comrade simba

Didn't want to have a heart attack, bwahahaha!

Looks like I'm out of the woods. Had a non-reaction to the anticlot medication so the stent reclogged and I had to go through the whole thing all over again 4 days later. This time during prep for the cath insertion the heart went bazzoo and out came the jumper cables. MAN, THAT HURTS! Had to zap me three times. Now, I've been in some "spots" in my less than monkish life but I think that counted as close to dead as I've gotten. Newbs - I smoked heavy for 40 years since I was a kid. I'm alive. Quitting was worth it. And if you haven't been smoking that long well, I wish now that I hadn't either. You don't want the jumper cables... :-D

Woo Hoo!

And she did it under battle stress conditions this last week. She's something else I tell you. Damn special!

Shuffled from chair to stove to make some oatmeal. Shuffled from chair to refrigerator for some watermelon. Shuffling off to the couch now for a nap, heh heh. Two weeks of this left. Sheesh!

Thanks all! In the last month I have had maybe three times where not lighting up was more than casual dismissal. It's those half smoked cigarettes in ashtrays that mess with me. Three periods of minor to pesky discomfort isn't bad at all for 7 months. New quitters - hang in there!

Out pops a cardio activity chart that couples heartrate with.... common activities prohibited post op. I cram the heart healthy meal from Nutrition into the coke machine like a scene outta Rollerball.

Some days stayin' alive hits a bit closer to home than you really want, heh heh. What I do have in my pocket today is some pretty strong stuff - being able to kick smoking makes the need to put down the jelly donuts a managable endeavor. If we can kick cigarettes we can kick anything. That's what makes us proud to be us.

Truth is I knew this was coming about a year ago when I felt like crap all the time. So about the time I quit smoking I got some insurance. A cheap premium and 100% payout after monster deductable. Stuck with a monster deductable (pro'ly grow a bunch of cabbages and melons next year to pay for it) but a hell of a lot better than a no cap co-pay plan which what most people sign up for. Nobody can get their hooks on my assets so the farm is safe.

Hey thanks for the cheers, all. You guys remember me saying I quit because I had the feeling that one of the 14000 cigarettes I had scheduled to smoke this year had a heart attack written on it? Well, I'm not going to say this attack was from anything other than smoking just because I quit beforhand. I'm also going to say how glad I am that I quit when I did - I'm imagining just how lousy I would have felt laying in a hospital bed kicking the addiction... and having to cop to being a smoker to all those docs and nurses saving my ass. I'll take all the hugs I can get. My sis brought me a balloon to the hospital and my mom brought a bear. Gotta milk these things for all they are worth y'know? :-D

You get a couple bags of peanuts and two cheap seats in the bleachers. I insert absolutely inedible hospital oatmeal.

Well, that explains why I didn't have any success in trying to run - I may have quit smoking but no matter how clean the air filter is if your injectors are clogged ya ain't going anywhere, heh heh. Sunday heavy pressure on chest, breathing wasn't doing much of anything and the arms felt squeezed. So I went to the hospital and after the quick Madam Ho shave and wax they ran a couple of stents up the groin into the RCA vessel. Had a 100% clog going on. The good news is that the chest xray showed zero long term lung damage and the doc said they sound clear as a bell. The lobes were a bit elongated but that's standard hardcore smoker stuff. So the message to all you newbs is that after a 7 month quit (Yeah! 7 months tomorrow!) my 40 year multiple pack a day roll yer own habit may have been the primary cause of a heart attack... but it didn't kill me. Okay, now for the humor: Three times a day I would shuffle off to the cafeteria and smell the greasy cheesburgers... and then go to my room and order the heart healthy tasteless crap off the cardio menu. After eating I'd go find where the smokers were hiding on hospital grounds and have my bliss moments of righteousness. Life is good people, don't smoke the first one.

Finally, the coke machine just can't take anymore of the junk food desert items people insist on putting in it... and quietly slips into a sugar coma. I insert a hog pancreas.

You get ants. I insert the clay handprint I made in nursury school

I shoved a birthday cake in the Coke Machine for ya!

Bubbles come out for no apparant reason. I insert Paul's one year birthday cake! Woo hoo!

Yeah it doesn't suck too bad anymore, and there are times that I actually like it. Mostly it's just okay not to smoke. Don't wanna go back to the way it was, that's for sure. Thanks for the attaboys, all! ps - Aine is fine, too.

And I gotta make my own thread. *whine* You're up next in two more days, and El Bandito follows right after that. Hooray for the Late January Quitters Club!

Yeah she's my quit buddy. Didn't even bother to woo hoo me for my six month mark. Some quit buddy, heh heh...

Fred. I question emotional attachment to a machine.

I personally believe that my infrequent and random postings are the purpose of this board. :P 3 months counts for a lot to a newb with 3 weeks or days, Sarah.

and the coke machine loses all its carbonation. I insert a two dimensional object.

How many hours you got right now? Post it - we want to know and it makes you feel better. Pester us. Read the links and talk to us about it. It might be rough or it could be a piece of cake, just stay on top of it with us. Welcome.

six months in a week!

You get a 404 error. I insert L Ron Hubbard