Day 48

It's gone. There are no little blue pills in the pack any more. This morning I took what I intend to be the very last Champix I ever take. I do have the prescription and I'm not daft enough to not use it if I think I'm going to smoke. Thing is I'm not going to smoke so I wont be using the prescription.

Yep smoking was a bit of a pig to give up but it's done. For me Champix didn't really intrude too much so I'd like to think that it's also done.

If I put myself back to January, I was about to try and stop doing something I liked and my method was to take a pill I didn't trust to help me do it. Success wasn't exactly built in to my attempt. This probably wasn't helped by the fact that I've seen so many quit attempts fail that I have a deep mistrust for anyone who suddenly says they don't smoke.

So here you have the facts. The danger pill didn't have any of the effects it claimed although it undoubtedly did make it easier to get to not smoking back on day 15. Probably the lack of side effects should have rung alarm bells because days 15-27 were pretty rough and, whilst they may not have been cold turkey, they weren't anything near what Champix promises. Champix is supposed to halt the cravings and numb the sensations if you do smoke. I'd say it's effects were very limited and no where near the claims on the pack.

I now don't smoke. People are even losing interest in how I'm doing or how I feel. I just don't count as a smoker any more. I'm 41. I could reasonably expect to fully recover from smoking by 50 and even fool doctors in to believing that I never smoked. That's a pretty good result. In my life there are other things to deal with but removing smoking from the mix will help an awful lot.

On Friday 29/01/10 I started this blog to chart a daily progress report of stopping smoking. This Friday, seven weeks to the day I'm going to start winding the blog up. From Friday I only intend to update once per week (On a Sunday). It's not that I don't enjoy blogging but I'm running out of ways to say that I'm still not smoking.

Could this really be it? Stay hooked...