Don't become a butt in the ashtray of life!

Don't become a butt in the ashtray of life!

On July 12, 2012, I quit smoking after 53 years of addiction to nicotine. During those 53 years, the amount I smoked varied anywhere from a pack a day to three packs a day. During that time I smoked both non-filtered and filtered cigarettes. I had not been able to give-up my addiction for one full 24 hour period, even though I tried numerous times to do so. I was convinced that I was one of those individuals who would never be able to beat the nicotine addiction.

Over my 53-year addiction to nicotine, I never lied to myself or to others about it. I knew that what was going on was an addiction . . . not a habit. I knew that starting to smoke was the single dumbest thing I had ever done and I would tell anyone who would listen that was the case. I advised every kid I knew to avoid smoking like the plague. Yet, I could not bring myself to make an honest effort to break the addiction . . . until July 12, 2012.

Over the years, I had regularly suffered what the doctors called angina but I called chest pain. The doctors warned me that the angina was a warning sign and that I should quit smoking. They also prescribed Nitroglycerin tablets for the angina. These Nitroglycerin tablets were used sublingually (under the tongue) and they did relieve the angina . . . until July 12, 2012 that is. On July 12, 2012 at 2:15am, I was awakened by chest pain. I did what I had done so many times over the previous 53 years. I sat up on the side of the bed and put a Nitroglycerin tablet under my tongue. I did this three times over a 45-minute period but the pain kept increasing. Not only did the pain increase, it spread. My neck, my jaw, and my left arm became involved and I was starting to have some difficulty breathing. I knew from these symptoms that I was probably suffering a heart attack. I woke my wife and we headed off to the hospital 15 miles away.

By the time we arrived at the hospital ER I was no longer able to get from the car into a wheelchair under my own power. With the help of my wife and a nurse, I did get into the wheelchair and into the hands of the crack-team of ER specialists and ultimately cardiac specialists who saved my life by putting a stent into the blocked artery that was slowly but surely taking my life.

Being in CCU/ICU for the next two days and the hospital for two more days gave me some time to think without a cigarette. It forced me to suffer the pangs of withdrawal and to learn from that withdrawal. You see, prior to that time I had always stopped those withdrawal pangs by lighting-up. Over my two days in the CCU/ICU unit and additional two days in the hospital, I learned that whether I lit-up or not, the withdrawal pangs would disappear in a relatively short time.

One of the cardiologists who was treating me came in to give me "The Talk" about how close I had come to ending-up as a butt in the ashtray of life. He offered to write me a prescription for meds or to get me nicotine patches or some nicotine gum to help me break the addiction. It was at that moment that I started to use the common sense that had been almost totally absent from the smoking portion of the previous 53 years. I knew that for me, ingesting nicotine in any form and by any means would simply continue my dependence on that drug. It would have to be cold turkey for this turkey.

For me, it was one withdrawal incident at a time. I learned that I needed to shift focus from the withdrawal symptoms to something . . . anything else. Before I knew it, smokeless days had grown to be smokeless weeks and then smokeless months, and eventually into smokeless years. I had made the right decision for me. My system cleansed itself of the residual nicotine more quickly because I had chosen to go the cold turkey route rather than the nicotine gum or nicotine patch route.

Based on a battery of tests that were run on me after my heart attack and over a period of several months, I was to learn that the heart attack I suffered had caused enough permanent damage to my heart that it would now only function at approximately 60% of normal. I would tire much more easily and become winded much more easily. My cardiologist told my wife (in front of me) that if she were to catch me with a shovel in my hands, to take it from me and hit me in the head with it because that way it would probably cause less damage than if I used it. I quickly learned that doing things which I used to take for granite were now either difficult or dangerous (if not impossible).

Three months after my heart attack, my younger brother died from lung cancer and four months later still, my wife's younger sister died from lung cancer. I have since been diagnosed as having an Aortic Aneurysm that may have come about as either a direct or indirect result of my nicotine addiction. My family and I were all beginning to learn the true cost of smoking and that learning experience was quite painful!

Is quitting easy? No - it is not! However, neither is suffering a heart attack and neither is being a family member having to hear that your loved one has died as a direct result of his or her addiction. I can tell you first-hand that quitting cold turkey is far easier and less painful than either of these.

Now I want to direct a few lines at those individuals who do smoke. This is important: keep in mind that the withdrawal symptoms go away whether you light-up or not. You will learn that those withdrawal symptoms occur less often and they become less severe as time passes. You CAN break the nicotine addiction. I am living proof that YOU CAN! Quit today . . . don’t wait for a heart attack that can (and probably will) place severe and unpleasant restrictions on you for the rest of your life or possibly even cost you your life. Don't become a butt in the ashtray of life!