The Cold Turkey Diaries: Week 1 Round-up

It has been a week without a cigarette and it's been tough but a lot easier than I thought it would be. So here's a breakdown of the past seven days.

Day 1- Nothing really happened other than throwing up because I put on a patch that was double the amount I needed.

Day 2- I spent the entire day high because my body wasn't used to oxygen. I also had several other maladies such as indigestion, anxiety, tingle fingers, etc. This was the first day I noticed just how many systems smoking effects.

Day 3- I was travelling all day and there was some pretty serious anxiety while I was on a packed train. There was some constipation, indigestion, and my sinuses were flushing themselves out.

Day 4- Nothing happened, this was a great day for me.

Day 5- Depression really kicked in this day. There was some pretty serious frustration as well. On the light side most of the physical effects finished up.

Day 6- This day just sucked anyway. Depression was still there but not as bad as day 5 and frustration was pretty much only because of bad weather.Physical side effects were at a low.

Day 7- Ho-ly crap, this day sucked. I was stuck on a cold train platform for four hours. If there was going to be one day I would have caved it would have been this day. I didn't though and it looks like it's all down hill from here.

Week 1 conclusion- This is going really really well. The real test will be tomorrow when I go back to work. Work is where I used to smoke the most so we'll see how it goes. I'm confident though, if I can get through an entire evening waiting for a goddamn train in the freezing cold I should do just fine at work.

The Cold Turkey Diaries: Days 4 and 5

Merry Christmas everyone! Day four was very boring on the effects side, that's why these two days I'm clumping together and I'm most likely going to progressively give longer time intervals between posts. It seems most of the main physical stuff is all taken care of, but here comes the tough part. Today my frustration and depression levels were very high. I was trying to cook dinner earlier and I ended up snapping a couple times and needing to go in my room to meditate for a little bit. On top of that when all was done and taken care of nothing I made was good enough for me. Everything tasted fine but I focused on every little aspect of the meal that was not perfect. On top of that I watched a bunch of versions of a Christmas Carol (even Muppet AND Bill Murray)and I was just miserable because everything stewed in my head. These past four days have been relatively calm compared to day five. A friend said his hardest days were five and six. I'm hoping with me today is the worst because I tell you, it was not easy.

The Cold Turkey Diaries: Day 3

Day three started well, I had a very wonderful sleep. I'm not as high on oxygen as I was yesterday which is nice because after an entire day it gets trying. Also, my acne has cleared up considerably and my extremities aren't as tingly. Enough good news, ON TO THE NEW SIDE EFFECTS!

Respiratory
-My sinuses have been moving around all day. Filling, refilling, etc. This is just the sinuses cleaning themselves out.

Gastro-Intestinal

-Constipation, it was only a matter of time. Nicotine is a stimulant, therefore it acts as a diuretic. It's the opposite of someone who is dope sick from stopping heroin. Once that stimulant is gone? BAM! Poo plug.
-Indigestion, I'm not sure why this happens but I do know it to be another side effect of quitting smoking.

Mental

-The aggravation hit earlier today on the way to the train station. Still not unbearable though and given this is the third day I'm hoping the aggravation has reached apex.

That's it for now. I've reached the third day mark so it should be downhill from here...hopefully. Luckily I am currently visiting my mom so hopefully the Less stress atmosphere will work in my favor (hence one of the reasons why I chose this week to quit). Stay tuned.



citation- most of the facts about nicotine and its side effects I'm listing come from this website.

http://hubpages.com/hub/What-happens-to-your-body-when-you-quit-smoking-with-cold-turkey--Chantix-or-Zyban

The Cold Turkey Diaries: Days 1 and 2

As some of you may know I quit smoking yesterday (Dec. 21, 2010) and the body changes I'm experiencing, even already, are fascinating. So, I have decided to follow The Almighty Goldblum's example and keep a journal on how everything goes to help me and everyone else to understand what smoking really does. So, I am going to start by saying, last night I threw up a lot. Yes there was a lot of drinking involved but nothing I can't handle. I found out today that the nicotine patches I bought were too damn high in content and I suffered some sort of nicotine poisoning shortly after I took it off last night. I smoked camel lights for weeks up until this past weekend. The average amount of nicotine in a Camel Light is .7 to .9 mg. I smoked half a pack a day so I thought the step 2 patch of 14 mg was the right one...I was wrong. Pretty much via simple math I should have bought the step 3 patch of 7 mg. So, I'm totally patch-less today which isn't so bad. Fear and horror of nicotine is a wonderful quitting tool. So onto the science bits. I woke up today to see a face filled with acne. In day two of quitting my body is under stress, it also didn't help that my history of anxiety disorder went against me today causing even more stress. Now, onto the individual parts of the body.

circulatory
-Currently I'm experiencing some pretty intense dizziness. According to one website this is my brain adjusting to the rise in oxygen levels in my blood stream. More oxygen is reaching my brain and it's literally making me high.
- I'm experiencing minor leg pains and tingle fingers because my circulation is improving.

respiratory
-My chest is tight and I'm acquiring a cough. This is the cilia in my lungs fixing themselves and my body is pushing all the junk out.
-My voice is a little more hoarse than usual and my throat is sore. This is the skin in the back of my throat regenerating.

renal
-I'm peeing a lot. This is my body pushing poisons out of it.

mental
-There isn't that much irritability at the moment but anxiety is certainly at an all time high.
-Ansyness, I can't stop bouncing my foot up and down and actually it's the very reason why I started writing this. I also started writing this to help with the anxiety because if I can do research and understand the changes that are happening I won't think I'm dying.

That's it for now everyone! Stay tuned, I plan on updating this every other day if not every day.