Day 14

Well here it is folks. The moments of truth are stacking up. At 6pm tonight I took the last pill out of the 'Initiation pack' of Champix. Whatever I smoke tonight should be the last I smoke between now and the end of treatment in ten weeks time. Yep ten whole weeks. The idea being that by that time my brain will have got used to my not smoking and will stop demanding that I drop everything and have a cigarette.

Well that's the theory at least. You'll have to watch this space to see what happens in practice. It could all go wrong and I could smoke forty cigs tomorrow but somehow I don't think that will happen. If it doesn't then by the time I go back to my normal workplace on Monday (I've been off site this week) I could be telling my colleagues that I've been stopped for three days.

It will also be interesting to see what, if any, nicotine withdrawal I get. I've always had a theory that a lot of the side effects attributed to Champix may actually have nothing to do with Champix and may actually be the result of severe nicotine withdrawal. After all Champix works on the receptors in the brain that crave nicotine and stops dopamine being produced when you take nicotine, effectively convincing your brain that you don't need it, hence eliminating the need for a smoke. Nicotine is however a strong drug and one that my body has had a plentiful supply of since I was eleven years old. I may not crave it any more but it's entirely possible that my body and mind may react to the lack of it. It would seem that the quacks think this is not the case but I'll reserve judgement. I may not crave food but my body wont work without it. (For anyone thinking: 'I like that theory', remember what I said on day one. I'm not in any way medically qualified or even, some may say, intelligent enough to own a lighter let alone develop medical theories.)

OK so this is it. I'm off now for a smoke before bed. I'll not update till bed time tomorrow so that I can truthfully say whether it's been my first smoke free day or not. Wish me luck folks