On February the 3rd 2011 at about 10:35am I smoked my last cigarette. It was outside the doctors office whilst waiting for my smoking cessation appointment. I had decided that after 21 years I would try and quit smoking. My children were really keen for me to do so, I had recently found out that my Nanny had passed of lung cancer many years ago but the final push I needed was a close friend being diagnosed with mouth cancer, having never smoked a cigarette in her life.
The appointment had been booked for 2 weeks and in that time I had been making a point of telling everyone that I knew that I was giving up smoking on this particular day in an attempt to turn it into something to look forward to, something to get excited about rather than dread. I was going to give up smoking!! What I hadn't banked on was my appointment time over running by over an hour! The whole time I sat in the waiting room thinking, how many extra cigarettes I could of had!
Finally I got in to see the nurse. She's was a lovely kind lady who made me feel like she had all the time in the world for me and my quest (probably why her appointments run over). We went through all the options and half an hour later I left armed with a prescription for patches and gum and an abundance of positivity and optimism and support.
Skip forward a few weeks, as to be honest most of it was a blur of broken sleep and awful nightmares, which is a common side effect. But I got over them and slowly worked my way through the different strength patches and used the gum when necessary. It was hard but with regular progress appointments with the Nurse and a lot of focus I managed to get to 3 months "clean". It was at this point when I had tried to give up previously that I started smoking again, but this time I couldn't bring myself to undo all that hard work. I know if I have just even one puff I will start up again. Maybe it was the gift of being forearmed or it just being the right time but I felt a confidence and an inner strength that was uncommon to me.
