Yes. I did disappear and never thought I would, because I am so grateful to this site. May 1st was my six year anniversary without a puff. It a quit that I cannot see giving back. I started up a personal training business a couple of years after I quit. That was a gift of this site and from you. Before I quit smoking, I could not lose weight because I couldn't exercise. I found that working out, taking care of my body, distract me from vices -cigarettes and food.
Than in 2012, I became e sick with some mysterious illness. It took about two years and many misdiagnoses and guesses to determine what's up with me. What I actually have is SLE (lupus), Graves' disease, and an indolent kidney cancer. The lupus has caused vasculitis, which is contributing to tumor formation. I have them in my lungs, too. However, I am not on my deathbed. I just cannot workout or go out and hang during the day time. It's almost like lupus is a sun allergy.
I'm grateful to this group that I know what is nagging me. I had breathing problems before I quit smoking and was afraid that it was COPD. The radiologist at one point thought I had emphysema, but subsequent testing didn't spot definite emphysematous and it turns out that my breathing problem is restrictive and not obstructive, and the nodules turned out to be autoimmune, so I was finally sent to rheumatology, and out of all of the tests they ran for autoimmune diseases, only the ones that are specific for lupus and Graves' disease came back positive, and then while checking my kidneys to determine the damage done by lupus nephritis (I have a water retention problem), the tumor was found.
Had I not quit smoking and got healthier, I'm not so sure that I would have even noticed that I was sick. I think that I have had water retention problems before, but I was overweight, lazy, overeating and smoking, so I wasn't really able to tell a lupus flare from the results of bad habits. I just remember being told by my doctor that I was retaining water....
Another aspect of this is that now I am being told that a diagnosis I've had for almost 20 years was wrong: bipolar disorder. The differential and correct diagnoses I'm told are Graves' disease and lupus. Treating those things treats the mood problems.
Sorry I clocked on on you guys.
