Nearly kicked it.
24 May 2018
Dear LPG,
You may remember a news post that I was responsible for and which was entitled ‘It’s not working…’ on October 25th 2017. I am now writing this one to share the fact that I am making progress, although I don’t quite know what I have done differently.
In October I had just bought a whole electronic smoking starter kit which I could not get on with. I also mentioned the many times I had invested in patches, chewing gums and inhalers, and even the awful pictures on the packets had no effect. As I pointed out in the October post; nothing was working!
I also mentioned that last year I began to show the symptoms of an illness, that remains to this day unexplained. I have spent the past 6 months travelling backwards and forwards to the hospital and GP surgeries to undergo all manner of CT scans, endoscopies, x rays and other exploratory procedures to explain my relatively extreme loss of weight and energy. Not one of the examinations and investigations mentioned have thrown any conclusive light on why I am showing signs of an illness which no one can really explain.
It is odd but I have never, even when smoking some 20 cigarettes a day, felt the need to smoke socially. For years I have been a closet- smoker; indulging in my habit alone and when I really could not do better, I would also excuse myself and have the odd one during the visit of a friend. I believe that the fact that I live alone has always been a part of why giving up has been so hard for me. Sometimes I would find that I had already lit a cigarette before I realised and there was no one to tell me that I shouldn’t have.
The good news is that a GP talked me into attending my local Lewisham Stop Smoking Service Clinic again, and for some reason it is working this time. I am not sure what the difference is and I have to admit that I still feel the need for one or two puffs on a cigarette with that first cup of tea in the mornings, which I will then throw away.
I am not sure that I can feel the difference health wise yet, but I have a lot more money at the end of each week. I urge anyone who has tried to try again. I know that I allow myself those two puffs a day rather than giving up altogether which is not perfect, but perhaps that fact that I give myself that little bit of leeway is the answer.
So even if the best you can do is whittle your ‘20-a-day’ habit down to ‘2-puffs-a-day’ it has to be a step in the right direction…
CJ, Brockley.
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