SMOKERS - Listen in!

[GriffMJ]

I have been on 20 a day for a long time..... I have smoked since a tender young age (being a valley boy ) ...... I kicked it in 2000 through sheer will power but cracked in 2004 after a high stress situation.

Last Sunday an old TA friend was using an "e-cigarette" from a UK company called "SKYCIG"...... I tried it...... and it was exactly the same as smoking..... with the same hit of nicotene and the same sensastion and taste .....even the vapour. I was stunned..... got back home and got onto their website and bought the starter pack...... it arrived a day later...... I have not smoked a real cigarette since!!

One filter is the equivalent of a packet of cigs ...... a pack of filters cost £8 (5 in a pack)........ so for the price of one pack of real fags I have the equivalent of a weeks worth of smoking! One filter will last a smoker like me for the day and a bit

If you want to smoke without the nasty stuff....... try it, SERIOUSLY it works..... its just water and nicotene plus flavour.

BTW, I was sat in the Vets yesterday..... chuffing away...... no problems at all...... even had a pint "in" the Pub whilst chuffing away..... brilliant..... even chuffed away in the car whilst the kids were in it..... no problem.... no smell, no health issues, safe

It gets cheaper...... you can actually buy the "e-liquid" that goes into the filters..... one 30ml bottle (£8) is the equivalent of 120 filters.... all you have to do is refill one of the filters every time (easy to do).

[johnG]

Right, so let me tell you my tale about smoking.

In November 2004 I ran into trouble with my eyesight, and after a lot of tests and things, I was told I could well be blind within six months.

Naturally I told the guy "Happy Christmas to you too"

The problem was Macular Degeneration and Cataracts. I blame it on many years of glare from the African sun and not wearing sun glasses, but who knows.

It was at the time new drugs were just coming onto the market (at a hell of a cost initially), and a programme of injections plus a couple of ops worked wonders over the next year or so.

Too late to save complete sight in right eye, but got away with it with the left eye, albeit short sighted, which even the best of glasses cannot correct and I rely heavily on a computer in big bold type for a lot of things.

I count myself very, very lucky, for although I was flippant about it - what else can one do - it was a nasty jot to be told one is going blind.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, during those early days of my eyesight problems, a Specialist, after shining big searchlights into my eyes asked me a question.

"When did you stop smoking?"

At that time I had not smoked for thirty two years, so asked him how the hell he knew I had ever smoked, which I did for about twenty years.

I was told how smoking can affect the eyesight, and it takes at least twenty five years for evidence of smoking to start clearing up from an examination of the eyes.

This makes me ask "Why do kids not have the dangers of smoking drummed into them at school".

I have found out just how unpleasant it is to have ones eyesight go adrift, so please, all you smokers out there, do read again, and take heed of the information given by the originator of this thread, and then put him on your Christmas Card list as a way of saying 'Thank you'.

It just MIGHT be affecting YOUR eyesight.

Happy Easter

johnG

[Sonofacqms]

I was a serious smoker for years, starting as a fourteen year old and graduating to half an oz of rolling tobacco and twenty cigarettes a day at it's peak.

I tried several times to stop without success, I tried a pipe which helped then decided to pack up altogether, how?

I went to my badge collection, looked at the gaps and decided to invest in badges rather than smoking, it was hard, but it worked thank goodness, a worthwhile excercise.

Rob

[Phil2M]

Whenever anybody says to me ''what do you collect those things for?'' I always say ''its better than smoking, gambling, drugs or drink''. It normally shuts them up

I've never been a smoker, stopped drinking when I was 19, never gambled and never did drugs, badges cost too much for all that

Phil

[johnG]

Good heavens Phil, just think of all the pleasures you have given up for the sake of badges, and why did you leave it so late to give up the booze.

Edited to add: A non drinker, but when he visited me recently, Phil brought two bottles of excellent wine with him, so collecting badges has not entirely corrupted him

Cheers mate.
jognG

[davec2]

What can I say ?

Poor old Fabrice Muamba, 23 years old, as fit as a fiddle and he has a very serious cardiac arrest, a young 15 year old playing rugby collapses and dies ??

In 1990, I had six heart attacks in eight days, obviously I recovered and at 45 years of age, I was a big headed Ba***rd and full of it ? I carried on smoking, my average was round about 30 - 40 a day, I had two jobs and worked seven days a week, my longest stint without a day off was 13 weeks ??? an absolute recipe for disaster.

Kath who also smoked, turned to me in the pub on New Years eve 1997 and suggested we call it a day, at midnight we both gave our fags away, Kath hasn't had one since, me being weaker than her, she is after all the strogest sex, had one of my daughter's the following day but not since.

Since then, I have lost several members of my family and a couple of Kath's, my daughter lost her first child, I lost my job and we lost our house ( we chose to sell it rather than have it repossessed ), after losing my job in 2003, I have had to have a heart by-pass, followed a year later by a Triple A, which is an Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm operation and a year later an Enderterectomy, half a dozen Angioplastys were also thrown in for good measure.

All mainly due to smoking, I don't hold with those who are continually trying to pack it in, they say it's harder to stop smoking than to kick cocaine and they may well be right but ultimately the individual needs to want to pack up, it's no good kidding yourself.

Just about everything we do is bad for us, particularly if it's nice but smoking really is bad for one's health, I didn't pack it in because of the cost or the fact that it's a dirty smelly habit, I called it a day because it was going to kill me and it may still be the cause of my popping my clogs and one other point for all the smokers, a convert is worse at moaning about it than someone who has never smoked.

That's it, that's my tale, chuff away Griff but you will never beat will power, in my opinion of course.......

Dave.

[2747andy]

I've never been a smoker but 30+ years in the Army and being in messes and environments where people smoked has given me Asthma, so I've that to put up with for the rest of my life due to smoking!

How's this thread related to badges, well I buy a lot of badges and when even just one badge arrives that has come from a smoker, it stinks to high heaven! So much so that I have to take the packing straight out to the rubbish bin and wash the badge in hot soapy water!

My message! You may be damaging your own health if you smoke, that's your choice! You are however damaging the health of others and you probably Stink as well!

Give it up, it's for mugs! And you deserve to be paying an extra 36p per pack - Well done the Chancellor!

Yes I detest smokers, they have spoilt my quality of life FOR EVER!

Andy

[badger123]

Andy,
I too have never smoked and have recently developed asthma as a result of passively smoking other peoples cigarette smoke so I have some sympathy for you. I have also lost family members due smoking related illness including both of my parents.

But Dave, that is one heck of a lot of procedures to go through and it puts my recent tiny problems into perspective.

Ivan

[Phil2M]

Originally Posted by 2747andy

How's this thread related to badges, well I buy a lot of badges and when even just one badge arrives that has come from a smoker, it stinks to high heaven!

Andy

Andy, I couldn't agree more, I told my neighbour once that you can tell an original badge by its patina and its smell, tobacco being a common one. Berets or caps etc are worse still.

John, I gave up drinking after two years, just decided I didn't like it anymore. you are more than welcome about the wine, I am only sorry that I didn't have a better imagination

My step dad has been 'trying' to give up smoking for ten years, it was even one of his wedding vows, one he continually broke that same afternoon during the reception. He has no intention of stopping.

My Dad gave up smoking when I was a kid, everytime I saw his cigarettes I stamped on them and threw them down the drain. He gave up in the end because he was literally throwing money down the drain. He never thanked me for that

Phil

[Phillip Herring]

This thread has prompted many of you to tell a great deal about yourselves.
Thank you for treating the forum membership as friends, and for the warnings of how lifestyle choices can affect us.
Thanks again.

Phil

[matti467]

As a school teacher I do warn my students about smoking, both tobacco and the weed. Whatever I say I cannot stop them. However, when I do the maths on smoking 20 a day a few do prick up their ears and listen.
I have been a non-smoker all my life and rarely drink these days. I do like a pint though

[sailorbear]

Hmmm the vile weed! Unlike many of the previous replies I did stupidly smoke! on average 20 to 30 a day from the age of 14 (when I started in the sea cadets to impress a girl I liked who smoked!) I attempted to give up several times but at heart did'nt really want to stop!

My opinions really changed when I did my RN Medical Assistant training and undertook 16 weeks of hospital placements, placed for 3 weeks on a respiratory ward I nuresed many patients with lung cancer and emphysema (including a 28 year old and a 34 year old women) at least 80 % of my patients had diseases caused directly by smoking, later watching two operations to have a cancerous lung removed and a stint on a cardiac ward convinced me that quiting was the only sensible thing to do!

Tradgicly a year later my mother died from lung cancer after half a lifetime of suffering health issues caused by 30 years of smoking 30 a day (she quit 25 years before she died!) that was 4 years ago (in the middle of my honeymoon) so now wedding annerversaries are always tinged with a little sadness, 2 years after I gave up descovered I had a lump in my abdomen which turned out to be a tumour the size of a cricket ball in my bowel, fortunately it was benign but required major bowel surgery to remove it and a bastard of a fight back to fitness! I dont know if smoking had anything to do with it but I hope I never have to go through an operation like that again and wish not only that I had stopped earlier but never started at all!

I now work at a college and every day see silly young boys and girls puffing away on their roll ups and thinking they are really grown up! (strange that real actual adults dont "start" smoking, only spend their time desperately trying to give up before it kills them!) and each day I walk around near knee deep in their filthy fag buts but nothing I say registers with them, even when I point out that if I offered them a bag of asbestos dut and said "put that to your mouth and inhale" they'd think I was certifiable, but inhaling the carcenogenic tar laden smoke from a cigarette is fine and something they defend their right to do! Crazy!!

I hope they make it prohibatively expensive and maybe spare people the misery of losing loved ones or suffering ill health As for me I just kick myself for the huge collections of badges I could have bought with the £20,000 I stupidly burnt over 20 years!

Regards Tony

[GriffMJ]

I am not holy....er than though (collective)....... I have just found a way to stop smoking.

If you smoke...... try the e-cigarettes..... they really do work.... its medical nicoteen and that evil stuff called "dihydrogen monoxide"....... WATER

You can get varying levels of Nicoteen so you can ween yourself off it gradually.

[rhodesianmilitaria]

Originally Posted by GriffMJ

I am not holy....er than though (collective)....... I have just found a way to stop smoking.

If you smoke...... try the e-cigarettes..... they really do work.... its medical nicoteen and that evil stuff called "dihydrogen monoxide"....... WATER

You can get varying levels of Nicoteen so you can ween yourself off it gradually.

It's called vaping and I gave up smokes years ago by using it. Gave up a 30 yr habit in less than a year. That is I gave up smokes in one day, nicotene in 10 months and vaping in a year.
SMOKE FREE 16 DEC 2009. NICOTINE FREE 21 OCT 2010.VAPE FREE 16 DEC 2010.

Easiest way to quit.
I used a mod which cost me a $100 and mixed my own nic juice that I imported from England. Two flavours I used were Brazilliano Coffee and Tirimasu.
Info here if anyone is interested.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com

[GriffMJ]

Thanks for the link Peter, I will be aiming to do what you have done