OT...Cold Turkey

My wife and I each have smoked for at least 50 years. In my case, at least a pack a day. Around Valentines Day, she got pneumonia and I got a head cold. We were sick enough, we didn't smoke.

As we recovered, we just didn't pick up smoking afterward. It has been two months since either of us has had a cigarette. No patches or pills. Not saying we quit - but it has been 60 days.

Sold my carton of cigs after about two weeks. Am breathing a lot better. No more coughing, etc. And no more $4.00 + a pack. Saving a lot of money and feel better.

My mom quit back in '93 after a heart attack. Dad quit around 2007, just cold turkey one day decided he'd had enough.
Mom had lots of happy pills in the hospital to help her with the withdrawl, dad need a pill, I forget which, nnalert maybe?

How anybody could figure smoking was a good idea baffles me, its the single most addictive thing ever. If you smoke one cigarette statistically you'll smoke until you die...

Congratulations! You should be proud, very proud of your accomplishment. Have you noticed how you have gained your sense of taste and smell back? Wonderful isn't it?

Way to go Don! I know first hand, you may have just done the hardest thing you've done in your life. Stick with it!

I think I heard recently that the dept of agriculture is still subsidizing the tobacco industry. Can this be possible? Maybe give them some help switching to other crops, but not tobacco!

In 1987 I had a bad cold and cough. I could smoke because I would start coughing every time I tried. It was a week or so before I recovered and went to buy smokes, but on the way decided I went without a week I should try another week.
Week after week it is history now.
Frank

Congrats!Way to go! Very cool you both are off of them!

I quit back in the late 80's, then I put on weight, I still feel better than I did when I smoked.

Stick with it, you won't regret letting it go!

L.

Never smoked more than a packet in my whole life, so I cannot say "been there, done that", but I've seen friends struggling to quit. So I have a feeling how hard this addiction can be. Congrats on what you and your wife have achieved and help each other refraining from smoking altogether. It may be hard some times, but think of the rewards!
My 2c, Hendrik

Awsome! You will soon realize that your sense of smell and taste will come back soon also. Dave

When did you start smoking?
My FIL started when he was 14 he died when he was 59, bladder cancer, horrible death.
Hopefully you dont have cancer now and your wife doesnt either.

As much damage as they had done to my father by age 65, the doctor still assured him that quitting would help him a lot and it did.

Congratulations to you and your wife, Don, and hang in there!

That's the hardest thing I've ever done.

Paul

Good for you, and stick with it. You'll be glad you did.

Quit now --- don't quit like I did. I drove myself to the emergency room in Guymon Ok last August 5th --- woke up on August 13th in the hospital in Amarillo Texas.
Had a major heart attack -- which smoking(i am sure contributed) plus over weight etc.
Try to stay with it and put things back in balance.

I started when I was 18 in 1960. We've been fortunate not to have any major diseases such as cancer or heart disease. Neither of us are overweight

I quit in 1990 Jan 10, had smoked 2 packs a day for most of 33 years. Had a bad cold got up one morning put a new pack in my pocket, did not light one then. I had only smoked 1 pack in the last 2 days. Late in the morning I took it out to open it standing next to a guy that was lighting one, I got a wiff of his and just put the pack back in my pocket. I carried it 3 days before I left it in the drawer. It was the easiest thing I ever did.

have a friend who quit, as stated, smell and taste got better, smells others smoke and realize how bad it was. he agreed not to preach to others how bad it is, lose friends that way, he"ll just say how much better he"s feeling. good luck on traveling down the no-smoking road. p/s, just think that $4.00 pack will now help pay for a $4.00 a gal of fuel. lol

After smoking since I was 17, I quit the day my wife went to her cardiologist 2 years after a quadruple bypass operation at age 34, the day he told her that if she continued to smoke, he refused to see her again. Lit the last two in my pack for her and me when we left the office, and I haven't looked back.

She still smokes, another cardiologist in the same office sees her, and on June 23rd it'll be 13 years since the day I quit.

I still crave 'em, but I'd probably cough my fool head off if I tried to start again. I have no desire to spend what they're charging--hell, when I started, gas AND cigs were at about 35 cents a unit [gallon/pack]. But I'm no anti-smoking Nazi about it...my wife still smokes, so that wouldn't work out well, would it?

It's true; they can't afford to stop that as tax revenues would go down if farmers stopped raising it.

Howdy,
I quit smoking on my 70th birthday, a present to myself. I put on about 35 pounds, people said I looked good, then I had a heart attack at 71, the following year I had heart surgery, lots of complications. So here I am at 74 still crave cigarettes now and then but if I was to walk to the gas station I would probably die, if not from the walk then from the price of smokes, big sign---"Marlboro---$7.35---a pack.
Good luck, don't ever try another cigarette if you want to live.
Bob S.

Congratulations!! Stick with it.

I've probably mentioned this on this forum before, but I was smoking two packs a day when I met my wife, now of 45 years.

On our second date, she admitted she's allergic to tobacco smoke, among other things. It sounds overly dramatic, but right then I took a pack of cigarettes out of my shirt pocket, threw it into a nearby trash can, and haven't touched one since.

Had five heart bypasses in 07 and of course was told to quit smoking after doing it for fifty years. Told the do gooders in the hosp. that I didn't want to listen to their anti smoking lecture. Guy came in and noted that I didn't want to hear his lecture but,he asked if he could at least leave me some literature. Told him that I was a onery old fart,seventy at thet time, and would just quit. I haven't had a cig. since I left the hospital. Can't say that it has changed how I feel although the extra 20 pouncs hasn't make me feel any better.

I smoked three packs of cigarettes a day menthol
I threw them away and nevr turned back 24 years ago.

haven't smoked any since 1991 this time but every now and then I would like to smoke just one . I know from the other times, though I can't ever smoke one. Quit for the third time and I'm not going back , all cold turkey , so don't tell me or us now that you can't stop .

Good for you, keep it up. Smoked for 35 years and then had a heart attack at 47. Stop then and feel great.

If I was you I would get checked for cancer, bladder, lung, liver.

The sad thing about my FIL was that he was urinating blood for a few years before he did anything about it.....Then it was too late.
FIL was a good guy, but he was not smart with his health. The last 2 months of his life was the worst suffering and pain I dont ever want to experience.

I quit on Christmas Day 2010. There's still a lot of times I would like a smoke, so I just grab my toothbrush. I have the cleanest teeth in town. And over $400 in a jar that get my $5 a day now. Free hunting trip to Argentina coming.

I am so glad to read where someone else has found out the truth according to LarryT. In 1992 I quit smoking. I was smoking 3 packs a day. I kept telling everyone that I was trying to quit. Then one day I woke up in a hospital. 3 doctors telling me after I had come around from a 4 day coma that they were going to have to transplant a lung into me. I closed my eyes and had the most sincere prayer I have ever offered.
Needles to say I still have both lungs,(original equipment) and have never touched another cigarette. I didn't use a patch it water filter or taper off. I just had had enough. I had cravings but all I had to do was resist for 5 minutes at a time. My gospel? When you make up your mind to quit there will be no procrastination or excuses. If you knew that the next time you lit up you would die, I would bet that any of you with an ounce of sense wouldn't. Think of it that way. The next time you lite one of those cigarettes your going to die, your going to suffocate and the life is slowly going to ebb from your body as it is racked with pain and you start to convulse and there is nothing you can do. And you remember that all you had to do was not lite that one cigarette. Please take me seriously. I lost 2 uncles to COPD and watched them as they slowly drowned in their own fluids because they liked it and were addicted. Addiction to any substance lasts a maximum of 21 days. Are there so many of us that are so week that we can't resist a cut up leaf rolled inside a piece of paper for a 3 week period? I really want to meet the person who wants to be under the control of a stinky plant leaf rolled up in a peace of paper or stuffed into your mouth so it makes you drool down your chin and rot your gums and tongue and cheek and throat and for you chewers out there, ask your girl or lady if she really likes kissing a spittoon or ashtray. Ask her if she wants be with a man whose jaw is falling off from cancer or teeth are so rotten that they smell from 20 feet. I have seen all these things come from tobacco. Tobacco is the best wormer for livestock there and makes a great poltus for certain injuries. But not for what the majority of us use it for. I have never met a man or woman that will admit to wanting to be the slave of anyone else no less a plant and a peace of paper. Ok enough soap box for today. You all keep after it and I know that you can beat the weed. LarryT

This is great news to here! It has been exactly 4 years today that I had my last smoke. I was 2+ packs a day. Quit cold turkey. Was tuff, but my kids gave me the support that I needed! I remember the day well... Smoked my last one at 10:30 in the morning. Went and mailed(paid) the taxes. Then went window shopping for wifes new vehicle-yup bought a new van for her by the end of the day! Got home and had a beer, THEN the thought hit me HARD! But I did not. To this day I have not had one. As you said, feel much better! Smell is much better-talk about a nasty smell, after someone has one, stinky. Life is to short... SHON

Now you probably wished that cold appeared 40 years ago.Keep it up and don't falter, when you feel like a cigarette, pop a lollie .This is the get out of gaol card so make the most of it..

I smoked a pipe for 25 years. July 30, 1987, 3:00p.m. I quit cold turkey. There just wasn't anything pleasurable in smoking anymore. Really tough, but I lived through it and am sure glad I quit. Whole new life without coughing all the time.

Quit smoking and drinking 28 years ago next month. Saved a couple million dollars since then. Now if I could only find it. Have a goodun.

Good job,it's tough but stick to it. I quit cold turkey 20 yrs ago and sometimes still get an urge to smoke one, but I won't chance it. It's not worth it. When I quit I was paying 2 bucks a pack and I thought that was high. Thats why I quit. I could not imagine paying 6-7 dollars a pack nowdays.

Not trying to sound like a complete jerk or anything,...but I never tried smoking, as well as tasting dog crap. They both smell bad,..so why would I ever try it?

I think I have said this about a million times when people do not believe that I have never tried smoking.

Congrats on quitting this long. God Bless!