Saturday, January 23, 2010

How to stop smoking when all else fails

I experienced a miracle some years ago. Every time I talk to someone about it, they say, you must have this published. Everyone needs to know about this....

I was unable to completely quit smoking, even though once I had stopped for nearly three years. The smell of the smoke always brought me back; usually a Gitaine French cigarette, or a Galois, that have the most aromatic smoke. So I cut myself back to just one cigarette a day, in the evening. My husband and I would stand out on our deck, no matter what the weather, and have a smoke before turning in for the night.

All my attempts to quit completely failed, so I stopped asking God for help and forgot all about it. Until I came down with a nasty sinus infection. I have been prone to them all my adult life, and know that if I go to see the doctor, I'm probably going to end up drugged out on prescriptions meds and still feel lousy. I wanted something 'natural'. A friend of mine told me about the neti bowl concept -- it seemed like fun. They said it was ok to use a baby bulb (a new one, of course), and to add canning and pickling salt and baking soda to water as hot as you could stand it. I didn't really measure correctly (1/4 tsp of each) and ended up with a strong mixture. As I shot it up my nostrils with the baby bulb I remember feeling as carefree as I had as a child swimming in the Long Island Sound. It felt great.

But the mixture was too strong, and for the next few days I had brown chunks of stuff coming out of my sinuses. It was really odd. But I kept feeling better. But when I went outside at night to smoke my daily cigarette I became terribly nauseus at the smell of the smoke. It was unbelievable. God had answered my prayer when I wasn't even looking.

It took me a few days to realize what had happened. For months after that, I kept expecting cigarette smoke to smell good again. But it never has. That was about eight years ago.