Origin of "The Patch"

The patch originated with Sammy Smoker. One day Sammy lit up and, having had tee martoonies promptly scratched his itchy left eye with the wrong hand.

When asked, Sammy said, "You too can quit smoking. All you need to do is get one of these here patches...I'll tell you how..."

Hope you're still off them, vStyler! YAYYYYYY Angus!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Doc

Good luck, man.

I know many, many friends who've quit and it REALLY helps to have support people around you.  In California, smoking is regarded one step beneath having the plague so there are LOTS of people to help one quit, hehe.

I really do hope you succeed at giving it up.  Peace.

I tried the gum. Ech!

I tried the patch. I had to explain to the doctor at th ER that I actually COULD read and that if I could quit smoking I wouldn't NEED the patch, so why was he more surprised than I was that I actually smoked with the damn thing on. 'You're the one with the fucking medical degree! You tell me what I was thinking!"

I tried hypnosis. The FIRST time I had laughing fits. Fits that lasted hours. In the middle of a meeting with my DM. I had to go back the next night and have it undone. The SECOND time was 3 years later. I lasted six months, married my first wife, had the landlady tell me a month later that my apartment was busier than the McDonalds drive thru..."One goin' out the front door as another comes in the backdoor" and well.....I think I smoked 6 packs just that night.

Last time was about two years ago. Tried cold turkey. You ever seen that episode of Roseanne where everyone goes into a panic when they find out she is menstrating? My wife begged me to buy a pack.

Sigh.

It's finally caught up to me. My doctor, who saw me after he sent me for the 'test' pretty much flipped out when I said the nurse that tested me said it was only 'mild' emphasema. "There is no such thing as MILD emphasema!"  Two weeks later, while doing a CT on my kidneys or something other than my lungs, it caught something in my lungs. Another CT said it's an 11mm 'growth'. I guess by calling it a 'growth' I'm supposed to feel better. My doctor (the one who says  'It's like saying you're a little PREGNANT!') said 'We'll have to keep an eye on that. HA!  You see, that's funny because my eyes just strated going. It seems the gel that holds them together is liquifying and pulling at the retina causing them to tear and get holes. So now I see flashing lights and bugs in my peripherol vision that aren't there. Let's keep an eye on THAT! Try explaining to folks you're not tripping or going through the DT's when they see you swatting at bugs that aren't there.

Shit. I need a cigarette.

...It seems cigarette smoking has caught up to alot of us...   Please do keep a good eye on that *growth* and you're correct, there is no such thing as *mild emphasyema* .  So, you wanna breathe longer, or you wanna smoke...you wanna see your children, grandchildren, draw, paint , live...or do you want to smoke........choices....

John, I wish you all the luck in the world!  You can do it, I did, so anyone can. I used chantix this last try and pulled it off! I have not had a smoke since May, 18, 2007.  Now when I get around someone who smokes, the smell makes me nauseated.  I had tried the patch, cigarrest, hypnotism, cold turkey, you name it. Chantix worked for me and all it caused me was a little nausea, and wild dreams.  I will be praying for your success, smoking is a very bad habit, and I wish you the best of luck with quitting.  

Damn, sounds like my ex.   Sorry dude.  

Firstly, let me say that I smoked for 32 years, 3 packs a day at the end.... Your success is directly related to how much you WANT to quit. I mean really want to. If you don't really want to quit, you will fail. Chantix completely obliterates the cravings, and the PHYSICAL withdrawals. It is up to you to beat the PSYCHOLOGICAL cravings, or for lack of a better term, the HABIT. When I was taking Chantix, I found myself thinking I wanted a smoke. I would go buy a pack, smoke maybe a half of a cig, and get nauseated, and throw the rest of the full pack in the trash. I did this several times, until I realized that it was only the mind telling me that I was missing something in my routine. It was psychological, not physical. A pill can't fix that part, and that is why you really have to want to quit, or you won't.

Absolutely correct.

I tried the pill. Both. I like my Vicodin better.

Way to go Jim.  I used the Chantix, but a week in the hospital finished it for me.  It's incredible how friggin' bad your clothes, your car and your house smell when you've been away for a week.

Po'. a couple of things to try.  Let an ashtray get really full and then leave it out over night to get real damp, then in the morning when you want to light up, grab that ashtray and inhale real deep.  By the time your done barfing the craving is over.  The other more drastic method involve a heavy duty rubber band and your boys.  You guessed it.  Every craving....snap.  How long could you keep going?

You know I'm just funnin' with ya.  I smoked 4 packs a day for 45 years.  I've had lung cancer, and have advanced COPD.  I'm on oxygen 24/7.  Let me tell ya man, suffocating is the scariest thing you can imagine.  No living on a vent for me though, I just got a temporary job at the local gun range as a bullet catcher.

Cry about it, laugh about, but damn it get mad about it and quit before it's too late.  For your family, your friends, but most of all for yourself YOUNG man.  From a friend.

You been taking lessons from Wizard1956?  Man that is funny as hell!!!  

Sure it can...there's no real difference between "psychological" (habit related behaviors...LEARNED) and "Physical". The behaviors have to be "unlearned" and the link between them and the cigarette (remember Pavlov's dogs?) has to be broken.

Well...to each his own addiction....and they didn't want to biopsy that lung "growth"? I sure as hell wish you'd quit. A 45 is quicker, cleaner and smells better...well, unless they take too long finding you...but to be frank, that won't be your problem.

not a one since January 1.......

fantastic teddy!!....looking forward to January 1st for John, now 15th for you too....

great going Angus...keep it up....good to come back here and check in....

   need to somehow get on top of this Po'.....

v...after 26 years with not one day without a smoke..and 3+ packs a day...did it with the aid of patches....but, I suppose, the primary thing is the 'will'...and you are being given lots of reasons for that by the sound of things......

if there is anything we can do to help...let us know....checking back in here weekly....talk about progress...difficulties...report successes....have a vent......there's plenty of experience here to be tapped.....and people who care about you succeeding.....you are being given some serious reasons to succeed.....

Who do you think came up with the rubber band idea and the rubber band?

Last year around this time someone told me that the best way to stop smoking was to quit cold turkey, although I made sure to reheat my Thanksgiving left-overs thoroughly, I still wasn't able to stop, I did learn however, that it's just about as hard to reheat turkey without drying it out, as it is to quit smoking! I'm not sure if I did anything wrong, maybe this year I'll try the oven instead of the microwave! 

He literally just wants to keep an eye on it. There's no way short of that to tell if it's a scar or growth or whatever. I go back for another CT in 6 months. If it gets bigger, I guess they'll go from there.

I don't mean to make light of all this. It's waht I do. I have so many health issues right now and I'm in pain all the time. All I know to do is laugh at it. If I don't, I'm afraid I'll just crumble away. I can't explain how hard it is for me. I come from a family of alcoholics and addicts.  Some were abusive in ways.It's amazing I'm not hooked on booze or drugs. I don't even drink. (there goes my whole image) and I worry about what I might replace cigarettes with. The odds are against me with an addictive personality and I don't want to be in a position where I find some other addiction. As lame as it sounds, it's the truth.

Not a day or hour goes by that quitting isn't on my mind. I get so stressed if I think too much about it, I smoke more.

So the truth is out. I'm pathetic. I know I have probably reached a point where quitting would have minimal effects on me. A lot of the damage is done or in place.  I stood by my mom's hopital bed the day she passed from emphasema (like my grandfather..and my other 3 grandparents who died from cancer and complications from emphasema) and had to step outside to have a smoke. Two years ago, my uncle who quit smoking 40 years before passed away from fibrosis (spelling?). It was diagnosed and over in a few months.

I look at my daughter. 

I don't know how to stop. I really don't. I just don't seem to want to or have it in me. The thought of leaving my daughter and family alone...

I'm staring and wanting to delete all this. I am so pathetic. I'll let it stand. I got some of it off my chest. Sorry to be such a downer. Good luck to the rest of you. My thoughts are with you.

 @BK13GM: now that was just plain funny!  <=== On me!

ps: Make sure you take the cigarette out before putting the head in....

My father quit after smoking since he was 18.

He's 50 now.

Know how he did it?

Lol, he went to the hospital for pneumonia.

They admitted him for about 3 days, he wasn't allowed to smoke, they gave him a patch.

When he got home, he said well, why start again?

Hasn't smoked since.

It's been a year.

Good luck.