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I have stage IV lung cancer - both lungs and spread to my liver. I found out in May and have been on chemo every three weeks. I am 49 and have smoked since I was 14. It's been 5 months since I found out about the cancer and I have tried everything to stop smoking but can't. You would think that this would do it, I try to give it my best effort but I end up in bed crying - the withdrawls are more depressing than the chemo. Any advise??
Cancer Surgery Ativan Avastin Chantix Anemia Morphine Wellbutrin Chemotherapy Testicular cancer Pain Heart attack Lung cancer Stress
After smoking for 50 years, I quit 5 years ago, using Wellbutrin, which also is a mood elevator. Still get cravings but they last about 5 seconds. Just make up your mind that your family is not gonna say "what a stubborn person you were" you smoked til the very end.
Right!! my family knows how bull headed I am and thank God none of them smoke. I tried wellbruin too, severl years ago - it made me really moody and depressed. I've tried a couple others too. Also the patch, the gum, hypnosis, some expensive sprays, the eletronic cig is the latest attempt.
Hi, what type of chemo are you having? Does your onc know you still smoke? I Give yourself a chance to beat the beast, try the power of positive thinking. Give up the cigs to have a chance. Sounds like you'll have to go cold turkey, join a support group and get an antidepressant other than Wellbutrin. I too have smoked almost 40 yrs. and tried everything. I am going cold turkey Nov. 1st for LC awareness month. My sister is going to do it with me, so I'm hoping we can. My mother died of SCLC on July 11th and my grandmother also died of LC. Sounds like it runs in the family. I have two small grandchildren and my son won't let me around them if I've been smoking at all. It's comes down to choice now. Good luck and take care, JC
Hi
I gave up smoking 4 years ago using the
Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking book.
I could not tell you how it worked, just that it did for me.
I went through a couple of weeks of nicotine withdrawal but never wanted to smoke during that time.
Just a suggestion. I don't think the book is expensive sop it might be worth a try.
I finally quit cold after being diagnosed with COPD.I did findthe chewing gum Dentyne Artic Chill satisfying a few times but although I smoked a lot mine seemed more habit.I gpot up and did something when I wanted one.Walking chores anything.Usually the craving stopped in 5 or ten minutes.Only gained 5-8 lbs.Good luck and also drink water.AndiB Ps JC,I am proud of you.
I agree with what others have said about needing to decide that's what you want to do for you...
If you really feel deep down that Stage 4 or not you are going to give it your all to beat this beast, then the first thing to do is say to yourself, this fight is going to be hard, but I am worth more than that smoke!
I quit smoking when they found my cancer this summer, I did the patch and got some natural antianxiety pills, now with Chemo you will want to run everything by your ONC. My cancer was not caused by smoking, as most peoples are not, but it was not going to help me fight it either! And it does feel so good being a non smoker, it really does, the things you can smell, and you wake up feeling better and better each day!!!!!
It's not easy at all, but if you really really really want to I know that you can! I also believe that you want to fight this beast you are a Marine, just know that smoking is going to only make this fight harder on you than it needs to be!
I hope this helps, don't be down on yourself for it either, it will happen when you are ready!
Christopher
Chantix finally did the trick, that combined with a baseball sized tumor (smoked for 34 years). Good luck.
-rob
thanks everyone for the support and comments - I wake up everyday and try, just guess I give in too easy. The Nov 1st quit day for lung cancer sounds like a good idea. You're right Christopher, as a Marine I should be stronger--- this is one big fight and a battle I never expected.
thanks all Marykay
What if you found out that the cigarette companies created this big story and made the public really believe that it was hard to quit smoking, that they would go through withdrawal, that it was something so hard that nobody could easily give them up? What if you found out that to quit was like saying. I am not going to smoke anymore, not after today, I am done / You don't buy them and when the picture of them comes in your head, and you are thinking see, this is withdrawal the cigarettes are causing me too , too what? What are the lack of cigarettes causing you to do? Are you screaming at the top of your lungs, hanging over a bridge bare naked? Then you are not having any side effects of nothing. Are you having sweats real bad, stomach pains flu like symptoms? No you are not, this is a sign of withdrawal, not thinking about having a ciggarete every 30 seconds to a minute. This is not an addiction it is a craving, just like craving a banana split. Much more intense though.
I urge you to try my way tomorrow, since you have had no luck so far, try my approach to quitting. it did work for me, and almost cold turkey. I first of all knew I had to quit, i was faced with a surgical procedure that I knew my lungs already were so damaged and to smoke on top of it, the chance of going on a ventilator was high. I had to quit. I didn't want too, I was a 3 plus pack smoker a day, oh yes, big time. But I bought some patches, I started my day Valentine's day 2006 with not one cigarette in the house just my patch on. I decided at 5pm the patch would come off and too bad if I felt a craving, I was not going to submit to it, the time had come for me to finally make up my mind and do it. I prayed to God for help, and told him to keep the devil away. I found that nothing bad happened to me, wait a minute, I thought this was supposed to be real bad?It wasn't. I thought it was supposed to be real hard to do this? It wasn't! Because a craving is just that, a craving, an addiction you have pain, try coming off of morphine. that is an addiction. You can quit and not suffer when you give up cigarettes, so just think how the cigarette companies managed to mislead us, lie to us and pretened some god awful thing would rain down on our parade if we quit, It doesn't happen.The day goes on like any other day except you aren't smoking, You make some changes in your day, becuae the things you did so often like going outside with a friend while at work on a break, can't happen! You will need to start different things at break time. That is all there is to it, no more. so make up your mind, you need to want to quit. it won't help if someone is trying to push you, it has ot be your own idea. When it is, do like I suggested and concentrate on knowing nothing bad will happen to you when you quit. You will not get naked and jump in front of a bus either, LOL So Good luck. cigarette companies lie! Addicted to nicotine they say, how? What side effect from coming off of it is there, irrittable? I am anyway just having cancer, get some addicting ativan to help with that, now there is one that will give you symptoms when trying to come off of it, like bad stomach pains. but quitting smoking, no way are you gonna feel anything physical, it is all mental, so get it out of your head. fight with yourself, and just say NO for once in your life to yourself. NO!
good luck this is all you need to do it.
Remember yuou now have lung cancer, the lungs do not get better whern they are damaged as they used to tell us. they get worse as we age. You will be at some point in your life, it could be a simple thing as a slip on the ice in winter or a fall from a paved concrete sidewalk on to a lower road way and you fracture a shoulder. You know what happens? You will have to make a decision to have surgery to repair that shoulder, or let it heal on its own because the chance of you having surgery and taking the anesthesia is so risky on someone with lung cancer, it can put you on a ventilator the rest of your life. What then? Think you can smoke while on a ventilator? These are the cold facts you and I have to face. I did face it, and this is what gave me the drive and the motivation, finally to quit. I missed it for a long time, it had been my best friend always there when you needed one. But the time is here. I hope my lecture helps you.
Not really meant to lecture you, just to help you look at this in a different way.
God bless and good luck.Sandy
I quit smoking when first dx with LC in 1998 - just before my surgery. I don't recommend what I did, no one would and I'm sure my doctor would have had a fit, but I was one of the most addicted smokers I knew. I always figured the only way I'd ever be able to quit was if they locked me away somewhere and didn't let me out for several months. Whenever I'd try to quit, I would wind up crying all day long and I just couldn't function at all. What helped me in the end was knowing I simply could not tell my family that I had lung cancer, and then light up another cigarette - there was just no way I could do that to them. So I used both the gum and the most powerful patch at the same time - surprised I didn't get nicotine poisoning. When I was admitted for surgery, and was in ICU, I could not chew the gum, of course, but my husband had to sneak the patches in for me because the surgeon wouldn't let me have them. By the time I got out of the hospital, I was able to do without the gum, but it was still 4 years before I could get myself off the strongest patch, and then only because I got so mad at the tobacco companies.
Had it not been for my family though, not the gum, patch, or anything else would have worked. Eventually my anger at the tobacco companies helped me get off the patch - otherwise I'm sure I'd still be using it.
Sandy is right that you need to break any habit that goes along with the smoking. I had to stop drinking coffee for years. I also had to stop seeing a couple of friends who were smokers. I felt bad about it, but I had no choice.
I know you can do it, if not for yourself but for the people who love you. God bless.
I quit the day I started chemo. I guess the diagnosis of ext. SCLC and the Dr. telling me that the chemo would not be as effective and cancer faster to grow, did it for me at that time. I also was very sick at first from the chemo. Good luck.
I was a hard core smoker for 30 years and had quit 2 years before diagnosis. I thank God everyday that I did not have to face quitting on top of the cancer treatment and trauma. What I know to be true is that once I decided I was stopping and no matter what happened I was not picking up a cigarette, I never smoked again.
If you give yourself an out- you will take it. I really was not happy for at least a year. I used patches as perscribed and group support.
If you make the choice to keep smoking, it is always your choice to make.
God Bless whatever way it goes.
I smoked for 31 years. I too tried everything under the sun. I believe the only way to stop smoking is cold turkey. I used to smoke menthol cigarettes. I find that having menthol cough drops around when I get the urge for a smoke helps me. I just celebrated my one year anniversary last month. Every day is a challenge, but it does get easier.
My late husband had kidney CA with mets to the lungs and bone. He could not quit. When I was diagnoised with stage 1a I didn't quit. I think I figured that because the dr. said just have surgery and that is it that it wasn't that bad. After surgery I did quit and have not smoked since 7/29. Just the visual of what my lung would do if smoke got into it is enough to keep me from smoking, that and the SOB I experience in this Florida heat. You have to do what you feel is right for you. If you really wanted to quit you would. Perhaps you have the attitude why shut the barn door after the horse got out?? I thought that way until surgery. If youi honestly believe you will die, then die happy. If you honestly believe you have a shot at beating this, than quit. Because my dr. told me that the second I stop my lung damage starts to heal, plus my arteries and what I have done to my heart. So, good luck with your decision because IT IS YOUR DECISION.
Hi Marykay, I am a ten years survivor of 3A NSCLC and I smoked for 25 yrs. I went through chemo and radiation for almost a year. I smoked the entire time just because I couldn't stop. As my wife said to people who asked did John quit smoking now? She would say it is telling someone who is in the most stressful time in thier life to do one more of the most stressful things you could try to do! I said even before the diagnosis that I would have to be locked up for a month to be able to quit smoking with no access to cigs at all. Well when I finally went in for surgery to remove my right lung, I quit that day. I was in the hospital for a week and then home for 3 weeks. If you think I don't value you my life , I would have asked my wife to go buy me a pack of butts. Wrong, I didn't need her to beat me to death and I couldn't breath anyway so the rest was mute. I have not smoked since that day when I had surgery. It still comes down to " You have to really want to quit" and not just lip service. You have to say deep in your soul that if you have one cigarette then you might as well buy a truckload because as an addict one taste and you are hooked aqll over again . Good luck, John
I am going through this this struggle myself and want to thank everyone for sharing. I was dx with stage 1V nscl in August. Smoking is a powerful addiction and I am still battling to prove I am stronger, with good days and bad.
hey Mary Kay,
I have never smoked, so I have no wisdom to share. All I have to offer is my support for you, no matter what you decide to do.
I met a very nice Marine on this board that I've adopted as a baby brother -
many hugs and much love and SeMPer Fi coming your way
Pat
marykay, I honestly feel that you can quit...I think anyone can...it's mind over matter...did you have surgery for your cancer? I quit one month before I was dx'd...and did the patch for 61/2 weeks...on the day of surgery I couldn't wear a patch and the day after surgery when the nurse came in with one I said I don't need that...I do not need any more crap in my body right now with all these drugs that are flowing thru it...and I'm not saying it hasn't been hard..it is...but after 32 years if I did it...ANYONE can do it...I have no willpower at all..someone on here said if she started smoking after LC it would be just like committing suicide...so everytime I want one..I think of that and say..what the hell did I just go thru everything I did...to give it back to myself???? No thanks...besides I need my money now to pay all the doctors bills...take care and good luck in your attempts to stop...Cindi
Hey Patti:
What's doing with our little bro these days??? Can you update us??
NO Comments on smoking! Ya'll know they'll kill ya.
Sending good thoughts and prayers to all,
xxoo
Marylou
I quit smoking using Chantix. It actually works but shutting off the receptor in your brain that crazes the nicotine. It was very easy and in 6 weeks, I quit. I was an on and off smoker since I was a teen. After my baby sister 49 was dx in Nov. last year, I still smoked. I tryed to quit then but the stress of it all was just to hard. When I saw her in May, she was suffering after the chemo and radiation treatments. She still smoked and I thought to myself how can she breathe. She really wasn't breathing at all. She was dx Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer right from the beginning. She was a four pack a day smoker and the only time she quit was when she was hospitalized. She smoked right up to the very end. She passed away August 2, 2009. 2 months before her 50th birthday after a long and hard 8 month battle. Not a day goes by that I don't think it could easily be me next. I never smoked as much as she did but the damage is done no matter how much you smoke. I pray to God everynight not to take me from my kids. It is a long hard battle but one you as a Marine should be able to beat. Give Chantix a try and do it for your kids, grandkids, and their kids. But most of all do it for yourself. Good luck and God bless.
Angel3023
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