Hi Susie,
So I guess you're on day 3 now. Yay...you go girl!
How you proceed from here is really up to you. Everyone is so different and there is no one size fits all solution. I have quit three times (which I don't recommend btw, one quit is more than enough) and used three different methods. The first was cold turkey. The second was with the patch used for the full 8 weeks with 4 weeks of step 1 (21 mg of nicotine). The third was with the patch for less than 8 weeks (maybe 5 weeks...I don't remember exactly how long) and I only used the step 1 patches for the first few days but used the step 2 patches for at least a couple of weeks. I went through terrible physical withdrawal with the cold turkey quit. I felt bad for a month and then slowly started to feel better. I had virtually no physical withdrawal symptoms with the second quit. With the 21 mg patches, I hardly even craved a cigarette which I found quite unbelievable. I did experience some withdrawal symptoms with the third quit but not too bad. With NRT, I found it much easier to focus on the mental aspects of quitting when I wasn't simultaneously suffering physical withdrawal. That's how it was for me but like I said, we're all different and what worked for me might not work for someone else.
In your situation, you are quickly eliminating nicotine from your system. I have read that most is eliminated in three days and almost all of it is gone within three weeks. Ideally, you can continue with cold turkey and you won't feel bad for too long. However, if progress is slow and you feel like you can't function, there is no shame in using something to get you over the hump. If you do go that way, I think you should be very careful with the doses you select. With the patch, maybe go straight to step 3 (weakest strength). With the nicotine gum or lozenges, use the weakest dose. Hopefully you don't need to go the NRT route but if it gets you to your goal, so be it.
