Icanhike

Be still, my heart - that's adorable! Sailor's lucky to have you, I'm happy for both of you!!

Oh my Heavens, you guys are spectacular! You have hearts of gold! Every day, I've been meaning to get online, but a weird thing happened. I woke up one morning with a phenomenal burst of energy, and I've been doing chores and projects like a madwoman for a week straight. And at the end of the day, I sit on the couch and turn on my computer, but I'm so wiped out I fall asleep immediately. I'm finally burning out, and sick of sleeping on the couch. I'm suddenly looking back at my life, which was spent smoking, and sorry that I missed out on the rewards of being productive. And my aching lung is getting better every day; it seems to have been from the injury when I fell. But it scared me so much that I've been on a major health kick, no more junk food. Sooooo, that's the update. I hope you're all doing well, and a thousand "thank you's" for thinking of me!!! hugs

Way to go, Kdad!! Huge accomplishment, very well done!!!

Abby Normal! Happy birthday, and remember you are still very young! I'll be thinking happy, positive thoughts about your heart. Thank God you quit smoking already, you've done a great thing for your health. I hope you do something fun for your birthday, you are in my thoughts!

Hey Jillar, Thank you so much for that post. I feel a bit better today, (I'm jumping up and down for joy!). But you're right, I've been looking for options and there's a hospital here that takes the uninsured, and I'll get this checked out. I hope you recover from the accident faster every day...I'm so sorry that happened to you!! Feel better, and thanks again! xxxx

I'll get this checked out for sure. Thanks for a happy one-month anniversary!!!

Thanks for the sun! An amazing thing happened, after 25 days off nicotine, I didn't mind the cloudy weather anymore. I also started taking a lot of vitamin D, so that may have helped, but I have a more cheerful viewpoint on life without nicotine. I'm really glad the Colorado River is getting some water, and I think California's out of the "drought" category. So I won't be whining anymore about bad weather!

Thank you!! I can't figure out how to adjust my ticker, but I'm working on it. I'm so glad to know all of you. I'm rewarding myself by making my "Barbie Dream Closet" and "Barbie Dream Dresser." I got girly wardrobe organizers and I'm having fun de-smokifying my belongings. About a week after I quit, hubby and I got tangled up in our dog's leash, and I crashed on the pavement and injured my right side. My right lung hurts a lot, but it's very possible that's due to the fall. I have symptoms of broken rib. But I'm scared to death. It'll take a while to deal with all the red tape of getting to a doctor. In my town, you apply to a doctor and prove your insurance, (which I don't have), and then doctor decides if they want you as a patient. And when I finally get an x-ray, I'm terrified of how a doctor might treat me, since I was a smoker. So I haven't been to a doctor in ages and I'm really scared, both of the actual medical scenario and also the money. But again, this seems like an injury. I slept on my right side, and it made everything so much worse. And lifting things makes it a lot worse. Other than that, I sincerely feel WONDERFUL. I'm happier than I've ever been in my life!!!

That's clever, I love it!

Yeah, these ads are on the right track. The people in the Parents of Heroin Addicts group have all had the same experiences as my family, and we could add some things to those ads. But they're pretty good.

I just want to clarify something. I love those ads on TV, telling kids what happens to people when they smoke cigarettes. And those ads have made a positive difference in America's smoking problem. But when people propose using brutally honest ads to warn kids about opiates, there's a group in the background, blubbering about "not stigmatizing addiction." Well, nobody's trying to stigmatize addiction. Warning kids with the blunt truth is a nice thing to do!!! Giving kids real-life information is the best way to help them!! Anyway, the lack of common sense in my country blows my mind. Sorry for venting!!!

Happy 3 Anniversary, Boo! So glad you continue being here, I really appreciate hearing anything you have to say. Way to go on 3 years!!!!

I don't know how to do the quote thing, but I want to say to Notsmokinjo, thank you for sharing. I always feel better when I find out another person prevailed. And when I got off cigarettes, I found out just how much of an addict I happen to be...it was a stunning revelation. I think a huge chunk of humanity are addicts. But anyway, I really appreciate hearing your hard-earned wisdom, it means a lot to me. And I'm so glad you're here!!!!!!!!!!! I love all of you, you're adding even more magic to the happiness of quitting!!!

One can't compare tragedy and misery...it's just heartbreaking what happened to your auntie. My son got hooked on painkillers, which were shared with him by his supervisor at work, who later shared heroin with him. That was 14 years ago, and my family has not begun to recover. The destruction of heroin is impossible to describe, it ripples outwards and after destroying a family it fucks up a neighborhood then a community. My son's drug problem cost about 60K, we lost jobs and we lost friends and we lost our good reputations, just because we were associated with a junkie. The stress day in and day out was a living hell. We lost, and kept on losing, and we still feel hijacked by drugs. Anyway, in America, "we mustn't stigmatize drug addiction." We can demonize people who are hooked on cigarettes, but we can't "stigmatize drug addiction." It's funny that the groups saying we can't stigmatize addiction happen to be the manufacturers of methadone and suboxone, which are used to "treat" heroin addiction. My son tried all that stuff, we've been through it all, except he didn't actually die. Not yet, anyway. But anyway, never underestimate the horrors of drugs, whether the drug's an upper or a downer.

You mentioned that cannabis is more accepted than e-cigs. And I've been noticing for a long time that my society seems to have a bigger problem with cigarettes than with drug abuse in general. And I'm surprised by that - I'd think meth and heroin would be targeted right along with tobacco.