Monday, January 24, 2011

Chantix Days Six-Fourteen

Well, "Days Six-Fourteen" sounds like a lot of ground to cover, but not as much as you might imagine.  If any one's been following this, I'm sorry that I've been remiss in writing, but there have been a number of things distracting me, and when you're trying to quit smoking, distraction is a good thing.

After the first week (on day eight), the dosage doubles; one in the morning and one in the evening.  In all honesty, the program suggests that on day seven, one is supposed to lay them down for good.  I tried that, but wimped out.  With that confession out of the way, on day eight, I had 4-5 smokes (at most, I didn't really count).  Yesterday, I had 2 1/2 (I counted) with nary a real "effort".  If you were to ask if, up to this point, it has been painless, my honest answer would have to be "relatively so".  I would have to say that "The Urges" are primarily psychological at this point; I'm still using a smoke as a "punctuation mark" for activities, but I'm eliminating them one-by-one.  I'm having trouble with mornings; that smoke with coffee.  The after meals reflex is almost non-existent and "the last smoke before bed" is dead.  It's the damned mornings that are giving me the trouble right now and clearly, that's a (the) primary dragon on which I should concentrate. 

The fact is that I've analyzed how I feel while I'm having that first hit of the morning and it's not satisfying at all; I must say that not only do I not feel better, I actually feel a little worse.  This is a very positive sign.

As to side-effects, the nausea is easily controlled by eating prior to taking the medication and the dreams (at least for me) are not of any real concern - unusual, but not terrifying by any means.  As I might have said before, since I'm taking a raft of other medications, any other mild side-effects may not be caused by the Chantix.

Yes, I'm a believer in this drug.  Surely everyone will have different results, but for me, it's working as anticipated - maybe even a bit better.

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