Jerry's Quit Smoking Story

"There is always some reason that you have to keep smoking..."

I was your typical midwestern kid in the seventies. They were showing all of us pictures of diseased lung tissue and telling us about the hazards of smoking. I remember vividly sitting in one of the health classes and saying that I would never smoke a cigarette. That lung tissue looked like Swiss cheese and it wasn't desirable to have.

What ended up happening was something completely different. I was hanging out with my "cool" older sister one day and she was smoking. She saw that my curiosity was piqued. She then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to learn how to smoke. I didn't think of that Swiss cheese lung tissue and at 14 years old made a life changing decision. "Sure" I said. I wanted to be "cool" like her.

I remember it like it was yesterday as I got so dizzy from it, but I decided to remain cool about it. In retrospect, I realize we weren't that cool and even less smart about the situation. But I knew how to smoke now and it didn't seem as awful as the teachers at school said. What was wrong with smoking anyway? I guess the nicotine clouded my judgement from the beginning.

That day, I went to the store and bought my first pack of cigarettes. I was already 6'2" and wasn't questioned about my age. Cigarettes were cheap back then and even a teenager could afford them. I started off smoking a pack a day. At first, I smoked because I wanted to. Then it became a habit. Before very long, maybe 6 months at most, I was addicted. A freshman in high school who was already hooked. But I had plenty of time to quit. Maybe after high school.

One thing that happened is that I would buy different brands all the time. At first to try many out to find out what I liked best. But then without realizing it, none of them tasted that good. Only took 22 years for the companies to make one that had a flavor that was good. But by then, it wouldn't matter how it came as long as it had nicotine.

There is always some reason that you have to keep smoking, and here's my list:

• The stress of a new job
• The loss of a job
• Starting nursing school
• A relationship starting or ending
• Family members dying

There is always a stressful event that will keep you coming back to the nicodemon. After a few failed attempts at trying to quit smoking, I realized that it was a serious problem. But how to do it without suffering.

A life changing event occurred that ended my smoking career. I fell down a flight of stairs. It's funny on tv but awful when it happens. A vertebrae was shattered and surgery would be necessary. In nursing school they teach you that smokers don't do as well with anesthesia and one should quit smoking if having surgery. I didn't. I did cut back to half a pack a day. It was the best I could do. On 12/21/05 at 10 pm, I had my last smoke...I hoped. The next morning, I went in for surgery.

Jerry's Quit Story continued...