How many of you were smokers?

[Montrealer]

I was............35 years........Quit the day I was diagnosed with Aortic Stenosis. April 17th was a year. I still puff on a Cuban once a week with my single malt but the days of cigarettes are but a memory.........I have several friends that are in the early stages heart conditions and they continue to puff away..........

 

[sue943]

I smoked until March 2000, the day I was diagnosed with type II diabetes. I started smoking when I was nineteen and I am 61 now so smoked for a good number of years.

 

[ctyguy]

I was a 1 pack to 1 1/2 pack a day Marlboro Red guy from about 16 yrs old to 32 yrs old. I quit using patches primarily because I had separated from my wife and decided it was time to make lifestyle changes. That was nearly 12 years ago and I haven't had a single smoke since. Don't miss em either !!

 

[netmiff]

was, and still am . . . about 30 years now

 

[khawkk]

My story is similar to yours.
Nothing like a good cigar occasionally...but...but...but...
It's good Cuban cigars are illegal here because it would probably be more than occasionally.

 

[kpearse]

I smoked for 36 years, I stopped April 14th 2005, best thing I've done for myself.

 

[hall]

I smoked for 37 years. I quit after my surgery. 2 years and counting...........I must be the odd ball.....I still miss smoking, but do feel much better.

 

[Dina]

I smoked about 1/2 pack to 1 pack a day for about 20 years,then I quit
prior to surgery in 2007. I'm still not smoking,but have been known to
have one if I am at a club and am drinking Otherwise I consider myself
a non smoker..no ashtrays or smoking allowed in my house(my husband
has to go out on the balcony)

 

[Michelle D]

I've been struggling to stop. I've got 3.5 weeks till surgery. I usually go a day without, have a melt down smoke a pack, quit again, etc. I'm 27 and have smoked a pack a day for 13 years. Monday I'm going to get serious and lock myself in my bedroom and make everyone promise that is I ask for smokes not to give me any. I'm going to sleep most of the day via Valium and have my husband hide the keys to the car and anything that I can hurt someone with. I will only allow myself ciggarettes if I walk the two miles in the hot Florida summer to get them. I think I'd change my mind before I get more than 50 paces from my house. If that doesn't work and people don't get though with me I'll go stay at my moms shed kill me if she saw me smoking before surgery. I'd also make sure I'm stuck there so I can go sneak off for any. People that never smoked must think this is dramatic, but nope. I'm serious.

 

[sue943]

Having been a smoker myself I do understand but also think that you have to WANT to give up smoking, not just know that you OUGHT to.

http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Benefits_Time_Table.html

This gives you the timetable for your body's responses to giving up smoking.

 

[Marcia58]

Not a smoker. (I really feel like an oddball!)

 

[prdraper1]

It is easy to stop smoking, I've done it hundreds of times. Oscar Wilde

I smoked 10 a day for 50 years and gave up when it was thought I had cancer and saw the cancer ward. It turns out that I was born with my aortic valve defect and it was nothing to do with smoking or working at a Steelworks, mill in the USA. I have now been stopped for 36 weeks and miss them badly at times, I cannot say that I feel any better for not smoking but my improved health is mainly due to my Op. I shall not start again. I would have stopped earlier if the anti-smoking pressure groups in the UK had not started as I do hate not having the freedom of choice to run my own life.
I would urge non smokers never to start and then they won't be missed, I think that stopping smoking for me was the hardest thing I have ever done.

 

[Cooker]

I smoked one on the way to the hospital, if I had known they would drug me when I first got there I might not have been so on edge ... I don't smoke now but am addicted to nicotine gum ...

 

[Ross]

I smoked from when I was 15 until I was 40. I tried to quit so many times that I lost count. Nicorette is ok if you don't have a mouth full of filiings. All it did was cost me a ton in dental work.

 

[pat45750]

I feel like an outcast. I have never smoked.

 

[sweetbanker]

Smoked for 25 years and then quit with my first angio. Stopped for 4 years and then started again on and off for the next 4. Stopped again cold turkey 10 weeks ago before OHS and miss it but I don't want to damage my body anymore then it already is . It's one of the worst things you can do to yourself and the hardest thing to quit.
I wish you luck but you should stop before surgery you'll need the extra lung power . Chew lots of gum and try Twisslers and lolipops anything but another cigarette.
To all the folks who have never smoked good for you, you where smart to not pick up that evil weed Tobacco.

 

[dick0236]

I smoked as a teen and quit at 22-23 because I couldn't afford it with kids. Started back up with pipe and cigars about 10 years after AVR. Smoked pipe/cigars until 6-7 years ago.....when my dentist sent me to an oral dental specialist to look at the roof of my mouth for oral cancer. It wasn't, but that was the "straw" I needed.

Cooker, I finally qraduated from the nicotine gum to regular gum. My dental tech questions how I keep teeth and gums so clean, and I tell her it is a "pack a day" of eclips polar ice.

 

[Superbob]

Smoked during college years and shortly thereafter.

Quit when I got married 44 years ago.

Both the marriage and no-smoking resolve have lasted

 

[olefin]

Started smoking at 14, stopped cold turkey at 28, was smoking carton Camels a week. There were 7 of us, working graveyard shift in a petrochemical plant, we all smoked and all agreed to quit. I was the only one that didn't start back smoking. The plant area was explosive and the company provided a "smoke shack". Also had candy & coke machines in the building. For the next several years I wouldn't go back inside that building. Then when I finally did, the smell was terrible. Since then I've hated the smell of tobacco smoke.
Since then the company went to a no smoking policy.

Diagnosed with mild Aortic Stenosis at age 46, had nothing to do with smoking.

 

[Greg a]

I smoked for over 40 years.... quit thousands of times ( after every smoke ) but finally kicked the habit after 5 months in hospital without one .......NOT a method I would encourage but very effective!!!!!!