Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I have been advised by my surgeon to quit smoking at least 2 weeks before my chest surgery. I am a heavy smoker and quitting smoking is stressing me out as much as worrying about the op and the more I am worrying about the op the more I seem to smoke. I know a lot of you will maybe think I am being a wimp and how lucky I am to be at this stage in my transition but I have quit smoking on numerous occasions in the past and failed. I do want to stop but have severe problems doing so especially as far as my work is concerned even when using nicotine replacements. I have used patches, gum, inhaler, even snuff for a brief period but I act that cranky even the guys I work with who wanted me to stop told me to get some cigs. I have got down from 60-80 a day to 40-50 a day since the smoking ban. I have asked a few people for advice and had varying responses such as lying to the surgeon down to quitting my job. I have worked at the same firm now for 20 years and would rather not quit as it is a small family company and they have been excellent in supporting me through my transition. Any help or advice, particularly from heavy smokers who have succeeded would be very much appreciated.

I have had my lungs checked out by a doctor and she said she desperately wanted to say they were suffering and that I had to stop smoking but could not find anything wrong with my lungs or breathing (said she couldn't believe I smoke the amount I do) so the issue is more to do with the healing process after the op.

What makes this whole situation more urgent is that I spoke with the hospital staff last week regarding a date when the surgery will be done and have been told it could be as soon as the next few weeks but can't give a solid date.

John

Have you thought about hypnotherapy? That can be a very effective method of stopping smoking, and in a very short time. If there aren't any hypnotherapists near you, you could try googling for someone called Paul McKenna, who produces CD's that you play through headphones whilst you're sleeping.

I know a lot of people think hypnosis is a scary thing that will end with you barking like a dog or strutting round like a chicken every time the doorbell rings, but it's not like that at all. And best of all, you don't have to wean yourself off the nicotine with anything. If hypnotherapy works for you, you'll just stop. Period.

Check out/Google the Allen Carr method.  It worked for me.

Lia

Try Chantix. I was a 2 pack a day smoker for about 40 years. I truly enjoyed smoking, especially with a strong cup of black coffee, and when I used to drink!!! When I first tried to quit smoking, I became short tempered to the point that I was becoming dangerous to be near.

I stopped smoking on January 1, 2008, mostly because the cigarettes had become too expensive, I was spending more money on cigarettes than on groceries, and I needed the money for therapy and transition. I went to my internist who gave me a prescription for Chantix. The pills are taken for a week while you continue to smoke, and then on day 8, you stop smoking. It has worked out better than I thought possible! I did not miss the cigarettes, and I did not become short tempered. After 3 weeks, and again after 6 weeks, I had the urge, broke down, and bought a pack of cigarettes, and that has been it!!!

If I could stop so easily, I would think that ANYONE can, especially since at the time, my motivation wasn't very good. Now, with HRT, I'm self injecting my hormones, and smoking would be too dangerous, so it's extremely unlikely that I'll pick the habit up again. If you'd like to quit smoking, please try Chantix.
It really works!!!

Quote from: genovais on June 22, 2008, 12:59:05 PM
Check out/Google the Allen Carr method.  It worked for me.

Lia

My neighbour's had great results with that method. I'm reading the book at the moment. For the second time. Still working on it.

Dennis

If none of the above works, you can always ask your physician to prescribe you Varenicline (Brand: Chantix), but this should only be your LAST resort! ;)

tink :icon_chick:

The Raily Method of non inhibated breathing....

First off. your not quitting, your not trying to quit... Your just trying to stop so you can smell and taste things :)

2: Altoids are your best friend... there a strong mint... and they crunch, and when your not smoking <atleast the first few days> you want to crunch things... so crunch the mints.

3: Keep a rolled up paper tube, or a pen or pincil or something you can chew on, suck on, wave around like a magic wand in areas where your most likely to smoke... For me it was driving... so iinstead Id wave around my little stick and suck/chew on it instead...

Once your past the first 3 days cravings will drop off signifigantly...  The PHYSICAL addiction is killed at that point... after that its just replaceing the habbit, the mental addiction to the actions... with something else... at that point its easy<er> to just say, well I've made it this far... I dont need another one.

And every time something agitates you... or you have that need for a puff or 50... just crunch on the altoids and put it off, the cravings pass....

<Ive tried with other mints, but origonal altoids worked best for me>

LynnER is right, it's not so much the addiction to nicotine as it is the habit.  I never smoked anywhere close to the amount you do, but the habit was just as bad (well maybe not AS BAD) but I couldn't quit because it was like, oh I got some downtime, guess I'll go have a smoke.  You just have to find other things to do.  That's definitely the hardest part. 

I had tried quitting several times before I realized that it was so hard because I just didn't want to quit.  You can't go against what you really want inside, right?  So I realized that if I wanted to quit, I had to find a reason to do so that mattered more than smoking.  It worked for me anyway. 

I used two reasons to quit-- first is that the cost was just getting too high.  Think about how much you're spending on cigarettes.  You smoke 50 a day, let's round it down to 40, two packs.  If a carton is $30 now, and you get 10 packs per, the carton is only going to last you five days.  Let's be really conservative and say you won't smoke on the weekend, so now the carton lasts you one week.  You still need to buy 52 per year.  So 52 weeks X $30 per carton = $1560.00!!!!!!!  Now, I don't know about you, but there's a hell of a lot of things I could do with $1500.  Damn, go on vacation or something. 

And that was the second reason I quit.  I like to scuba dive, free dive and swim.  Especially on vacation.  And while your doctor can't find anything wrong with your lungs or breathing, I guarantee that it's hurting you.  You'll get winded walking uphill if you go at a good pace.  You can't swim as well, or hold your breath as long.  I walk everywhere and figured I was doing pretty well for myself.  I mean I was walking, so at least I was sort of counteracting the negative effects of smoking.  Not exactly.  When I quit, I was surprised at how much easier it was to go uphill or a few flights of stairs.  It really does make a huge difference.  The carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke has a higher affinity for the hemoglobin in your blood than oxygen, consequently your ability to deliver oxygen to your body is diminished.  As a result, you breathe harder if you walk somewhere or do some kind of exercise. 

One of the side effects of diminished oxygen delivery is that your body perceives this as a problem with your blood, so your body kicks up the production of red blood cells.  It doesn't sound like that bad of a thing on its face, but even with more red blood cells you still aren't anywhere close to being as efficient as you would be by not smoking.  Also, thicker blood can increase the risk of blood clots, heart attack, stroke, etc.  (This, BTW, is why your surgeon wants you to quit for the two weeks prior to surgery.  The risk of complications if you don't goes up.)  Not that I'm trying to scare you.  It's just that being healthy and enjoying your life is as good a reason to quit as any.  Once you quit, everything goes back to normal pretty fast.  It gets easier to breathe and your risk of developing cancer drops even within just a few weeks.  So, I say take your $1500 that you'll spend on cigarettes, go on vacation, and do some kind of activity and enjoy how much easier it is to breathe. 
Best of luck to you.  I know how hard it is to quit, but you can do it. 

Quote from: Tink on June 23, 2008, 09:37:20 PM
If none of the above works, you can always ask your physician to prescribe you Varenicline (Brand: Chantix), but this should only be your LAST resort! ;)

tink :icon_chick:

What Tink said.  I used Chantix and it did work for me but it seems to have a drastic effect on emotion.  I didn't realize it at the time that Chantix was causing it but I had this seething black hole of emotion and anger inside.  Apparently there have been some reported cases of suicide from it.

Beverly

Indeed.  Medicate as a last resort.  I suggested Chantix to my doctor, but she actually wouldn't prescribe it to me after having seen several patients report the emotional problems mentioned by Beverly.

Lia

Chantix is dangerous.

I used it, it killed the cravings... I quit smoking sucessfully for a year until I caved under RL stress.

Chantix actually brings up emotions you had suppressed, and when it hit me, I literally didn't leave my bedroom for a week. I was suicidal, and had to start seeing a counselor.

Granted, I wouldn't be on this web site right now if I hadn't tried Chantix, because I still would be bottling up the emotions surrounding my transgender identity. In the long run, it's a good thing that the emotions came out and that I found the help I needed to deal with them. But admitting I needed help was a struggle that came dangerously close to killing me.

It's a powerful drug, and it works amazingly well at what it's designed to do.... but you have to be extremely careful with it, if you experience depression while on it I recommend calling your doctor immediately.

Hi all,

thanks for all your advice but it didn't matter in the end. I was only given 1 days notice of my op, they gave me 10 minutes to decide if I wanted to take the slot opened by a cancellation. I told them "I was advised to stop 2 weeks before my op" and the lady said, "hang on", then came back and said "can you stop from now?" So now have had the op without stopping smoking at all really.

I may need to have a modifaction made as the left is bigger than the right now (got a haematoma on right chest). My partner had spent £18 or so on ciggy substitutes (which were all c**p).

Grrrrr.

Quote from: genovais on June 27, 2008, 05:28:49 PM
Indeed.  Medicate as a last resort.  I suggested Chantix to my doctor, but she actually wouldn't prescribe it to me after having seen several patients report the emotional problems mentioned by Beverly.

Lia

You know, I'm really upset about your post. Please don't misunderstand me with this either...it isn't because of what you've said as much as what wasn't said by my doctor!!! I have no question as to the accuracy of your statements. I'm truly upset that my primary care physician, who I've been seeing on a routine basis for about 40 years had such a cavalier attitude to giving me the Chantix. I explained that I HAD to stop smoking because of the HRT, and he just handed me a prescription for Chantix.

They worked better than expected, but he had a responsibility to make me aware of the risks, and he never did. I'm very disappointed in him.

I am the last one to offer advise on quiting.  I have smoked for 35 plus years.  I have tried everything, but nothing has worked.  I tried Chantix, and it didn't work for me.  The only thing that even came close was switching to smokeless, but that is gross and nothing woman should do.

I know all about the health risks and the money I could save.  But this is one monkey I can not get rid of.  If I could the money would go to SRS.

But I keep trying.

Janet

Quote from: April221 on July 15, 2008, 05:22:01 PM

Quote from: genovais on June 27, 2008, 05:28:49 PM
Indeed.  Medicate as a last resort.  I suggested Chantix to my doctor, but she actually wouldn't prescribe it to me after having seen several patients report the emotional problems mentioned by Beverly.

Lia

You know, I'm really upset about your post. Please don't misunderstand me with this either...it isn't because of what you've said as much as what wasn't said by my doctor!!! I have no question as to the accuracy of your statements. I'm truly upset that my primary care physician, who I've been seeing on a routine basis for about 40 years had such a cavalier attitude to giving me the Chantix. I explained that I HAD to stop smoking because of the HRT, and he just handed me a prescription for Chantix.

They worked better than expected, but he had a responsibility to make me aware of the risks, and he never did. I'm very disappointed in him.

When did he prescribe it?

The depressive side effects weren't actually added to the warning label until recently. (I also didn't find out the full side effects until they'd already slapped me in the face.)

Why use expensive methods?

Get a CD from Enigma / Enya, go to a quiet place, maybe a fresh field sit yourself down and listen to it breathe in the fresh air and think about how long your lifetime is think of it as "endless" just fresh out everything on your mind. (Works mornings @ cliffs) try to reach a state where you feel "ethernal" kind of "above this world" do this severeal times and dont smoke on the days where you do it.

Quote from: flutter on July 15, 2008, 07:02:01 PM

Quote from: April221 on July 15, 2008, 05:22:01 PM

Quote from: genovais on June 27, 2008, 05:28:49 PM
Indeed.  Medicate as a last resort.  I suggested Chantix to my doctor, but she actually wouldn't prescribe it to me after having seen several patients report the emotional problems mentioned by Beverly.

Lia

You know, I'm really upset about your post. Please don't misunderstand me with this either...it isn't because of what you've said as much as what wasn't said by my doctor!!! I have no question as to the accuracy of your statements. I'm truly upset that my primary care physician, who I've been seeing on a routine basis for about 40 years had such a cavalier attitude to giving me the Chantix. I explained that I HAD to stop smoking because of the HRT, and he just handed me a prescription for Chantix.

They worked better than expected, but he had a responsibility to make me aware of the risks, and he never did. I'm very disappointed in him.

When did he prescribe it?

The depressive side effects weren't actually added to the warning label until recently. (I also didn't find out the full side effects until they'd already slapped me in the face.)

He wrote the original prescription January, 2008, issued a new one in April.

That was after the warning was changed. I took it in january 2007, before the warning was out there.

So yeah, he should have known.

I know this will cause eyes to roll, but yah....I did smoke.  I smoked a pack and a half a day for 25 years.  One day in 1992, I stopped.  There were wonderful spiritual things going on in my life, and smoking was just not part of it.  Neither was drinking.  How many hundreds of gallons of Jameson and scotch did I drink in my life?  Who knows, but both of them just........stopped.
Nice to be smoke-free.  I started drinking moderately again, mostly to ease gender dysphoria, but when I started hrt some years ago, it did not seem like a good thing to continue, so I stopped. 
I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke, and get a splitting headache on 1/2 a drink, so, I just don't.

Bev

My Father just stopped.  No fanfare No nothing.  I wish that would happen to me.

I think that there is a little flag in the back of the brain that says 'Smoker'  and until it changes to 'Non Smoker' it is impossible to quit.  But each try bumps that flag a little more until it flips.

I heard somewhere once that every smoker quits eventually.  Morbid Thought.

Love,
Janet

I would highly recommend the allen carr method too,

hes a smoking guru in every sense of the word and was a slave himself for many years until he learnt howto reprogramme the brain.

As Janet just hit the nail on the head allen carr teaches you how to turn your brain into a non smokers in a matter of hours. I smoked and well generally abused drugs avoiding my gid for many years, tried all the usual methods like nicorette patches ect ect which mostly brought me to my knees after a month until i one day hear this old gentlemen on the radio going on about how to give up easy.

well ordered the book off ebay and 4 years later im still drug free, it sounds like a bunch of sound bytes but i honestly swear to you its not and he has helped millions of people with the simplist of logic.

Good luck hun it looks like yet another support groups building up on this thread....smokers help section anyone? :P

Vanna X