Day 47

Hiya. Plan is that tomorrow I take the last of the Champix.

Today I had none and tomorrow is the last pill of that prescription. In my head tomorrows pill counts as a 0.5g dose for both Wed and Thurs which, rather neatly I feel, means that I will have completely given up smoking within 50 days. There's a marketing campaign in there somewhere. If 50 days sounds like a lot try looking at it another way:

I've smoked for 30 years. For the first 15 days of taking Champix I continued to smoke. 35 days ago (that's five weeks) I stopped smoking. I had a sneaky cigarette on day 27 (just three weeks ago) and haven't smoked, or come close, since. In my book that's a pretty good result. In fact it's a bit of a miracle. Ask anyone that knows me. If you're going to try this get folk to bet first. I'd have made a fortune.

If you've stumbled across this page and not read the blog leading up to it you may think that I'm stopping the Champix because it's making me ill. Not so. They didn't even give me the nausea that almost everyone reports. I'm giving them up because I feel confident that I don't need them. If the single best thing that a smoker can do for their health is give up smoking. I've just done the single best thing a smoker can do for their health.

I have a prescription for the next 4 weeks and, after that, should get another for two weeks. I'm hoping not to use these. Ridiculous as it sounds I wasn't keen on taking Champix and amn't keen on continuing with it any further than I have to. I feel certain that I've stopped smoking so feel certain I can stop Champix. I'm not scared to recommend it to anyone but neither am I comfortable that it's safe. I don't like the fact that it hasn't even been tested with alcohol or that nobody seems to know exactly what it's impact is on pregnant ladies or patients with liver problems. The medication just says seek medical advice but from what I can see there is no specific medical advice. I also don't like anything that affects your brain that hasn't been tested over more than one generation. Didn't thalidomide promise a miracle cure?

Thing is I needed to stop smoking and I have. That's job done. Allen Carr's method carries far less risks and you'd probably feel even better if it worked for you but... Read it, if you are any kind of smoker then that's not going to work. Sorry Allen but, if all it takes is to convince yourself that you don't smoke, then I'm convinced I would have tried it before now.

Of course this could all fall apart and I could smoke again in a week a month or a year. I don't think that's going to happen and yet previously that's exactly what I thought would happen. For the first time in my life I not only don't smoke but I also don't want to smoke. For that reason I don't feel that it will fall apart but, even if it did, my lungs have had a very good break. I haven't coughed for more than a fortnight. I don't spit solid stuff. My body needed the break. The longer the break the better. Pity about the spots though. Convinced they are related to stopping and they make me look like a teenager with cleanliness issues. Teenage boys survive cleanliness issues and I'll survive the spots. If that's the only payback it's a cheap price.

Until tomorrow...