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I'm surprised at how many people on this forum smoke; I thought we smokers were an endangered species.
I started at 18, my senior year in high school and smoked only a few a day before school with a friend while we listened to Bob Dylan. Oh, we thought we were kewl! I continued in college, sharing a cigarette after sex with my first serious boyfriend. Then my bipolar disorder really kicked in and I became a regular smoker, probably as a form of self-medication.
I quit when I was trying to get pregnant with my first child at 35; it just seemed stupid to be taking fertility drugs and smoking. I stayed quit throughout the pregnancy and while I was breastfeeding. Since I got pregnant again two weeks after my first son weaned himself, I stayed quit about three years. Then during a period of stress after the birth of my second son--he was born with spinal birth defects and needed surgery just about the time my husband lost his job and health benefits--I took it up again.
I quit again a couple years ago, by which time I was up to three packs a day. I tried Chantrix as a quitting aide but got a drug reaction, so had to white-knuckle it, but I did it. By that time I was on large doses of Depakote to control the bipolar. Depakote has some nasty side effects: significant weight gain, hair loss, insomnia. I had none of them until I quit smoking and then they all kicked in with a vengeance. I gained 60 pounds in two months without an increase in appetite or change in eating habits, my hair started falling out, I had insomnia and some cognitive dulling. The extra weight affected my already precarious balance and after a bad fall transferring into bed one night when I was home alone, and spending 13 hours on a hardwood floor waiting for my home health aide to arrive and scrape my fanny off the floor, it was the last straw and I took up smoking again. The Depakote side effects settled down to a dull roar; I lost 35 pounds, my hair grew back, I could sleep, etc.
I want to quit again. The codger has COPD and I want to encourage him to quit. Then there's the matter of cost; a carton is going up by $7 here in April and it's getting beyond the range of our fixed income to continue smoking. But I'm still afraid of starting up the side effects of Depakote again. I wish there was another drug I could take to control the bipolar, but I have severe adverse drug reactions with everything but Depakote. I've tried managing the illness without medication and ended up in the hospital on the psych unit, so that's not an option. Maybe cutting down, something I did before quitting last time, would work. I think I have to find a balance: keeping enough nicotine in my system to ward off the Depakote side effects while not smoking as heavily as I do now (3 packs a day). Maybe nicotine patches would work. I used them during a week-long hospital stay in December after breaking my shoulder in another fall and didn't get a return of side effects. The patches are almost as expensive as cigs, but they'd be easier on my lungs.
As an aside, my son with schizophrenia smokes and has tried unsuccessfully to quit several times. Now this is a kid who has tremendous willpower and has never failed at something he set out to do, including going 5+ years without a relapse. Last night my roomie was at a board meeting of the clinic where he gets his care and there was an MD guest speaker who actually said people with schizophrenia need to smoke. About 90 % do and they have the lowest rate of lung cancer of any group in the country. They are, however, susceptible to all the other detrimental effects of smoking, like heart disease, etc.
Well, ask a simple question...
I started at 18, my senior year in high school and smoked only a few a day before school with a friend while we listened to Bob Dylan. Oh, we thought we were kewl! I continued in college, sharing a cigarette after sex with my first serious boyfriend. Then my bipolar disorder really kicked in and I became a regular smoker, probably as a form of self-medication.
I quit when I was trying to get pregnant with my first child at 35; it just seemed stupid to be taking fertility drugs and smoking. I stayed quit throughout the pregnancy and while I was breastfeeding. Since I got pregnant again two weeks after my first son weaned himself, I stayed quit about three years. Then during a period of stress after the birth of my second son--he was born with spinal birth defects and needed surgery just about the time my husband lost his job and health benefits--I took it up again.
I quit again a couple years ago, by which time I was up to three packs a day. I tried Chantrix as a quitting aide but got a drug reaction, so had to white-knuckle it, but I did it. By that time I was on large doses of Depakote to control the bipolar. Depakote has some nasty side effects: significant weight gain, hair loss, insomnia. I had none of them until I quit smoking and then they all kicked in with a vengeance. I gained 60 pounds in two months without an increase in appetite or change in eating habits, my hair started falling out, I had insomnia and some cognitive dulling. The extra weight affected my already precarious balance and after a bad fall transferring into bed one night when I was home alone, and spending 13 hours on a hardwood floor waiting for my home health aide to arrive and scrape my fanny off the floor, it was the last straw and I took up smoking again. The Depakote side effects settled down to a dull roar; I lost 35 pounds, my hair grew back, I could sleep, etc.
I want to quit again. The codger has COPD and I want to encourage him to quit. Then there's the matter of cost; a carton is going up by $7 here in April and it's getting beyond the range of our fixed income to continue smoking. But I'm still afraid of starting up the side effects of Depakote again. I wish there was another drug I could take to control the bipolar, but I have severe adverse drug reactions with everything but Depakote. I've tried managing the illness without medication and ended up in the hospital on the psych unit, so that's not an option. Maybe cutting down, something I did before quitting last time, would work. I think I have to find a balance: keeping enough nicotine in my system to ward off the Depakote side effects while not smoking as heavily as I do now (3 packs a day). Maybe nicotine patches would work. I used them during a week-long hospital stay in December after breaking my shoulder in another fall and didn't get a return of side effects. The patches are almost as expensive as cigs, but they'd be easier on my lungs.
As an aside, my son with schizophrenia smokes and has tried unsuccessfully to quit several times. Now this is a kid who has tremendous willpower and has never failed at something he set out to do, including going 5+ years without a relapse. Last night my roomie was at a board meeting of the clinic where he gets his care and there was an MD guest speaker who actually said people with schizophrenia need to smoke. About 90 % do and they have the lowest rate of lung cancer of any group in the country. They are, however, susceptible to all the other detrimental effects of smoking, like heart disease, etc.
Well, ask a simple question...
)
