MarylandQuitter

Welcome aboard and congrats on your decision to get rid of the nicotine and deal with the addiction! First, please believe me when I tell you that you can quit smoking. There are more ex-smokers than there are smokers (yes, vaping is smoking - likely worse) and you will be an ex-smoker the INSTANT you take your LAST PUFF. Period. You seem to do a lot of planning and think you need more planning to accomplish this. What you need more than anything is to: Make a pledge right now that you will never, ever take another puff. Make a promise to yourself that you're done. You deserve to be a non-smoker and you WILL become one the instant you stop vaping nicotine. Treat nicotine as a drug addiction and learn about how it affects your body and brain. Watch the many, high-quality documentaries we have. Watching them provides perspective. Focus on The Health Benefits Timeline. Keep this timeline handy on your phone at all times and look at it even when you don't desire to smoke. Pre-respond to your own S.O.S. If you feel like smoking, read it!

Nobody should ever be mocked for wearing or not wearing a mask. There are certain situations that I will always wear one and others I won’t. If it‘a mandatory to get into a store, I’ll wear one because I’d rather not have the stores closed.

Yes. Very common.

Yes, an update this morning did this. Grrrrr

These cravings will lessen the longer that you can go without smoking.

Here's a skillet, since you asked. You're right, you didn't learn anything and never will until you understand that you have to keep your quit separate from everything else in your life. You have to keep it separate to protect it. Smoking was part of every waking moment of our lives. You cannot approach your quit the same way because regardless of what happens in life, your quit is protected elsewhere and cannot be touched. It must be treated this way. This will not be the last time a work trip is extended. More stressful things will happen too. People close to you will die, get sick, lose jobs, divorce and so on. None of that is an excuse to smoke. There are no excuses - only a choice to smoke which proves that you don't care enough about your quit to protect it. Today, your goal should be to implement a new mindset and a place for your quit where nothing can get at it. Protect it as if you were protecting a loved one from a murderer. Love yourself enough to protect yourself from an addiction that is trying to murder you. You will do this. No options. Tuck your chin and ride out the cravings. The more time you put in between your last cigarette, the easier it gets. Eventually, you will not even consider smoking. It won't enter your mind. Continue to learn about this drug addiction, treat it as a drug addiction and keep your quit separate from your daily activities. Trust me. It works.

I would go by the advice of your doctors and ultimately the decision is yours. There is no right or wrong decision as some claim there is. If your doctor's advice sets off red flags, question him or her and if they don't provide real answers and instead quickly recite CDC talking points, find another doctor. My point - if a doctor cannot answer questions which you have the right to know and simply rely on the same information that you can get from the CDC/FDA/NIH websites (their information leads to many questions), you might as well use Google for medical advice. Not a good idea and neither is taking medical advice from a CDC mouthpiece who is afraid of losing his/her medical license. As far as shingles, I've had it twice. Both times I was denied a vaccine for it because I wasn't old enough (have to be at least 50-yrs old). I'm glad that I didn't take it when I was eligible because my doctor told me that each time somebody gets shingles, it's a much milder form than the previous infection. In my case, this was true. I'm sure this isn't the same experience for everybody; nothing ever is. As far as big pharma, CDC and the FDA is concerned, I used to trust them completely. Once I started digging into the big tobacco lawsuits and watching and reading the junk science our own government was purposely putting out, I grew skeptical of these institutions and what motivated them. They did not have the health and well-being of society as their main motive. Heck, it wasn't even a motive at all, during those times. Money was. Politics was. Greed was. It still goes on today as big tobacco has spun a wide web into third world countries to capture young children. It's a disgusting, evil thing to watch and yet only concerned citizens ever voice opposition. Where is the CDC/FDA and our elected officials to reign this in? That's a rhetorical question. Fast forward to January 2020 to present day. I gave the NIH, CDC and the FDA the benefit of the doubt but watched their messaging very closely. It wasn't adding up early on and is even worse today. It reminds me so much of big tobacco and the junk science that harmed so many. I do not trust anything coming out of our medical institutions right now and they will need to be gutted for me ever to consider trusting anything coming out of them. COVID-19 is real. I had it and survived it. Over 1.5 yrs later, I'm still dealing with its effects. Thankfully, I live in a part of the country where I have access to some very good doctors who actually practice medicine and science. They're not afraid to dissent from the MSM narrative and help patients. They tell you the truth - the good, the bad, the ugly and even tell you when they don't have an answer. They treat patients and do not tell them to go home until you can't breathe and then go to the ER, like my former doctor did. Unacceptable. Demand better. No settling allowed. While we live through these very difficult times in which our elected and appointed officials alike, have undermined basic trust in what is supposed to be the foundation of medicine in this country, it's ever-important to listen to all arguments with an open mind, play devil's advocate with yourself and see if your own conclusions still hold water. Or, has your bucket of knowledge sprung a leak or two? We owe it to ourselves and loved ones. We have to be an assertive participant in our own healthcare, even if that means offending arrogant physicians. The good ones, don't mind patients asking questions, even challenging questions and in fact, they expect it and they will give you their honest opinions.

Thank you all so much!!

Glad to be back up!

Bump. A must read for everyone. I read it this morning. The truth that everyone needs to understand and more important, believe.