SmokingIf this were the old joke, my reply should be “I don’t know, I’ve never looked.”  But my reply now is NOT ANYMORE!

If you’ve been following me for more than just a post or 2 you’ll know hubby brought home an horrific cold & flu last Christmas & he & I spent the entire Christmas break sick as dogs.  Because I already have respiratory problems, mine turned into pneumonia.  You’ll also know up until last Christmas I was a true dyed-in-the-wool smoker & had been smoking for more than 30 years.  When my doctor had mentioned I should think about quitting smoking, I told him I’d gladly quit smoking when he had a week to spare to put me into a coma to get over the worst of the withdrawal.

So there I was, so sick I could barely breathe, wrapped up in a comforter, sitting on my balcony in a snow storm trying to smoke a cigarette, but not inhale because it made me cough so hard.  For some reason, I got a picture of myself in my head & thought how absolutely ridiculous I looked!  So the next time I wanted a smoke, I tried putting it off for a little while instead of giving in to the craving.  A few hours became a few days & the next thing I knew I had quit smoking.  It hasn’t always been easy but it certainly wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  I think the thing that surprised me the most were the dreams – where I was dreaming I was having a cigarette.

It must have been my time to quit because it stuck, although I never knew for sure which day I actually quit on, so I chose a day – December 29th.  So here it is a year later & I have not had a cigarette!