I should have posted this yesterday! Just popping back by this board to say that I made my one-year smoke-free date, which was yesterday. After having smoked at least a pack a day for 22 years, and numerous quit attempts, I truly do not believe I could have done it without the three months of Chantix I took. Diane ******** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (Feb 7, 2008 | post #1121)
Chantix - September 2007 - Part 1
Well, that's wrong. I'm coming up on my EIGHTH month anniversary. September 6th was my 7 month. Time's flying by so fast, I can't even keep track of it! :) **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 Still smoke free! (Sep 19, 2007 | post #3714)
Chantix - September 2007 - Part 1
Cleaning out my bookmarks made me remember this site!! I think I missed my 5 month, and for sure my 6th month... we're creeping up on my 7 month anniversary! Still smoke free and can't even imagine smoking again. Hope you are all well! **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 Still smoke free! (Sep 19, 2007 | post #3713)
Hey all, Just my monthly check in to say I'm still not smoking. Celebrated my five month "smoke free" anniversary last Saturday -- while at my in-laws. If I had any doubts about the stability of this quit (which I don't at all), that would have confirmed it: first visit back east to stay 9 days with inlaws as a nonsmoker. I think I used to smoke more there just because none of them smoke so it was an excuse for me to go outside and get alone time. I didn't even realize I was not smoking until about day 5 when my mother-in-law congratulated me about it. I did the whole "smoke?! " double take that always hits now when it occurs to me that 'once upon a time' I would have been smoking doing this that or the other thing. Still absolutely no words to describe the experience I had with this drug -- and the feel of this 'quit' -- other than absolutely miraculous. Talk to you next month when I hit my big six month anniversary! *** Pack a day smoker for 22 years Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (Jul 15, 2007 | post #3607)
Just coming back to the board to post that today is 4 months smoke free for me and I have been off the Chantix for more than a month and no issues whatsoever. For a recap (and to prevent having to scroll back): I had smoked a pack+ a day for 22 years, I did the drug for 12 weeks and went off it with no wean, in the manner Pfizer advises. Also, when I spoke to my doctor yesterday to update him, he told me that I was the 24th of his patients to have completed the three month program, all of them had quit smoking (and were still smoke free) and none of them reported (in follow ups) any substantial problem in coming off the drug. So, I'm starting to see in actual life that Pfizer's numbers of 3% having issues with Chantix withdrawal is probably very accurate and it's not that the people having issues are more common it's just that they are, as we've already discussed with respect to posting on these boards, more vocal. When I think of all the mental time I spent anguishing about whether to wean or not to wean off the drug, I could kick myself for having wasted such a huge chunk of my life. But, I'm four months smoke free and feeling fine. Hanging out with smokers doesn't bother me nor induce me to want to smoke again. Have no lingering effects from the quit nor the drug and feel perfectly normal. As I said in a post a few weeks after coming off the drug, finally feel *completely* like me again. It feels great. **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (Jun 6, 2007 | post #495)
CHANTIX - PROBLEMS AFTER QUITTING OR WEANING
Is this thread for *only* people who actually *did* have side effects? I was just coming back to the board to post that today was 4 months smoke free and have been off the Chantix for more than a month and no issues whatsoever. Dunno if I should post this info here or on one of the "main" threads. Also, when I spoke to my doctor yesterday to update him, he told me that I was the 24th of his patients to have completed the three month program, all of them had quit smoking (and were still smoke free) and none of them reported (in follow ups) any substantial problem in coming off the drug. So, I'm starting to see in actual life that Pfizer's numbers of 3% having issues is probably very accurate and it's not that the people having issues are more common it's just that they are, as we've already discussed wrt these boards, more vocal. But, I'm four months smoke free and feeling fine. Hanging out with smokers doesn't bother me nor induce me to want to smoke again. Have no lingering affects from the quit nor the drug and feel perfectly normal. As I said in a post a few weeks after coming off the drug, finally feel *completely* like me again. It feels great. **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (Jun 6, 2007 | post #22)
CHANTIX - OTHER ONE IS SOOOO LONG
Yeah, but the funny thing is posting about how you are not interested and/or ignoring something would be pretty much the exact opposite of not be interested and/or ignoring something. And, I dunno, this morning when I logged on to catch up on all the posts was the first time this board actually felt *ugly*. Like some place, had I not already been here, I wouldn't bother to come. It was the first day that it struck me as really noticeable (and I say it like that because maybe it's always been happening and I just haven't noticed) that people were going out of their *way* to say stuff that had no purpose other than ... I don't even know what word to use. Again, it just comes back to, and struck me *today* as a whole "I don't care and I want to make sure you *know* I don't care". I dunno. I agree with you about the "therapy online" feel of this thread. It *turned* into that, and I think it's a good a thing. But, I suppose you get a bunch of ex and soon to be ex smokers in the same "room" (even if it be virtual) and there are going to be moments of snappishness! :) **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (May 18, 2007 | post #784)
CHANTIX - OTHER ONE IS SOOOO LONG
Hooray for you! Are you just doing the regular 12 week program? If so, I'd like to say from experience that coming off the drug doesn't have to be a nightmare. It wasn't for me at all and I feel SO MUCH better off it. I didn't think I felt badly *on* it (because I didn't) but now that I'm off, I can notice the difference and off it is such a nicer place to be. Here's hoping that you are one of the 97% who has no issues coming off! And congratulations! **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (May 18, 2007 | post #773)
CHANTIX - OTHER ONE IS SOOOO LONG
I have to say I agree with Charlie. Logged onto this board this morning and had the first thought of "what a bunch of cats!". I was going to post simply "meow!" but then figured I was above that. :) **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (May 18, 2007 | post #771)
CHANTIX - OTHER ONE IS SOOOO LONG
I agree. That's why I quit www.stopsmokingcen ter.net on my last quit attempt (which was cold turkey). I had posted how my 7 day smoke free reward was inadvertent: I was at chuck e cheese with my son and we had somehow stayed for SIX HOURS!!! And the time passed without my having noticed, which would NEVER have happened when I was a smoker, as I would have been wanting to get out the door to smoke. Someone had never heard of Chuck E Cheese, so the thread disintegrated into that, and talk of our children and then .... was deleted. Because it veered from Stop Smoking issues. I went back to the site this time *only* to find Chantix information and this time I only posted about 5 times, gleaned what Chantix info I could, and then done. Like you, I'm not interested in a support group without a "soul". This thread was always much more lighthearted, and I should now, seeing as how I've been on it since page two of the original thread. I don't see how wanting to/having to skip people's posts about their hobbies is any different than my wanting to/having to skip people's posts about their endless medical problems. I understand not caring about someone's family/hobbies/etc . because, to me, it's the same as me not caring about someone being 50 pounds overweight/underwe ight/high blood pressure medicine/antidepre ssants... ::shrug:: It's things I don't share and have nothing to do with my life. Mostly I find a lot of it amusing. Particularly the "OMG!!!! CHANTIX DEVIL INSOMNIA!!!" issue. It's like people don't know or haven't looked up what happens when you quit smoking with *any* method. You know what? INSOMNIA. Good lord, even in the Chantix studies, insomnia was only greater by .1% in chantix users than placebo users. But. I also definitely have Board Burnout. Endless repetition of the same questions, when there are 2000 posts that already answer those questions, etc. There comes a time when you just can't do it anymore because it's old and tiring. I'm sorry that *you*, so early in your experience, should have to experience though. Read through the old posts on the other thread, if you want my experience. I have nothing but good things to say about Chantix and coming off it at the end of 12 weeks was no hardship. And 3+ weeks after coming off, I still feel like a non-smoker. Not like an ex-smoker, or someone still quitting smoking, but like a non-smoker: the thought of smoking just doesn't even interest me because it no longer fits into my life. You can get there, I did. **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (May 18, 2007 | post #770)
CHANTIX - OTHER ONE IS SOOOO LONG
Join the club. I was scared silly, too. Scared that it wouldn't work. Scared that it would. Scared that I'd still be a smoker. Scared that I wouldn't. Go figure. If you read the other, original thread, you'll see that I posted almost compulsively in the beginning and, for myself, I have nothing but good stuff to say about this drug. My negative side effects were few and far between, and well worth the *freedom* this drug gave me to quit smoking. The standard warning, which you've probably read on here a few times already: Be prepared for nicotine withdrawal while you are still smoking! The drug starts blocking the nicotine before your quit date. I got to experience a very dramatic weepy 'cancel my superbowl party and txt everyone about how my husband is an ass' weekend before I figured it out weeks later. :/ I still blush when I think about it. But! That bump in the road is long past and I'm feeling really great. **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (May 17, 2007 | post #648)
CHANTIX - OTHER ONE IS SOOOO LONG
Trish! Yes! I am doing AWESOME. I feel, finally, completely 100% "me" although a much more cheerful one overall. Zero craves, which I find really really really ODD but that's how it is. No sleeping problems, no irritability (other than, you know, when my husband is being a jackass), no nuthin'. I think (and I may have posted this) that, in hindsight, that I might have been *slightly* more irritable the first 7-10 days after my last pill, but nothing that I would consider "statisticall y significant" and nothing that I even remember specifically. I feel 100% great now and it is SO NICE to have a day that isn't interrupted with those tiny little bouts of irritability and crankiness when a smoke is delayed or the matches are empty or you find you have less cigarettes than you thought. Just this morning, when I was contemplating my 100 days while doing the dishes, I was thinking about what an improvement in *overall* *mood* there is now that I don't smoke, now that there aren't those bouts of panic. For awhile there I thought the overall mood change was for the negative -- no more smoking rush!! God how I missed it when I remembered it (which wasn't often), or at least *thought* I remembered it. And there probably *was* a bit of a negative downer. But, I think I've rebuilt my brain and have found rewards in new things and found the new reward in old things. Now? 100 days and 3 weeks Chantix free? I feel better overall than I did as a smoker and even better overall than I did on the Chantix. I know you are right behind me! Go go go go! **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (May 17, 2007 | post #640)
CHANTIX - OTHER ONE IS SOOOO LONG
nods:: I agree completely. I've been trying to find any of my little information packets that came with the drug, because I'm fairly certain I remember reading the warning of possible allergic reactions, but I think I've thrown them all away by now. (May 17, 2007 | post #638)
CHANTIX - OTHER ONE IS SOOOO LONG
Welcome and congratulations! In re: feeling pretty damn good -- that's exactly how I felt. And, now having been off the drug for three weeks, I feel pretty damn good again. :) In re: wasabi peanuts and tea tree toothpicks -- those are great suggestions and I'm going to look for some tomorrow just because now I'm all over lovin' the spicy things! :) **** Started Chantix 01/30/07 Quit Smoking 2/06//07 Last Chantix 4/23/07 (May 17, 2007 | post #634)
CHANTIX - OTHER ONE IS SOOOO LONG
Hahahahahaha! ::shaking head:: So damn true, isn't it? (May 17, 2007 | post #631)
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