Update
As stated on the 10th of July, 04 I stroked, it is now May 13th, 06, almost 2 years, I am giving a condition report.
I smoked cigarettes for almost 50 years, the last cigarette I had was on the morning I stroked, 7/10/04, I remember standing on my front porch trying to roll a smoke, finally giving up and not happy about it because my hands were not working well. For years I smoked ready rolled tobacco, it contains a benzene to keep the tobacco burning and a glycerin to help keep it from drying out. By the time the consumer gets it, it is old and dry. Tobacco is the most addictive substance I have ever found, it is quite a Master and doesn't just ask but demands that we smoke. It is like those of us who were or are addicted does a system check every 2 seconds to see if our nicotine level is UP and do we need more. I tried to quit a few weeks before the stroke but after a few hours I would give in probably because my work as a locksmith is demanding and I could not deal with solving a major lock problem that a client was experiencing and ignoring the demand for nicotine.
Loading up on nicotine was the first thing I thought about when waking up, my brain would prepare for the intake, a quarter cup of coffee would do it, that's all I needed to get me started, I rarely drank more than a quarter cup of coffee and when I would drink more that that, my hands would have a difficult time keeping up with my brain, it was horrible. Jitters. Some days I would skip the coffee altogether and just go for the smoke. I started smoking a rolling tobacco in the later Eighties, it contained neither benzene or glycerin so if the pouch was not closed properly the tobacco would turn into dry dust and after taking a few puffs, laying the cigarette down, it would go out which I liked actually, it was still considered smoking but to me it was a healthier way to smoke I believed. I could re-light the cigarette later which saved me from rolling another.
In the Eighties a company from Holland imported a rolling tobacco by the name of Zig Zag and it came with a pack of Zig Zag rolling papers, 60 rolling papers came with the tobacco meaning for $1.50 I had 3 packs of cigarettes. When tobacco really became expensive, by that time Zig Zag was no longer being imported which was really sad but I was now smoking TOP tobacco. Actually TOP was not bad as tobacco goes, no additives, fairly natural and a 12 pack at COSTCO was around $14. and there were also 60 papers in each pack like Zig Zag. It was not quite as good as Zig Zag originals but decent. When ready rolled cigarettes were 3 to 5 bucks each I was only spending several bucks a week on my smoking habit and I smoked about 20 cigarettes a day which is a normal amount.
I still tried to quit, laying in bed at night wanting a cigarette naturally, I'd get up and go to the sink and cup a hand, put a little water in it and snort, this will clear your nostrils, it does not have a rebound or addictive effect as does the kind in the drug store, plastic squeeze bottle variety. Water is harmless and when snorted in a small quantity, it will go to work right away and clear the sinus' in just a few short minutes then I could breath better and fall to sleep only to want another smoke when I woke up.
After attempting to quit a few times and giving up I came to the realization that the only way I would succeed in quitting would be if someone put me in a padded cell for 2 months, until I kicked the physical addiction part.
A week later I was sitting on my porch, I felt a little funny in the head, swirly a bit, got a bit sleepy, thought it strange since I had recently got out of bed and it was still morning but decided to go back to bed and go to sleep since that's how I felt, figured that I'd either wake up or I wouldn't. I woke up 6 weeks later at Barrow Neurological Institute in the middle of the night, the room I was in was pitch black, I had to pee and I was thirsty but I did not want a cigarette. The bed that I was in had a nylon webbing over it and I could not get out.
I pushed a remote or maybe I did not push it, I do remember seeing a remote that was lit with one of the words on it was HELP and either I pushed it or I didn't, I thought I had.
No one was coming to my rescue and I could hear several others moan but could not see them. I thought that I was in my work van in the parking lot of a hospital, I climbed the sides of my webbed bed, I had to pee real bad, I climbed with my feet and my hands, I was completely off the bed in the air but still trapped. I started yelling Help as loud as I could and I yelled Emergency often or at least I think it was often, other than a few strange dreams this was the first real thing I had felt in 6 weeks.
Becoming more thirsty from yelling I decided to go back to sleep and wake up in the morning and get water then, yelling was making me more thirsty. I wadded my top sheet in a corner and peed on it. At least I no longer had to pee.
Some while later in the pitch dark an attendant opened up my bed, I remember apologizing to him about peeing on the sheets but that's about all.
Another discovery that I made in the daytime as I was learning who my family was again and learning to respond to them I found a patch on my chest, I felt a sort of energy going into my chest and I knew what it was because I had tried a nicotine patch some years earlier only to find myself smoking a cigarette while wearing a patch, what a rush that is. I recognized it as a patch, peeled it off and to this day I have not smoked a cigarette nor really wanted to. I still have several packs of my rolling tobacco in my work van and in my computer desk drawer close by, they don't bother me at all, they are no longer a threat to me, I don't even think about them.
My caregiver/soul mate of 36 years told me that while I was in the hospital kicking my addiction that I was extremely aggravated with a emphasis on aggravated. I don't remember a thing, I got my 7 weeks in a padded cell and I quit smoking.
By the way I also learned that chemically nicotine constricts the blood vessels which is exactly the opposite reaction of what a anti seizure drug such as Dilantin does. Dilantin as the name implies dilates our blood vessels which means more blood, more oxygen to our vital organs, brain, kidney, liver and etc. Unfortunately Dilantin also has a list of dangerous side effects that are deadly. Medical research has shown that the hemp plant, medical marijuana has the effect of dilating our vessels and I don't know what the long term side effects are, I have been smoking it for 39 years. When I woke in the hospital I weighed 99 pounds and was told that I must eat, that was critical for me. One of the nasty side effects of Dilantin is that it takes away our sense of taste and smell, okay, my food was yucky, I could tell if it was hot or cold but that was about it. Dilantin also causes constipation and I was. Medical Pot increases the appetite and makes food taste yummy. It is a felony in my state even though the majority of the state's voters approved it 2 years in a row. Is that fascist or what?
When I was laying on the operating table having been brought in by ambulance with sirens blaring, I have no memory whatsoever, I have to take what I am told, the staff wanted my medical history which of course is natural, they were cutting me open, check out my hospital pic here. I was born in Dayton Ohio in 1942, I had no previous medical history except 30 years earlier I had gone to our family doctor with a hemorrhoid, that was it.
I have never been a person to take pills, not vitamin, not aspirin, nothing was what I took with a few exceptions over the years usually from a dentist giving me various kinds including those for pain and some antibiotics. At this writing I cannot remember the last time I was sick with a flu or cold, I have never had a flu shot, I don't doubt that I could catch something and croak suddenly, I just haven't yet.
I am recovered 100 percent, I can physically run, I can balance myself on either foot for a good steady minute, I can drive, I can work full time although I'd rather not.
I eat one good meal a day in the evening, around 5 p.m., I have done this for the past 27 years, I am an atheist, I think that being a species of animal is a trip, what we humans do can be so stupid. I have written all this, I am tired, forgive me on editing, I said what I wanted to say, I'll edit later. Thank you, the human brain can do what we ask of it, think positive.
Rod
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