Day 14 - the day I quit for good!

Yep, well here I am, been on Champix for 2 weeks and feeling pretty darn good about myself. Over the last few days I've been cutting down significantly to 2 or 3 a day, and even then could only manage half a smoke. Got up this morning and thought, today is the day I stop smoking.

Hardly any cravings, maybe for 30 seconds, then goes away, but not the unstoppable beast that cravings are when you try and give up cold turkey.

A good strategy I think cutting down is when you feel like a smoke, tell yourself you'll have one in 5 minutes if you still feel like one then - so far, this has worked 99% of the time for me.

I know, this blog might seem like an ad for Champix, it's not, I'm simply sharing my experience with others as I know people are hunting out information.

Give it a go, if you experience the same impact as me, you'll be over the moon!

5 Days on Champix

It's been 5 days since I started taking Champix again. Already I can feel the effect of them, i.e. I'm less inclined to smoke. In recent months I've been smoking 10 - 15 a day, but for the last 2 days, I think I've only had 5 a day.

The plan is to stop by Thursday 7 May (six months exactly since I got married). I'm pretty confident about stopping on or before the day.

Side effects this time round? Only a few vivid dreams, nothing nasty, just feels like there's been a dozen stories going on in my head all night.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments if you have any.

Cheers,

I'm back

Well, it's more than a year since I successfully gave up smoking using Champix, however, I spent 2 months in  South America on my honeymoon and both me and my wife sadly starting smoking again. I know, I know... There are a number of reasons for us starting smoking again, which I won't go into, but let's just say it was a silly decision. 

We were both smoke free for around 8 months, which is my record out of all the ways I've tried to give up smoking. As someone said in the comments, don't think you are in the clear for a good couple of years.

The Australian government is kind enough to subsidise Champix once a year, so I'm going to give it another shot, this time for good!

Off to see the doc in the next week or so, then back on to the ye olde faithful...

This time, I promise I'll update the blog more regularly - it's self reassuring mechanism for me as much as anyone else.

Third day on the pills

It's Friday afternoon and I would normally have smoked 10 cigarettes by now, yet today, I've only had 6. I'm well happy about that. How come you may ask, me too! It's only been 3 days since I started taking Champix and they're kicking in already! Let me be clear, I've had 1 pill a day for the last 3 days, as of tomorrow I start taking 2 a day. Bloody brilliant!

Went down for a smoke about an hour ago and couldn't even finish it! The taste is really not very nice and quite frankly the buzz that I would normally get is pathetic. At this rate, I'll be a non smoker by Monday.

As for the side effects, hardly anything. I get a bit nauseous in the morning straight after taking the pill, but that goes away quite quickly. Might try having some breakfast with it tomorrow morning, from what I've heard that helps a lot. It's early days still, but so far Champix is nothing like Zyban, I distinctly remember the crazy dreams on that pretty much from the start.

I'm going out for dinner tonight, then a wedding tomorrow, so will be interesting to see how I go, especially as these are the times when I would normally smoke a lot.

Anyone else taking Champix / Chantix where it kicked in so early??

Day 1

I took the first pill this morning, yeehaa! It's the beginning of the end for the smokes. I have to say, the packaging for Champix is really good, allows you to easily see where you're up to. Why don't they make all pharma packaging like this??

Anyway, nothing to report really, feel like normal. Had a couple of ciggys already... In any case, it's only after 8 days that I start to slow down on the smokes, then just stop altogether.

So probably won't have much to tell in terms of the effectiveness of the tablets in the next week, but you'll be the first to know about any side effects.

I've brought the start date forward

Ok, slight change in dates as I really don't see the need to continue killing myself with the smokes. So next Wednesday 5 March is when I'll start on the pills.

I'm feeling pumped about starting and really looking forward to being a non smoker.

Watch this space for updates on my mood swings and all the other lovely side effects Champix is supposed to give you.

And so it begins...

Through this blog I'm going to be recording my experience with Champix - a stop smoking aid that was introduced to Australia on January 1 2008. There's plenty of commentary on the web about various side effects of the drug ranging from nausea to suicidal thoughts. So I'm hoping that I'll give everyone a personal account of any such side effects AND if it actually stops me smoking

A bit of background:

I've been smoking for 12 years and am absolutely sick of it for all the obvious reasons. I've tried so many "quit smoking" aids it's not funny. Nicotine gum/patches are crap, a friend of mine has been on the gum for almost 2 years! Bugger that. Laser acupuncture worked well for a bit, but then after about 3 months was silly & smoked at a party - we all know what happens after that...
Hypnotherapy worked equally well, but again, during a night of drunken madness picked up the cancer sticks again.

The closest thing I've tried to Champix is Zyban, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone, crazy dreams, moodyness, slight nausea - didn't agree with me at all. So I'm quite keen to see what happens with Champix, hopefully I don't turn into Mr. Hyde...

So I've set the date, March 10 is when I'll start taking the pills. According to the doc I have to take them for a week before I start cutting down on the cigs, then after 2 weeks of taking them I should have stopped altogether.

Wish me luck!