So, my doctor had told me to only take one pill a day, versus the two a day on the prescription, to allow my body a chance to adapt to the new medication as well as slowly building it up in my system. At this stage you’re allowed to keep smoking like you normally did/do. The script directions say one pill a day for your first three days, then add the second dose on day four; the doses need to be eight hours apart, and you can take with or without food.
At my heaviest smoking period, way back when my husband had a heart attack, I smoked two packs a day. Once he was out of danger and things were leveling back out for the kids and me, I cut my smoking back to between a pack and one and a half a day. That’s pretty much where I leveled out for years, some days smoking closer to the one and a half packs and others hovering right around a pack. I don’t recall my exact age, but believe I was in my early to mid 30’s at the time. Around my forties, I leveled out to a pack a day to sometimes a pack plus maybe five cigarettes out of the next pack. By now, I was consciously trying to smoke less.
In my fifties I was finally down to a pack or less a day, where I could actually count the number of single cigarettes smoked versus packs. I was smoking between ten to fifteen cigarettes a day. I was proud of myself, dammit! The last time I had gotten myself down so low, I was in my late twenties. Back then, the typical advice to help quit smoking, was to switch from your preferred brand to one you could “tolerate” but didn’t really like. I did that, in my twenties and successfully quit smoking for six weeks. Now, I’m the type of person that will do the opposite of what I’m told to do, and when I had quit for those six weeks, my Mom (thanks Mom!) started lecturing me that now would be a good time to quit smoking. She didn’t acknowledge that I had already stopped smoking six weeks earlier – don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting praise or anything, just simple acknowledgement like “Keep it up,” or “Good job,” or something like that. After about twenty minutes into her stop smoking lecture, I lit up in front of her. One of my husband’s cigarettes, mind you, a yucky cheap non-menthol. (I had been smoking menthol only for over five years by that time. ) So yeah, that was well before my husband having a heart attack and my heavy smoking period.
In my mid-fifties I started vaping and was able to cut my cigarettes back to a half a pack or less, daily. I was bouncing around eight to twelve cigarettes a day and vape – with 0.3 whatever the measurement is of nicotine in the vape juice, as needed. My goal was to hit five cigarettes daily, with vaping as needed, and then quit. I knew I was reducing the amount of nicotine intake and need, so felt the residuals of quitting wouldn’t be as harsh. I kept hard candies and carrots on hand for my cigarette substitutes – that was for the psychological dependency. I enjoyed the various flavors of my vape juice, too. I wasn’t limited to menthol, although I did add mint flavor to a lot of the juices. My vape started acting up, it was outdated and needed to be replaced because I couldn’t find the replacement parts for it. I went to my normal vape store and shopped for a new vape; the younger people working that day, erred and gave me 0.6 nicotine juice instead of the 0.3 I had been using. I didn’t realize it and was puzzled that now I was exhibiting withdrawal symptoms and sort of unconsciously began smoking more to relieve them. *sighs* I was back up to a half to full pack a day before I realized it. And that’s where I stayed until I had my stroke in 2018 at the age of sixty.
In the last four years I’ve once again bounced around from a half pack to one and a half daily, with the heavier smoking days when I’m around my daughter and son-in-law – both smokers. As I live on the same property, I tend to be around them more often, Although I’ve consciously worked myself down to a pack a day this year – 2022. And now I’ve asked my doctor for assistance and am making the conscious effort to quit. Wish me luck! I am so outtie….