This time I will!

Hello,

I am 59 years old and been smoking since my early 20's! I just don't enjoy smoking anymore, or the comments from my children or the stares I get from my grandchildren. I have had 3 major chest/middle ear infections this year which took repeated antibiotics to get rid of and I am sure smoking exacerbated this! I have a chronic cough and get bronchitis.

I have tried patches (they make my skin underneath bright red and itchy, so convinced myself I am allergic to them and threw them away) and about 4 years ago tried Champix. I was smoke free for 6 weeks but then seemed to get every side effect known to man - terrible nausea, heartburn, palpitations, insomnia, mood swings, sore throat - you name it I got it. Within a week of that I was smoking again.

My husband is a very heavy smoker and has emphysema (which he is in total denial about and receiving no treatment)so I am hoping he will follow my example when I am successful. I guesse the thing that really made me take stock other than I want to see my grandchildren (3,2 and 10 months) grow up is during the past 4 years we have been lucky enough to go on 2 overseas cruises and it was a game on the ship for our group of smokers to see who could find the cheapest cigarettes at each port of call! What a waste of money and time, when I think of the places we should have been seeing instead of looking for cheap cigarettes!

I went back to my Doctor for Champix, said I wanted to try again but told him of my side effects from the previous attempt. He just looked at me then basically said "Suck it up Princess and get on with it!!" So that is what I am going to do! 3 days so far and no side effects and hope my quit for good day will be next Saturday.  I haven't told anyone of my plan - I want to see how long it takes them to realise "Hey, haven't seen Mum with a smoke for a while!"