Muddy, hang in there guy! I smoked for 40 years, sometime as many as 3 or 4 pack a day, depending on what I was doing and how long before I went to bed. If I sat up late playing poker with friends, doing a movie 'marathon', etc., it wasn't unusual for me to smoke 3 packs. The last 7 or 8 years, I smoked less than a pack and a half most days. As the price increased, I cut back a little more. I began having acute bronchitis occasionally, then more often, until I was having 6 or 7 occurrences a year. I had actually prayed often for God to take the 'habit' away. Well, in His way, he did! In August of 2000 I got an acute case of bronchitis and had to go the ER. Because the doctor didn't know how my body reacted to different antibiotics, he gave me a prescription for a 'weak' medicine. I took it for about a week and wasn't doing much if any better. I went to my regular doctor and told him what had happened. He gave me 'scripts for a couple of more powerful meds. It took several days before they began to have much effect; but eventually, they did cure the problem. Now, during all this time, I couldn't smoke much if any. Addicted as I was after 40 years of smoking, I would light one after another only to put it out again. I was smoking the weakest cigs that my body could find. I had been smoking the Benson and Hedges Ultra Light Menthol cigs for several years. And yes, they were about the most expensive ones on the market. Now, I couldn't even inhale one; but yet kept lighting one to try to kill the craving. It finally got to the point that I could just start to light one and I'd start coughing; then, I'd start coughing when I thought about lighting one! This is not 'stretching' my story. This is literally the truth. Then on Friday, 29th of September, I was working on a job about 30 miles from home. I had a co-worker with me that wasn't a smoker. When we left the job that evening, I immediately pulled out a cig and lit it. I didn't try to inhale for the first couple of puffs. When I did try to inhale a small amount of smoke, I started coughing hard enough that I thought I would have to pull to the side of the road. Finally I got settled down. In my mind, I told myself (again) how stupid I was to continue these 'killers'. I threw it out the window (yes, I know, that was against the law) and never smoked another one. I truly thank God for stopping me from smoking!!!
I had quit countless times, sometime for several weeks; but always started again. As the old saying goes: Quitting is easy, it's the staying quit that's hard.
I didn't tell anyone that I was quitting; not even my wife. I had been going outside to smoke for several years so as to not to inflict my 2nd hand smoke on the family. I had been quit for several weeks before I mentioned it to my wife. Of course, she knew about it; but wasn't saying anything because she thought I'd start back again. Her brother had some trouble with one of his lungs collapsing some years earlier. He quit for over 12 years, then went back to smoking. No, smoking didn't kill him. Liver disease from drinking did that.
Smell and taste magnified? You better believe it! I really had to watch myself for a few months to keep my weight down. After almost 14 years of smoke free living, I weigh about 20 pounds more than when I quit. Most of that has been gained during the last 3 or 4 years because of inactivity.
Muddy, hang in there. I be praying for you! You're through the hardest part already. Yes, there will be times that you will think you're gonna die from craving. But those only last a few minutes. I really believe you've 'got it made'! I wish you all the best! Red