Did anyone quit smoking when they stated nursing school?

jelorde37 · Mar 19, 2008

i actually started smoking in nursing school after learning about the effects of nicotine on the sympathetic nervous system. ive been smoking like a chimney ever since. ive smoked with old ER nurses, a couple cardiologist, and a couple therapist(physical and respiratory) while i was a student. smoking serves as a basis for opening up conversations and serves as a "vessel" for socialization between two human beings rather than conversation based out of titles. so i got to meet some nice people.

but honestly, smoking is bad and ive been trying to quit ever since. i used to smoke about a pack a day and now ive cut it down to 8-10 sticks per day. somedays, i dont smoke at all, while somedays i smoke more(like at work). two coworkers of mine just had some bypass grafts done. one recovered successfully, while the other had a major stroke while at work. anyways, good luck with school and everything.

xt1 · Mar 19, 2008

Lots of nurses smoke, its a hard habbit to kick. Just remember although the struggle gets easier with time the cravings will never completely dissapear making this a lifelong daily struggle. I think cessation is more successful when you gradually reduce the intake, maybe wait a little longer each day before having that first cigarette of the day. There is lots of literature and programs to help you quit smoking. As far as setting an example you could explain how addiction works, how smoking negatively impacts the body, and give a personal testament on how difficult it is to quit, the emotions you go through etc... Just maybe you'll convince someone whom is tempted to try smoking realize what lies ahead. You can use your struggle with addiction to help others and be a positive influence in their life, no rational thinking person will expect battling an addiction to be any easier because your a nurse. The important thing is you recognize a problem and have a desire to change.

jaywolves · Mar 20, 2008

As a non-smoker and an LPN in a hospital that is "non-smoking", I personally think it's offensive to smell smoke on a nurse. Our hospital is supposed to be a non-smoking campus but nurses and everyone else still go outside and smoke on the sidewalk right off the property. When the nurse comes back in from smoking they leave a trail of stink. (my husband just quit smoking and I was really hard on him. lol) People who have breathing issues or a sensitive nose can't hardly take it. My clinical instructor while I was in school was very hard on the smokers if they came in smelling like smoke. I would really try hard to quit before school.

Wow. In any other profession you might be what we'd call a "victim."

I feel for you. Quitting smoking, more than any other awful habit is the single hardest thing I have ever done in my life. The first time I quit, was Marine Corps Boot Camp where smoking was simply not an option. Waking up every morning for 13 insanely stressful weeks with the taste of that sweet cigarette lingering on the tip of my tongue was enough to drive me insane. It got to a point where I fiended for one so badly that when one was lit across the base, I would swear to you I could tell you what brand it was and whether or not it came from a soft or hard pack.

I quit this year, on January 13th. Not because some brutal DI told me I wasn't going to be allowed them. But because I wanted to. YOU HAVE TO WANT TO QUIT. I had tried three other times this last year alone. This time, I made a plan. I bought the patch, I set a goal and I knew I wanted to go to nursing school and get out of my current career.

To date, not even a puff since January 13th.

This is what I know...

YOU HAVE TO WANT TO QUIT. It has to be YOUR decision, no someone elses. In the first two weeks you will quickly learn ALL of your triggers. You will know everything that sets you off. The pile of bodies may grow rather quickly. Having a good place to hide them may be necessary.

FIND SUPPORT. Whether it be non-smoking friends who will encourage you to continue to not smoke, or a website like Quit net. You are going to want to avoid smokers for at least a solid week. Don't be tempted. Don't beat yourself up if you do have one or two either. Nobody is perfect. You didn't start smoking overnight, it was a learned habit that took time. You didn't take your first puff and become an instant professional 2 pack a day smoker. It took time to get up to those numbers, it will take time to get back off of them.

CHART YOUR PROGRESS. People are visual beings. Take the money you would normally spend on smokes and put it into a "me" account. After a month as a pack a day smoker you'll have nearly $200 to blow on yourself. This makes a difference. It feels good to see it add up. Distance yourself from your triggers and reward yourself for your success.

They say that quitting smoking is as difficult if not more so than giving up heroine. It's not until you quit that you notice just how nasty it really is, nor how many smokers there really are. Heroine isn't done on EVERY TV SHOW, EVERY MOVIE, or during EVERY COMMUTE like smoking is. For the first month, it's absolute torture. Remember that it takes 27 days to make something a habit. After 27 days without a smoke, without cheating, you won't even want one. Carry a little piece of a straw with you in your pocket or something that you can suck on. Something that is the size, the shape of a cigarette. This is as much a mental addiction as it is a physical one. There is not right or wrong way to beat it.

Some people like Chantix, say it really helps, some say the patch, some say the patch and chantix, while sucking on the inhaler and abusing people like the one quoted at the top of this message. Point is, you have to do whatever you have to do to beat the habit. But beat it for YOU, no one else. Not because of snarky non-smoker comments. Not because a husband says so. Not because your kids are making bets with you. Quit because YOU want to or you won't ever be successful.

Good luck. If you need to BS with someone who's recently been there and felt EXACTLY what you may be feeling - hit me up. I'll do what I can to talk you off the ledge.

I'm an avid hunter and shooter and I couldn't be trusted with my own firearms for that first month. I worried for everyone's safety. It's all good now, but for people who don't smoke or who have never smoked - THEY HAVE NO IDEA what this gut-wrenching craving will do to a normally sane and caring human being. I've never known the thoughts I had in that first month. Thankfully, it's over now and I hope I don't EVER know the taste of a smoke again.

I'll say a prayer for ya - I wouldn't wish the pain of becoming a quitter on my worst enemy. It's truly just NOT even almost easy.

MB37 · Mar 20, 2008

I haven't been able to. I tried the gum and then Chantix while in school - Chantix was effective, but it gave these crazy awful hallucinogenic dreams that left me awake in time for clinical with absolutely no rest. I dealt with it for two months, but then I couldn't take the fatigue anymore. It helped to break the physical addiction, but I still have the psychological one. I can go for 8 or 12 hours, even for a few days without smoking - until I see another smoker. I can't go to bars, restaurants, games, or by my next door neighbor's apartment without desperately wanting one, and I still give in a lot of the time. I have quit some other substances in my life, and nicotine is BY FAR the hardest in my experience. I'm actually down to a pack or two a week, but those last few seem to be my crutch. Once I graduate I'll try again, plus we're thinking about getting pregnant then so that'll be another incentive...(and please don't blast me, I will not smoke during a pregnancy - I can do that psychologically, because it's "stopping" smoking, not actually "quitting). Good luck to anyone who's trying, and congratulations to anyone who's done it. One day at a time...

studently42 · Mar 22, 2008

You know jaywolves, I'm glad you said what you did about what this will do to a normally sane person. It's the end of day 12 without smoking and I haven't been myself at all for a few days. EVERTHING is p***ing me off and I'm having a hard time not reacting. So far, I still have a job and my wife's just annoyed (I think). I'm glad school's out; I was thinking that quitting before school was a mistake but the worst part has been now. Hopefully this will pass soon. I haven't wanted to smoke and I'm not going to let temporary insanity convince me to.

jaywolves · Mar 22, 2008

You know jaywolves, I'm glad you said what you did about what this will do to a normally sane person. It's the end of day 12 without smoking and I haven't been myself at all for a few days. EVERTHING is p***ing me off and I'm having a hard time not reacting. So far, I still have a job and my wife's just annoyed (I think). I'm glad school's out; I was thinking that quitting before school was a mistake but the worst part has been now. Hopefully this will pass soon. I haven't wanted to smoke and I'm not going to let temporary insanity convince me to.

You've made it through the worst of it. By far the first two weeks I was worried for EVERYONE's safety. I had a hair trigger and some part of me thought that maybe it would be smart if companies would allow you leave time for quitting just to protect your co-workers. It really was so intense that I spent most of the day seeing red and it was really for no reason at all. Just that the cravings were so intense that my stomach was knotted up.

One day, towards the end of the first two weeks - I'm on the patch - I had such an intense craving I thought I was going to break. I felt my pulse race, my blood pressure raise to the point you could have counted my temporal pulse visually, and I told myself, "NO. You're NOT wussing out on this." It was at that exact moment I actually felt my body take a drag of nicotine from the patch. It was as if my body overcame my mind's limits and said, "BET ME SUCKA!"

I would swear I could feel my skin actually suck a hit right off that patch. I got lightheaded momentarily, just like when you first started smoking and took too big of a drag. And all of the sudden I was in control.

From that point on, when I got the cravings I was able to talk myself down. Walk it off, count it off... wait it out... whatever.

But this is seriously not an easy thing and a lot of people underestimate the addiction. I even underestimated it. I figured AAAAh, I can do it - it will be "easy."

That was more than 2 months ago and it's still not, "easy." I can now understand lawsuits against tobacco companies. I thought they were ridiculous when I was a smoker. After all, no one was "making me" smoke. Turns out, I think I get it now. I'm not about to sue, but when I added up all the money I had likely spent since I started smoking - WOW. I'd love to have that nest-egg back now.

jelorde37 · Mar 22, 2008

they say that smoking is more addictive than heroin. i remember learning that heroin is hard to quit due to the withdrawal symptoms associated with it, while smoking is psychologically and physically addicting. i dont know if thats true, but that just what i learned in nursing school.

i think the steps to quitting might be different for everyone. some people just quit cold turkey while others prefer to be weened off. i tried cold turkey before and it didnt work. so for the last 6 months, ive been weening myself out of it slowly but surely. i used to smoke a pack a day and now i smoke no more than 10. taking care of ESCOPD patients help as well.

jaywolves · Mar 22, 2008

I'm merely a CNA student what is ESCOPD?

I tried multiple times and had to resort to the patch. Cold turkey wasn't cutting it.

suanna · Mar 22, 2008

NOPE I started smoking when I started nursing school. Of course that was a different era. If your patient smoked you were welcome to light up while doing your assessment. The only place you couldn't smoke was in the elevators. We felt quite put upon when they seperated the report room: 1 table smokers, the other non. (the room was 8x10).

akspudus · Mar 22, 2008

I quit smoking (a habit of almost 17 years) just over a year ago. I figured I was going to be a NURSE. I need to be an example. My wife also smoked, she quit 6 months after I did. She will have her 1 year anniversary on June 1st.

I knew I was going into nursing and eventually had to quit. I don't know how many times I was "educated" on the health risks. I still continued to smoke. My doctor would "educate" me every time I saw him. The kicker for me was going the Bodies exhibit. The exhibit was awesome!! But, I also noticed a lot of the lungs in the exhibit were BLACK. And to top it off, the had a section dedicated to showing the difference between health lungs, and smokers lungs. The was it. I set a "quit date", got some patches...and did it. I didn't tell anyone my plan because I was afraid to look like a failure...if my plans didn't work out.

The bottom line is...I did it! And you can to. There is not "beating around the bush"...quitting SUCKS! Its miserable!! But every day is just a little better than others.

Good luck!! You can do it!!

Akspudus

P.S.: Don't wait for a "no stress" or "low stress" time in your life to quit. Those times will never come...just do it. I procrastinated for almost 5 years...waiting for the "the right time".

jaywolves · Mar 22, 2008

P.S.: Don't wait for a "no stress" or "low stress" time in your life to quit. Those times will never come...just do it. I procrastinated for almost 5 years...waiting for the "the right time".

No doubt about that. In fact - even if it is a low stress time, the second you decide you've had your last cigarette it seems like all hell will break loose.

It is VERY MUCH worth doing. Just do it, like Nike says.

DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP · Mar 22, 2008

I used to smoke off and on for years, but I have been tobacco-free for several years.

I work in an outpatient cancer clinic. If I still smoked today, I would not after hearing the story I am going to share with you below. This was told to me directly by the pt.

55 y/o man newly retired ex-cop, he and his wife just purchased an RV park to camp in the summertime and make some money during retirement.

Decided that since he was done working 60 hours a week, he would also paint the interior of his house since it needed it. This is a very active man, who did not tire easiy. One day he began to notice that his energy level was not what it used to be. Then there was a nagging cough that would not go away. A few days later, he began to cough up blood.

Concerned, he went to his physician who immediatley ordered x-rays and then a lung bx. The bx and x-ray showed stage III small-cell lung cancer with metastatic disease (2 small nodules) in the brain. His oncologist gave him 2-8 weeks to live without chemo and radiation, and 8-12 months to live with both treatments.

The patient told me that he had quit smoking many years ago. 15 years ago, him and his partner were out on patrol one night. They were both bored. His partner offered him a cigarette to help pass the time. Even though he had quit several years back, he still accepted it and then bought a pack on the way home that night 15 years ago. And he never quit again, until now.

Now this patient will not live long enough to enjoy retirement and the fruits of his labor. And he is going to leave behind his wife, adult children, and young grandchildren. He totally blames himself and says "if only I wouldn't have started smoking again 15 years ago.."

It is a very sad case.

Good luck to those of you who are trying to quit.

And, "don't quit quitting"

Best,

Diane