Reciprocity

Play bubble bull ring!

Hi @c9jane29! Good to hear from you. You're getting close to 7 years yourself

Yay @Elena! Do tell us more. We love hearing success stories

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It's so true what Jillar said about the smell of stale smoke on a person to people who don't smoke! I never realized this until I was quit for a few months. Someone walked in from outside and walked close by me. I could small him before I even saw him. I was shocked and also embarrassed at the same time because that was me for years and years and I never had a clue what others were thinking when I walked by them. I couldn't smell what they smelled on ME because I was a smoker!

SIX

I'm glad you posted this @susie14! It helps the rest of us understand where your head is at both with smoking and trying to quit. Let me clarify something for you about using NRT's ... no one here is saying "don't use them". We were discouraging you from starting to use them two days in because one more day and the nicotine would have been out of your body so starting then would have been a step backward. If you think they will help next time, by all means give them a try when you start your quit. Just be aware, they may help to suppress the cravings a little in the early days but they do not make it any easier to quit longer term. The longer term challenge with quitting is learning to live your daily life without smoking at the times when you're used to smoking right now. There's no way to rush that. It just takes time. Rinse & repeat, rinse & repeat on and on, over and over until it's just normal not to smoke during the times you used to smoke. During that process the cravings to smoke and most all the quit symptoms will fade away slowly be steadily. Give some concentrated thought to when you smoke. Do you smoke when you first wake up in the morning? Do you usually smoke after a meal? Do you smoke when you're happy about something? Do you smoke when you're under stress? Identifying when you're likely to smoke will help you to understand when you really have to focus on not lighting up. Triggers can often come along after finishing a task - homework perhaps in your case or some other chore you might regularly do. All these subtle little things that trigger our brains to crave a smoke are the things you need to find a distraction for when they crop up once you've quit. It's really a matter of getting through these normal everyday functions without smoking and repeating that over and over again until it starts to become normal for you again not to be triggered to smoke when those circumstances come up in your daily life. Maybe start keeping a log of what's going on when you smoke. What time of day, what has happened just before you lit one up. What your emotions are at the time you light up. Was it a function you were performing or an emotion you were feeling? Just write stuff down each time you light up until you start to see a pattern. That will help you to understand when you have to be most on guard next time you quit. You sound committed to getting it done and that's a GREAT start! You know you can rely on many people here for support & help along the way. We all want what you want - to be smoke free!!

Bri 0 Me 1

Chicks take away one; sticks add 1. When the score gets to 20 Sticks win. When the score gets to -20 chicks win. You can only post one post at a time. You have to wait for another person to post a number before you can post again. Tip - when you post a number, scroll back at least one post to ensure your number is correct. Many times, if two people post at once, your number may be wrong because the other person's number was recorded first before yours. The other thing to watch for; if you haven't posted in a while, make sure you are posting on the last page and not looking at numbers posted two pages ago. In any case, people will correct you (with a friendly slap down lol) if you screw up Having said that. Chicks must be a member of the board for 10 years before they can play that game

2 Chick Throw Down!

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18 Maybe we can help you out with the sleep thing?

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When I was working I had supplimentary medical insurance coverage. That would pay for stuff not covered under our public medical coverage. Stuff like if you wanted a private room in hospital, physical theropy, massage service, Chiropractic Servises, Homopathy Services as well as basic dental coverage. I could buy suplimental insurance coverage myself now that I'm retired but I've decided not to so far as I'm pretty healthy with zero chronic pain issues (knock on wood). For sure healthcare issues are now a major election issue. Politicians love to bang on about how they'll fix things - lol; yeah, right!

Nope! Hope you're starting to feel a little better Chris.

7 Greenhouse

Holes

No question our healthcare system is not the greatest, mostly because of understaffing and too few Dr.'s practising as GP's or, Primary Care Drs. A large percentage of the population do not have a "family Dr.". There are walk-in clinics though but you're seeing a different Dr, every visit. In the past couple of years, hospital wait times have been getting very long if you go to emerg. That's because people go there due to not having a primary care Dr. and not wanting to go to a walk-in clinic. so they bung up the system. Any time I have had to go to the hospital for MRI's or CT scans, or other procedures it's been very efficient with no BS & a high level of care by all involved. The wait times to schedule an MRI or CT Scan is quite long and getting longer. Normally a few months at this point. They are now starting to license private health care clinics to perform CT Scans, MRI's and some common surgery such as knee/hip replacements and other common place issues like that. People are up in arms about it because it private practise medicine but I think it's great! Better, faster service and the Govt. still covers the cost to the private facilities. Of course, the Hospital admin. & healthcare workers unions don't like it because many of their members will leave to go into non-union private practise positions. I'm honestly not sure which system is better or more cost effective. I think the same issues are working against cost effectivness with both systems. The only difference is that in Canada, it's the Government that's constantly having to pay more and more. In the US, it's the insurers that take the hit on higher costs. Either way, it's passed down to us pleebs in the form of either taxes or insurance costs.

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Yeah, I had a bit of a reaction to my first shingles shot as well but not the second one. It was just that I felt tired later that day (could have been the whisky I had that night too though??) I don't have any medical insurance as medical stuff is mostly free here in Canada (paid for through taxation so not really free). Dr. visits, hospital stuff including Catscans, MRI's etc operations & hospital stays are all pretty much covered, especially for seniors. For perscription drugs I pay $100.00 the 1st of August each year then I get perscriptions at no charge other than the pharmacy dispening fee, which is $4.00/script. Flu shots are free, Covid shots are free, the pneumoccal shot was also free. For some reason, the first Shingles shot was free but the second one cost me about $125.00 - not sure why. The RSV shot for some reason is not covered by the Govt.; at least not yet.

Exactly what i was thinking as well ... what the hell is RSV and where did it suddenly come from? I'd never heard of it until 6-12 months ago then suddenly, it's the new plague I got a pile of vaccinations last fall ... the super-dose Flu shot, another Covid shot, the pneumococcal vaccine and, two shots for shingles ( I thought those things were just on my roof??). I felt like a pin cushion. Thought I'd start leaking with all the holes they put in me! I didn't get the RSV vaccine bacause they wanted like $350.00 for it Mind you, if I were gasping for air laying in a hospital bed I suppose that cost would seem trivial?

You know today I was reflecting on smoking and quitting and it dawned on me that 7 years ago today I could not imagine not lighting up upon awakening in the morning, after a meal or after finishing any task yet today, after 7 years being smoke free I can not for the life of me fathom why I ever smoked those damn things. They did absolutely nothing positive for me! Quitting brings about a complete metamorphosis in your life! You come out the other side as a completely different person free from the chains of addiction and able to live your life to the fullest.