hi,
Just thought I'd share a little update for the oldies, and point out something kind of cool for the newbies.
The nonsmoking life is going generally pretty well. I was having 5-6 thoughts of smoking per month for a long time. But a couple of months ago, it tapered off to 1-2 per month. So that is a happy thing.
(BTW, for newbies: As far as I can tell, my thoughts of smoking have been much more persistent than those of most quitters. It seems that most quitters get it over with and move on within a year or less. I'm OK with that, since even my random "craves" are really minimal overall. A couple of fleeting thoughts per month is nothing compared to the screaming nicotine junkie that insistently demanded 20 smokes per day when I was an active user.)
But back to today's story. I broke my pinkie toe today. Jammed it really badly to the point that it was bending in the opposite direction. Had to go to the emergency room, since I didn't have the courage to work it back into place without pain meds or medical knowledge. After all that drama, I came home, ate some food, took my pain pills, watched some TV, and then logged on here just to check in.
So here is the cool part. It wasn't until just now that I seriously thought about the fact that I was once a smoker. Back in my smoking days, I would have been sucking a bunch of cancer sticks down on the way to the emergency room, trying to figure out where to hide for a smoke on the smoke-free hospital grounds, etc. But none of that even crossed my mind tonight. In fact, they even asked me during check-in if I was a user of tobacco products. I just said, "No, I used to be, but that was over 2 years ago," and didn't have another thought about it. No triggers, no craves, no "I wish I could smoke to deal with this," no nothing.
And now I'm just happy that my foot will heal more quickly without all that junk in my system.
...Yes, the cravings will subside. Yes, life will get better. Yes, you will get through tough events without smoking. And yes, you will even forget all about it for long periods of time. Life without smoking will become the new normal, and that is a very good thing.
