Upset, angry, confused?

[lobeydosser]

I have been trying to stop smoking for the last 16 years and I have tried just about everything on the market including acupuncture, anti smoking clinics, pills potions and all the NRT products.

Everyone of them WORKED!!!

Yes I stopped smoking "for a while". Some for quite a few months, the last one for 18 months.

The problem with all of these products is that once you do stop smoking and the treatment is finished and you get used to the idea, things happen that previously would have you reaching for a fag and if that support is not there, do you have the will power to resist going and buying some fags.

These "things" may be quite small and you do have that will power, but occasionally something quite large and upsetting comes along and then the nicotine craving can leave you in a cold sweat that you know only a fag would get you through it.

Been there, done that, too many times to count.

Then miracle of miracles comes along in the shape of vaping.

Yes I have stopped smoking, but, and this is a BIG BUT, I can still have my calm me down nicotine when I want it. I can even up the voltage and give myself a belter of a dose if I think I need it.
I no longer get the cold sweats when I am faced with insurmountable problems. Instead I sit down, have a vape for however long it takes and then work out how to solve the situation, calmly and satisfactorily.

My Doctor says I have stopped Smoking. As does my Practise Nurse and my Dentist.
Having said that, I have no doubt that the local Anti Smoking Clinic would disagree, but hell's teeth. everyone is allowed their own opinions. But I do not have to agree to their opinions.

By the by. Is someone forcing you to go to an "anti smoking clinic or have you volunteered to go?
If you volunteered and they are causing you grief, I suggest you stop going.

[Jen]

+1 on what lobey said, life's too short to be made miserable by medical staff!

[Deleted]

And i bet that nurse has never smoked in her life

[annie50]

Try not to let it get you down Sammy.
I am going to just tell my gp that I have stopped smoking, the next time I go.
My vaping is none of their business.

I have only been vaping for about 2 weeks and I love it much more than smoking, never thought I would say that.
Think to yourself * stuff you , you morons * and keep on vaping

[4madcats]

Huge +1 to all the other replies & can't really add anything other then I wouldn't even give her the benefit of saying she was ignorant, it's not ignorance it's just bone-idle laziness cos all the info she need's is out there, or of course it could also be her trying to justify her own position . . . after all if you walk out of there empty handed & give up using your methods what's the point in paying for an anti-smoking clinic

Jul 3, 2013 15:02:02 GMT Greigster said:

Only one reply when I started typing

Greigster You can flippin' well type fast enough when your snaffling a provari, how long did it take you to snatch that one on Saturday . . . 2 mins:

[sammy13]

Thanks everyone.
She did a carbon monoxide test by the way. That was the only good thing about the hour.
Before I took it I asked what the rating would be for a 20 a day smoker, and also for a non smoker.
She was vague - and decided on between 10 and 50 for a 20 a day bod, and between 0 and 2 for a non smoker.
My test came out at 1.6 which she rounded up to 2.
So at least she now knows there is no carbon monoxide in e liquid .

[4madcats]

Jul 3, 2013 16:51:55 GMT sammy13 said:

Thanks everyone.
She did a carbon monoxide test by the way. That was the only good thing about the hour.
Before I took it I asked what the rating would be for a 20 a day smoker, and also for a non smoker.
She was vague - and decided on between 10 and 50 for a 20 a day bod, and between 0 and 2 for a non smoker.
My test came out at 1.6 which she rounded up to 2.
So at least she now knows there is no carbon monoxide in e liquid .

What she didn't even know what the readings should be then rounded yours up . . . . I defo wouldn't be going to her, but I would going back to my GP & making a formal complaint

[Karma]

Jul 3, 2013 16:51:00 GMT annie50 said:

Try not to let it get you down Sammy.
I am going to just tell my gp that I have stopped smoking, the next time I go.
My vaping is none of their business.

I have only been vaping for about 2 weeks and I love it much more than smoking, never thought I would say that.
Think to yourself * stuff you , you morons * and keep on vaping

I had the smoking conversation with my GP just the other week.  I told her I had been smoke free for 18 months but still taking nicotine, as in using an e-cig.

She asked me how much nicotine I was consuming and I shrugged and told her as much as it took to keep me off ciggies.  She had no choice but to agree that vaping was preferable 

[vereybowring]

On a note, the psychiatric people seem far more clued up than other medical people. My psychiatrist is delighted I'm self dosing my nicotine - she mentioned she often has to direct GPs to increase doses of nicotine to patients of her and her colleagues are the same.
While she wasn't up on them as such she knew what they were are considered them a good option, which is more than you get from many of the "professionals"

Oh and I don't know if she is one but many of the people running these quit courses aren't even qualified medical people, they are glorified social workers with little actual medical knowledge, just a couple of days a month training to do the job.

[4madcats]

Jul 3, 2013 16:57:04 GMT vereybowring said:

On a note, the psychiatric people seem far more clued up than other medical people. My psychiatrist is delighted I'm self dosing my nicotine - she mentioned she often has to direct GPs to increase doses of nicotine to patients of her and her colleagues are the same.
While she wasn't up on them as such she knew what they were are considered them a good option, which is more than you get from many of the "professionals"

Oh and I don't know if she is one but many of the people running these quit courses aren't even qualified medical people, they are glorified social workers with little actual medical knowledge, just a couple of days a month training to do the job.

That might explain a lot . . . . & obviously paid on a commission basis for how much of the useless NRT's they manage to shift.

[sammy13]

Lobeydosser -I wasn't forced to go, I volunteered sort of. The gp told me I had to stop, I said I couldn't just stop so he arranged for me to go to this appointment. In the meantime however I started vaping, but went along rather than let them down, believing that they would still support me if I needed it or say well good on you ,you did it without us keep up the good work.
Sadie -The nurse was very young and has certainly never smoked.
Vereybowring - she isn't qualified in a medical way, I know because she told me  she gave me a form to hand in to reception this requests the inhalator, and then my gp will write a prescription she can't do it.

[Kaaru]

Several years ago I saw the Anti Smoking Nurse, I gave up for three months using the patches - hit my own target (which was the 3 months) then started smoking again the very next day !

It was though I`d never even given up - just a weird period of abstinence for a while, and starting again felt quite normal with no guilt or anything.

[vereybowring]

Jul 3, 2013 17:02:04 GMT sammy13 said:

Lobeydosser -I wasn't forced to go, I volunteered sort of. The gp told me I had to stop, I said I couldn't just stop so he arranged for me to go to this appointment. In the meantime however I started vaping, but went along rather than let them down, believing that they would still support me if I needed it or say well good on you ,you did it without us keep up the good work.
Sadie -The nurse was very young and has certainly never smoked.
Vereybowring - she isn't qualified in a medical way, I know because she told me  she gave me a form to hand in to reception this requests the inhalator, and then my gp will write a prescription she can't do it.

If she is a a nurse that makes it worse as she has no excuse - I have done some nursing training and compassion and empathy are right at the top of what they expect them to be these days. Where I was studying it was quite a talked about subject and was as important to the lecturers as professionalism and knowledge (see that last one - that's a big concern too). I was training so literally always had a journal or textbook on the go to learn everything. Apparently reading about her subject isn't that important to her.
To be fair nurses, except specialised ones, aren't allowed to prescribe anything at all.

[vereybowring]

Jul 3, 2013 17:09:15 GMT Kaaru said:

Several years ago I saw the Anti Smoking Nurse, I gave up for three months using the patches - hit my own target (which was the 3 months) then started smoking again the very next day !

It was though I`d never even given up - just a weird period of abstinence for a while, and starting again felt quite normal with no guilt or anything.

Longest I managed to be tobacco abstinent before e cigs was about 10 days, by which point the physical withdrawal was making me quite ill (trainspotting type stuff). Got some fags and felt better after about twenty - which I continued every day (including the patches and inhalator) until I saw the GP again who took me back off the patches when I went through my withdrawal symptoms. He told me NRT would not be the way to go. I narrowly avoided going onto Champix but had a mental breakdown first so I am banned from that particular evil.

[kibbster]

Jul 3, 2013 17:18:17 GMT vereybowring said:

Jul 3, 2013 17:09:15 GMT Kaaru said:

Several years ago I saw the Anti Smoking Nurse, I gave up for three months using the patches - hit my own target (which was the 3 months) then started smoking again the very next day !

It was though I`d never even given up - just a weird period of abstinence for a while, and starting again felt quite normal with no guilt or anything.

Longest I managed to be tobacco abstinent before e cigs was about 10 days, by which point the physical withdrawal was making me quite ill (trainspotting type stuff). Got some fags and felt better after about twenty - which I continued every day (including the patches and inhalator) until I saw the GP again who took me back off the patches when I went through my withdrawal symptoms. He told me NRT would not be the way to go. I narrowly avoided going onto Champix but had a mental breakdown first so I am banned from that particular evil.

Being banned from taking Champix isn't a bad thing.
That terrible drug should never have made it market - and the MHRA says e-cigs might be bad for you!?