Let' beat this

Hey Red my Main Man 😃

Thanks heaps and I'm glad you get my sense

of humour, I love being a brat!!

Oh yes, you are now my official quit smoking

male sponsor!!

I think we have World No Tobacco Day here

and I'll be proudly doing a happy dance when

that day arrives.

Thanks for being you!!

Hey Wendy!!!

Great to hear from you again.

Oh gosh I'm sorry I typed mini stroke which

is also known as a TIA as you understand

what TIA means. Some I recently found out

didn't know what a TIA is and thought it

stood for Thanks In Advance haha.

I really do think I've got this one beat, even

before that happened.

No patch since 5.45pm yesterday whoop whoop

feeling a few cravings but if they annoy me

too much I'll just have a lozenge.

I'm doing a bit of an experiment because

I don't want to become addicted to them.

Figured I may as well start at the half way mark

the of the program and not wait until week

12 to start coming off.

Oops lost where I was at, I didn't have an actual

stroke thank goodness but still, they are

strong warning signs.

Heya Jakki,

Thanks so much for your sweet words.

Made me really happy that you found it

inspirational.

Here on the dotted line .........

I promise I'm being really careful. No problems

at all without wearing a patch yesterday

and no patch today either AND not even a

lozenge yet and it's nearly 11.00am.

I'm so annoyed though because I use the

Nicorette 2mg lozenge when I was wearing

the patch but I buy them in a 4 pack

because it's cheaper. Reason I'm annoyed is

I picked up the 4mg lozenge instead by

mistake!!

Yes I'll take responsibility on my part but

seriously, the packages look identical and I

freaked because perhaps for a few days I was

wearing a patch and the freaking 4mg lozenge

which IS NOT recommend.

So I won't be using a patch anyway but I

believe I did really well because only

had 3 of them and you can have up to between

11 to 15 maximum a day and if it were a 2mg

lozenge, same applies for combination therapy.

Scary how many people may have made

the same mistake as me.

I actually like that I'm not continually

receiving nicotine.

I will definitely continue to monitor though

and if I need an extra one I'll use it but

I know no matter what, this girl ain't

smoking no mo 😃

No worries Kim.....just cut each lozenge into

2 pieces with sharp knife and take half a lozenge when needed. I 've been cutting 4mg into 4 pieces. Good Luck.

Hey Johnnie,

Thanks for your advice. So if I cut them in half

it won't release the nicotine too quick?

I've gone 2 days with no patch now

and want to keep going without a patch.

At 6 weeks in, I'm not concerned about

taking 3, 4mg lozenges as that is very

little nicotine in 24 hours.

I was on the 25mg patch with perhaps 4 to 5

2mg lozenges per day so what I've managed

to drop on just 2 days is down to a third of

what I was using so I'm pretty impressed

with that. As you'd know, the nicotine

doesn't last long in your body doing it this

way.

I'd just like your advice about cutting them in

half because you've got so much more

experience with them than me.

Cheers mate.

Hi again Kim. Since quitting i always used this method. A 4mg lozenge i would cut a whole one into 4 pieces with a sharp knife on a hard surface. Whe an urge came on i would take a quarter...equivalent to 1mg nicotine. Initially i was on about 12 quarters a day i.e. 3 x4mg lozenges in total. If you find you need 2mg at a time then just cut the 4mg lozenges into 2 pieces. Hope this advice is of assistance and please watch fingers. Bye for now Kim.

Hi Red,

You're fired as my sponsor already lol.

The patch releases a certain amount of

nicotine over a period of 24 hours. When I was

wearing mine, I'd only ever use it for on

average 12 hours. I used combination therapy

meaning a nicotine patch and the occasional

nicotine lozenge that was 2mg.

I bought 4mg by accident because you cannot

use that strength AND a patch.

I decided to go off the patch before I

realised what I had done.

I've never been on Champix only due to

drug interaction. If I could have, I would

have given that a try.

Heya Johnnie,

Thanks for that. I think it's safer for me to

try and pill cut it lol. I've never waited

for the whole thing to dissolve so wouldn't

have a clue how much I was actually getting.

I'm not going back to the patch regardless

so am going to give your advice a try but

perhaps lower the amount.

I have to say that I take my hat off to you

because from the beginning, you used very

very little nicotine to help and now look at

you!!!

Hi Kim, i started off with a whole 4mg lozenge but found it did take forever to dissolve and also gave me annoying hic...ups. The 4mg nicorette lozenges have a cool drop flavor and yes an urge can be satusfied with just a quarter as i explained.....you will find with time and perserverance that the urges will diminish. Also do not take any form of nrt straight after breakfast or after a meal...wait at least half hr if you have an urge...otherwise hicups will develop and you cannot continue to let the lozenge dissolve. Anyway this has been my findings....may differ for you. Also Kim when the urge hits just say "i'll wait another 15mins before taking the part lozenge" ....you will find the urge will disappear and your ingesting of nrt will reduce greatly. Hope this helps and i am always willing to share my experiences. Cheers.

Hey Johnnie,

I took your advice but split the 4mg into 2

just to see how I went. So anyway, in the

past 4 days I've gone from wearing a 25mg

patch for half a day to no patch.

12mg of lozenge in total and today cut

the 4mg in half and only had 3 halves.

Happy to report from your suggestion in

terms of cutting the lozenge to a total

of 6mg for the whole day.

I'm super happy with that because I'm

proving to myself so far that I've been

able to quit smoking, quit the patch with

no step down to a lower patch and even

less nicotine in 6 weeks so far.

From what I've been reading on government

websites, that's a brilliant start into

my journey so far. I've not experienced any

hiccups or anything thankfully and yes, I know

you can't eat or drink coffee before or after

for a bit.

So far I've found this journey kinda easy.

I hope to be just like you in the sense

that a bit of NRT to help kick start without

the intense cravings is a great way to

be finally free.

I truly believe you have to want to quit

and have the mindset that just like

healthy eating, it isn't a diet, it's a complete

lifestyle change.

If I have extra mild cravings, I just have

a sugar free mint and guzzle water

like a fish haha.

Maybe I should change my name to Dory!

Cheers and thanks so very much.

Lol sooky sooky la la,

I'm going to try explain this as best I can.

Patches, gums, lozenges and some

kind of an inhaler or quick mist spray contains

small amounts of nicotine that is delivered

into your blood stream at a far slower rate

than let's say a cig. You don't get that instant

hit type thing as you do from a smoke.

None of those products contain any brain

alterations such as making cigs smell bad

or taste bad, Chantix as you call it or

Champix as we call it does that.

I do however want to explain that I think

people who use Champix have quite a

high success rate over here and I'd use

it if I could but can't so opted for the next

highest record here being the patch etc.

As I've said in the past, I also admire

anyone going cold turkey and are able

to remain smoke free.

I admire anyone who no longer smokes!

It's a great feeling being free from

smoking.

Huh??

I don't think understand your reaction??

Wow how posts can be misinterpreted.

I've never thought for a minute that you

were judging me nor was it a lecture.

Once you asked about e-cigs and now

the patch etc. I took your questions

exactly how you just mentioned yourself

that you are here to help others.

My only intention was to answer your

question, try to help you understand the

methods so that can go about helping

others. I've saw you reply to posts

for people who are new, asking what their

quit plan was and now I feel the need to

follow that up with (absolutely nothing

wrong with asking that to help people)

so that you have a better understanding

of the products available here in Aus.

My reply was meant to assist you and

no way how you have taken it.

But okay.

Hi there,

I'm sorry you found the information to be

excessive. I think it is a wonderful thing

that people from all over the world have

come across this site to unite in the plight

to quit smoking.

Since the audience is predominantly Australian,

I sincerely was only trying to answer how

different types of things work here.

As for the sarcasm? Yes, it must be a use

of language thing or how different people

view things. I was following on with your

banter as being a mean boss and when I

laughed and said Sooky Sooky la la it was

more meant as a term of endearment meaning

awww poor baby as a JOKE.

I will be very mindful next time because

I can't stand people who are sarcastic and

never want to be viewed that way.

Come on you two. Just kiss and make up. More important issues to discuss on this site. Cheers.

I agree, all good here and you're right

Johnnie. Far more important things.