Today is day 14 of not smoking and I’ve finally come to the realization that I won’t be smoking again. You may think that’s a daft thing to say after just two weeks and just a few weeks back I would have agreed with you. But that was before I properly tried out an e-cig. The things are excellent, delivering nicotine as a vapour to your lungs without all the other horrible stuff you get from a tobacco cigarette. Also, upon seeing more of these devices and enjoying the enthusiasm of what seems to be a massive growing subculture, I’m hooked. I mean, how can I resist e-cigs that look like a sonic screwdrivers?

Update:
It’s also worth mentioning for those who have tried e-cigs in the past and not been impressed, that these devices have come on in leaps and bounds. They are no longer like trying to suck a pea up a straw, give a good volume of vapour and a good hit. 

Somehow I find myself in day 10 of not smoking. (or drinking) and on the other side of yet another afternoon nap. My sleep patterns are all over the place and during the night the most I seem to manage lately is about 6 hours of interrupted sleep. Is it the exercise I’ve been doing to keep busy doing this? No, because it usually knocks me out at night – especially the weight-training. Is it the not drinking? No, because when I lay off the booze regular sleep patterns establish within a couple of days. Then it must be the not-smoking, even though I’ve been using NRT and don’t seem to be suffering anything in the way of withdrawal. Also, scattered through these periods of being utterly knackered are periods when I feel so bursting with energy I can’t keep still, would like to run around the nearby field, in fact feel as more energetic than I have felt in many years. This last is what I have to keep in mind. Once all the upsets are out of the way I’m going to be healthier, fitter! Caroline, meanwhile, is also being whacked on the head by Morpheus and his now getting her own particular reaction to giving up smoking, which is ulcers in the mouth. Of course the anti-smoking crowd never use words like antiseptic or antibiotic in connection with smoking…

I’m sorry to have to report that the writing isn’t going great at all, in fact, it would be more accurate to say it isn’t going at all. Yes I’m writing blog posts but they hardly require the same degree of concentration, and yes I managed to do that synopsis of Penny Royal I: Isobel for Bella Pagan, but actually getting deep into the trilogy to make the alterations and corrections needed is a no-no now. This inability to concentrate is certainly due to the abnegation above, but is also due to the reason we are back in England right now, when we’d usually be on Crete. In fact that might be another reason for my insomnia.

Interesting, a few people have been asking me what works best for quitting, while one has even bought an e-cig and is ‘quitting with Asher’. Now I’m hardly an expert on this. I have given up many times in the past, sometimes for as long as a year, but who wants advice from someone who has failed so often? And, really, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be a non-smoker even this afternoon. However, let me waffle on about what I know.

You do have to make lots of attempts at giving up to learn the pitfalls general for all smokers and the pitfalls specific to you. (Surprisingly there are still smokers out there who think they can give up at any time.) I, for example, know that one of my main danger zones is not now, but a few months down the line if I start feeling depressed. Another danger, conversely, is feeling healthy, well and happy because at that point the bad stuff related to smoking is hazy in my mind and the pining for that faithless friend seems stronger.

So what about NRT? Well, it works. I have in fact been using it for a long time. The smokers’ cough was a relatively recent thing for me but one constant I had was a nag in my chest that turned to a pain when I smoked more than my usual 10 or 15 roll-ups (and usually drink was involved). I always worried that this was a developing heart problem, except it was a nag that went away with exercise. It also went away if I just laid off the cigs for a bit. To do this I chewed a 4mg piece of nicotine gum in the morning which delayed my first cigarette sometimes until midday. And with that piece of gum it was always important to chew it before I wanted a cigarette. If I left it to that moment when I was about to roll a cigarette it was always too late.

But really this gum wasn’t helping me give up, but helping me continue smoking. It’s rather like the Aerolin inhalers I’ve been using. I was appalled, a few days ago when clearing out the drawer of my bedside cabinet, to discover eight of the damned things. The situation is getting ridiculous when you feel a bit wheezy and puff on an inhaler so you can smoke a cigarette.

Now to the NRT I’m presently using. I start off in the morning with a piece of that nicotine gum. Thereafter I stick an inhalator in my mouth for that surrogate cigarette feel, pulling on it to keep the cravings at bay. If I get a bad craving I find a Niquitin mini (4mg) kills it stone dead or, alternatively, just a few drags on my Vapestick. This last comes into its own in the evening when I want a cigarette which, as many smokers know, is not necessarily the same feeling as craving nicotine. I intend to stay with this stuff for a good long time, but eventually I want to wind down on it and dispense with all the paraphernalia.

The nag in my chest ceased on the day I stopped smoking, the cough disappeared two days later. My sense of smell is returning and I’m picking up on things that even give me a stab of nostalgia. Only the other day I caught a whiff of a tree fungus and that reminded me of childhood expeditions to collect various fungi. My sense of taste has improved too – some foods are now ridiculously delicious. Exercise is now really easy and becoming a pleasure. Every now and again I feel surges of energy, almost like a V12 engine whose six knackered spark plugs have been replaced.

Day 6 is going to be a long one. I woke at midnight to the sound of thunder and pouring rain, dozed on and off until about 3.00, got up and had a cup of tea while filling in my journal, went back to bed to try and sleep some more and finally gave up and got up at 5.00. My total hours of sleep were probably not much more than two or three. Nicotine withdrawal? Well, I reckon that yesterday I had about 10 to 15mg of the stuff by NRT which, calculating on about 1mg per cigarette, is about the same as when I was smoking, so buggered if I know. Insufficiently tired? I cycled 8 miles yesterday and spent most of the day working on a synopsis so you wouldn’t think so. Touch of depression probably, which is a problem I’ve had before when trying to give up the weed.

Anyway, heeding the suggestions of others I’ve ordered some melatonin – a substance that apparently aids sleep – and I’ll let you know how I get on with that.

So, it is now 6.15AM and I’m at my computer, obviously, so I’ll read some science articles and get on with some work.

…

Oh right, I forgot to post the above. It is now 9.15 and numerous science articles later it really is time for me to get on with that synopsis. But, of course, now I feel like I want to go back to bed!