Day 9 / 10

It’s been 3 days since my last smoke and it feels great.  I’ve had very few situations where I wanted to smoke, the wellbutrin is doing a great job in blocking/masking the cravings and withdrawal.  I was worried that I would have to give up coffee and alcohol for a little while as I quit but neither have been an issue so far.

I’ve been going to the gym the past few days and now that I’ve quit smoking, it opens up a new workout that I have been avoiding… jogging.  When I was smoking there was no way I could last more than 10 minutes of jogging without having to stop to catch my breath, yes very sad.  I know it’ll take some time for my lungs to regain some capacity but I’ll start jogging this weekend and track the progress for overall lung capacity and stamina.

Day 8 – withdrawal

Since my daily progress has been going so well, having only 1 cigarette yesterday, I moved my quit day up. As I type this, it has been close to 36 hours of being smoke free and my body is adjusting to this new found freedom. I have to change my stats and provide the number of days since my last cigarette!

I did have some problems getting through the day, for most of the day and evening I had headaches and felt nauseous, I attribute that to withdrawals as the only change is that I have not fed my body nicotine. The headaches are said to be the increased oxygen that my blood is getting. My body has adapted to the wellbutrin, the side effects are unnoticeable, anything from here on I would have to say it would be related to withdrawal.

Day 7 – so close

I woke up at 5am and could not go back to sleep, it seems like everyday I’m waking up earlier and earlier, I wonder if it has any relation to taking the 2nd 150mg earlier each day? It’s been 1 full week of taking wellbutrin and I am very glad that I have had bearable side effects. Here is a list of the ones that I have experienced in order of occurrence:

slight nausea
minor insomnia
functionally slower that normal
loss of appetite
tightness in chest (possibly related to withdrawal)

All very minor and I had no problems in dealing with them. For the result, it’s such a small price to pay. Here are the totals for day 7, drum roll please

No. of cigs – situation

.5 – lunch time running an errand
.5 – browsing the web in the evening

I might have to throw out what’s remaining in my “last pack” I’m ready to quit this weekend, I’m pushing up the quit date that I originally set. Stay tuned…

Day 6 – improving day by day

Let start off with Day 6 stats:

No. of cigs – situation

.5 – drive into work
.5 – drive home from work
.5 – after dinner
.5 – browsing the web

The total is down to 2! Today I started to only smoke half cigarettes, after a few drags, I really did not want to smoke any more. This morning I bought a breakfast sandwich but could not eat it, I had lost my appetite. I do have my normal appetite during lunch and dinner which is good, I’m assuming for a few hours after you take a pill, you don’t really have an appetite.

Throughout the entire day, I did notice that the chest area around my heart seemed a little weird, it felt tight at times but nothing of major concern, just a noticeable difference with that part of my body. I was definitely more concerned with this symptom but it did not get worse throughout the day and was consistent. The chest tightness is actually common among users, it is said to be associated with nicotine withdrawal so I’m not sure if it’s a wellbutrin side effect or withdrawal symptom?

Day 5 – losing the desire

I felt very good about day 5 and here is why:

No. of cigs – situation

1.5 – car ride to work, 1 with coffee and .5 after CVS
0.5 – after lunch
1 – driving home
1 – after dinner

That’s a total of 4! The desire to smoke has been significantly low, I’m starting to believe that this can work and soon I can say that I’ve quit smoking! It was a typical day with the empty and relaxed feeling but its starting to get less and less as I think my body is finding its comfort zone with wellbutrin. I did notice that my pupils were dilated and the glands around my neck were sore, not sure why but I’ll ask my doctor during the prescription follow up visit.

The other great thing about day 5 was that I had a glass of wine with no desire to have a cigarette which is a good sign as drinking typically goes hand in hand with smoking.

Day 4 – relaxed and empty

The day started a bit slow for me as I only got 4 hours of sleep. I was wondering if I was going to have a tough time trying to sleep because many users did have insomnia. I decided to start logging the times I would have a cigarette to document the progress and here is day 4:

No. of Cigarettes – Situation

2 – car ride to work, 1 w/ my coffee and 1 after I went to CVS
1 – post lunch
1 – drive home from work
1 – before dinner
1 – after dinner
1 – during web browsing
1 – an hour before sleeping

That’s a total of 8 which is half of my normal daily intake. Is wellbutrin the wonder drug that can rid of this nasty habit once in for all?

This is the first day I went to work and it was interesting as I did feel a little slower than normal but if I did concentrate things were good. I had a relaxed empty feeling all day, it wasn’t bad nor good, just kinda blah. I functioned normaly all day but could feel my body adjusting to this foreign substance that is trying to cure me.

As for sleep, I slept very well which was a relief as I did not want to have the common side effect of insomnia. Tomorrow I will try to take the 2nd pill earlier as I read that a few took the 2nd 150mg a little earlier and it helped with the sleeping.

askapatient.com has been a great resource during my research, the site doesn’t look appealing but the content within it is great!

Day 3 – twice daily

My day started at about 6:30, wellbutrin, coffee and a cig for breakfast. I had a conference call at 9 am that went fairly well but for some reason I started feeling slightly light headed and nauseous, the only difference in the day was that I had a 2nd ice coffee. Too much caffeine? Although feeling a little weird I decided to go to the gym and maybe I can alter the feeling with a good workout. After about 20 minutes, I was still feeling weird so I decided to leave.

I continued with my day, lunch, dentist then I went home and relaxed for the rest of the day. The 2nd 150mg came at around 4pm, a little over 8 hours from my first pill. It was suggested that you give a minimum of 8 hours for each dosage. The night went on as usual, had a glass of wine then decided to sleep. My first night with the normal full dosage, I had a tough time falling asleep, I slept for an hour, woke up, rolled around for a little bit then had to turn the tv on because I was obviously not going to fall back to sleep anytime soon. I think I got around 4 hours of sleep…

Day 2 – next step

Went to sleep a little earlier than normal for a Saturday night so I woke up at 7am on Sunday and went through my normal routine. Took my pill once I woke up, went for coffee and started to do a little work. I decided to go to the gym today around 10ish and did 25 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of weights, normally I like to do a full hour but since I have been slacking and haven’t been to the gym in about 2 weeks, I decided to ease my way back in. It will be great to see the difference in my exercises before and after I quit as I have never tried the jogging machine because I know I can not last more than 5 minutes without having to stop and take a break. One of my co-workers talks about his workouts and he can do a mile jog/run in about 8-9 minutes and trying to get it down to 7 or so, thats only something I can dream of, maybe some day

The rest of my day was pretty normal, did some errands, called a buddy up for lunch and went to Best Buy to check out DVDs. Smoking was at a normal rate and still doesn’t taste as good but I did avoid a few unnecessary ones with gum. Towards the end of the night, I decided to unwind with a glass of wine, I wanted to cut down my drinking as typically on the weekends (Friday through Sunday), I would have around 3-4 drinks which averages out close to 2 drinks a night per week. My doctor said the 2 a night average was too much and I should get it down to an average of 1 per night which sounded reasonable. Drinking triggers my smoking so cutting down will be a good thing, I can see that being one of the biggest hurdles in the future, having a drink and not smoking. Coffee has the same trigger also but one step at a time.

Overall another typical day with 150mg of “budeprion sr”, since there has been no major effects mentally or physically, I’ve decided to move onto the 2 a day tomorrow.

Day 1 – adjusting

I woke up early at around 7am Saturday and took my first 150mg. Shortly followed by that I started my morning ritual and walked to Starbucks for my venti ice coffee sweetened. Overall the morning came and past without much change although I was probably over-thinking it a little in anticipation. I did notice feeling a more positive feeling as I was singing along to the cheeziest songs on the radio but that could have just been my mental preparation from the past few days to re-gain control and kick this habit.

About two hours after my first dosage, cigarettes did taste differently, there was a soapy taste to them and definitely did not taste too great. I bought a ton of gum today and became self conscience of the times when I typically smoked which I’ll call the “routine smokes”. I noticed there were so many “unnecessary smokes” I was taking in between so I’ve decided to take care of the “unnecessary smokes” first over the next few days by replacing them with gum, then tackle the routine ones towards my quit date.

I set my quit date for February 29th since it’s a leap year and we only get to see this date every 4 years. I wanted the date to have some significance so that I can remind myself not yearly but ever four years of my accomplishment.

Overall, little to no change after the first day and if the same goes for day 2, I may start the double dosage as soon as Monday to get the feel of it on my day off.

Introduction 2 of 2

The past few months I started to monitor the message boards for Chantix experiences to prepare myself for what I was to go through. I was fully prepared for all of the side effects and looking forward to being smoke free! Early in Feb 2008, the FDA issues a warning that it may cause some psychological issues and many users have noted the additional warnings that came with the prescription. There were also many comments about problems in dealing with nicotine withdrawal because Chantix suggests that you stop the drug without weaning off of it and does not provide any support after.

As I read more and more about Chantix there were some concerns, I began to wonder if this would be the best option? My doctor’s appointment came and I inquired about the drugs, she suggested Wellbutrin (also known as Zyban or Budeprion) as she felt it was safer and there were less side effects to deal with. I was quite relieved that I was given the alternative and chantix as a plan b.

While researching I did come across Zyban / Wellbutrin but did not read too deep into it but once I got my prescription I started to read about it for a few days preparing myself for what was to come. Wellbutrin was originally known as an anti-depressant but they found that it also helped in smoking cessation. It’s been around for quite awhile which definitely sounds much safer than its competitor.

I was told to take 1 a day (150mg) for 3 days and then double my dose on the fourth day. Since a 3 day weekend is coming, I decided to start Saturday morning to get the feel of it and I think I may continue the 150mg for 6-7 days into the next weekend and start the double dosage on Friday going into the next weekend.

This is my journey… wish me luck!