!
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