Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to put this down in black and white in the hopes that it will help me stick to quitting the cancer sticks! Today is April Fools Day and since I was a fool to ever start smoking in the first place... seemed a fitting day to stop smoking! If I can stick with this I will have no doubts that I have the self-contol to make the banding work.

So... armed with the patch and a HUGE mug-o-Water and the lemon drops that take one hundred years to desolve in your mouth... here I go with hopefully the last attempt of a long line of former attempts to kick the habit.

If I can do this... I think I do just about anything! :phanvan

P.S. It is official that my insurance does cover the banding but none of my info can be submitted until after I see the dietician, psychologist and Dr. Chua. I will hopefully see Dr. Chua on 4/16/04 and then it will just be a waiting game with Humana.

Great job for sticking it out this long. I have been smoke free for 20 years. I used anger to help me quit. Anger can be very empowering. I just thought about all of those cigarette company CEO's standing before Congress and swearing that cigarettes are not addictive. I thought of how they wanted to keep me hooked so they could get rich and I could die.

I also thought about wrinkles. Smoking is poison to the skin. Somehow that was more motivating than thinking about disease sometimes.

Keep up the great work!

Nancy

Thanks Nancy...

I could always tell when someone was a smoker when I would give an injection at the clinic I worked at... the skin would be tough as could be. I wouls also look at some of our heavy smoking patients and see that they looked so much older than their years. I don't know why that didn't spur me on to quit... I mean holy cow... it's bad enough to be getting older... I sure don't want to LOOK older than I am! It's a terrible habit... I wish they would just take the darn things off of the market. Oshkosh just officially went Non-smoking... businesses are up in arms and smokers are really ticked off... ME... I am like WOO HOO!!!!!

Thanks again for even more encouraging words!

Darcy

Darcy,

What patch did you use? Do you feel it helped? I'm considering quitting...PM me and let me know!

Hey Jen...

Sent off a PM to ya... yes... the Patches really do help!

Well... as some of you know... I quit... made it 14 days and then started again. :mad: My hubby left on a fishing trip and daughter went to her Dad's for Easter vacation and I was ALLLLLLLLLL alone with my car, my keys, my purse and a straight shot to the mini mart. Soooo... I did... and I puffed... and I couldn't wait for my Hubby to get home so I could quit again. I felt HORRIBLE... I smelled horrible and not to mention the fact that I failed once again!

So... here I go again... Kicking the Sticks part two... this time seems easier than the last... already sleeping better and so far sticking with the crazy diet the dietician wants me to follow... down eight pounds so far... hope that pleases them enough to let me see the surgeon for my consult.

Darcy

Hey, nobody said it would be easy! But, it's obviously something you want to do. Losing weight and quiting smoking and deciding to have major surgery ... Darcy, you rock! You'll do it! No worries!

Thanks Debra... Maybe giving the dumb things up will become more of a habit than the habit??? If I could just go back in time... I certainly never would have started smoking. I'm just going to try and keep myself so busy that there won't be time to miss the sticks! I bet my house is going to be A LOT cleaner...lol. THanks for the encouraging words... keep your fingers crossed for me.:mad:

Darcy