Smoking @ MindSay

Just about a month ago I posted this blog where I talked about how sick I have been since quitting smoking. In that post I said, "I sure hope this isn't going to get increasingly worse since we're now passing into the winter months." Turns out, I probably shouldn't have tempted fate like that.....

I have been seriously sick for the past eight days. Seriously sick. Not just "I have a cold" sick but running a fever, chills, dizziness, too weak to get out of bed kind of sick. Very little fun as it turns out. I did, while laid up in bed, visit the CDC's website relating to H1N1 out of morbid curiosity and this is what I found.

Symptoms include:

Fever* - ???
Cough - Check
Sore throat - Check
Runny or stuffy nose - Check
Body aches - Check
Headache - Check
Chills - Check
Fatigue - Check
Sometimes diarrhea or vomiting - Check (at least to the first part)
 *not everyone with H1N1 gets a fever

As to the fever, I may have had one. I never checked it but I was feeling warm and combined with the chills.....who knows?

So, I am not at all hypochondriacal and I am not assuming that I had H1N1 but I guess I am not ruling it out either. I didn't go to a doctor (no health insurance and since I didn't work for a week and don't get sick pay.....you do the math) and I don't believe in self-diagnosis. There are just too many variables. But I could tell that this was more than the common cold and since I did have ALL the symptoms. Yeesh.

Well, I am back at work today. I do not have a fever and many symptoms have subsided. The stuffy head and the cough are persistent. Also the fatigue. I get worn out by going to the bathroom. But I need to get back to life and so I am trying for a "mind over matter" thing here. I'll let you know how it works out.

For those of you keeping score at home, this is now the SIXTH illness I've had since quitting smoking; which is eight months ago--today. Happy Anniversary to me!

And in other housekeeping:

My little buddy, Dylan, turns 2 years old today. Happy Birthday Dylan!



He's the little blond guy with the fauxhawk. That's his sister Jaysa and my nephew Simon also pictured.

In other news, Eastwick was canceled this week. They will be showing the original 13 and then no more Paul Gross for me. Sad.

And I just found this story online. Is that cool or what? Returning books from 51 years ago? Who would bother? And actually figuring out what the fine would be? I thought that was a cute story. Even though library systems max fines out at a certain point and just charge you the replacement cost for the book....no $745 fines. But still a very cute story.

Okay, I think that catches everything up. I'll try to keep up but my days are pretty much comprised of: sleep, take medicine, sleep, watch tv, sleep, take more medicine, sleep. Who wants to read about that?

Participants become ex-smokers in just 3 weeks.

The course has the highest documented success rate in the country.  Living Free™ has helped over 200,000 participants stop smoking yielding results three to five times better than any other leading program.  LivingFree™ is the most effective program in the U.S. and will enable you to stop smoking with pride and dignity, without feeling deprived and without gaining weight.

So I ordered an electronic cigarette in an attempt to stop my traditional cigarette smoking.  It is charging now, I am so afraid to try it for fear I will hate it and keep smoking.  I hope it works.

By now you all know that I am a non-smoker. It will, in fact, be SEVEN months tomorrow. I am, obviously, thrilled with my success.

There is just this one tiny thing that I can't seem to figure out....

According to, well, common sense, and the research I found; smoking makes people more sick. Because smoking actually controls the entire body, it affects every aspect of your health and, in fact, smokers are generally ill more often than non-smokers.

The following is taken off the Kids' Health website in the section for reasons not to smoke:

Increased risk of illness. Studies show that smokers get more colds, flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia than nonsmokers. And people with certain health conditions, like asthma, become more sick if they smoke (and often if they're just around people who smoke).

And we also have this taken off the American Cancer Society's webpage:

Ex-smokers enjoy a higher quality of life with fewer illnesses from cold and flu viruses, better self-reported health, and reduced rates of bronchitis and pneumonia.

So, it is pretty clear, 7 months smoke free and I should be healthy as a horse, right?  Here's the caveat: I've never been a sick person. I rarely ever, ever, get sick. Once a year at most, and I think a few years ago I was sick in the winter AND the summer and that was a rough year for me. I just don't get very sick. This, while a smoker.

Now, here's the kicker. You all know that I am truly one-of-a-kind and in my own unique fashion, my body has decided to react all in its own way to this quit smoking plan of mine. Hmm? Well, in the past seven months I have been ill FIVE times. (The fifth being the current cold that I am fighting). Five illnesses in 7 months which is as many times as I have been ill since turning 25 (that's FIVE years ago, people!). Someone explain this to me. I do the smart, healthy thing and quit smoking and I am "rewarded" with a virtuallyconstant illness? GRRR.

I am not considering smoking again to increase my health (isn't that an odd statement?), but seriously, these last few months were over the summer. I sure hope this isn't going to get increasingly worse since we're now passing into the winter months.

I will be sure and keep you posted but as it stands right now, I am about as unique as a girl can be. Quitting smoking to be healthier is making me sicker.....

Like the fabulous Dr. Seuss said, “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

Meer than me....I like that.  And as things stand, it's the only explanation I've got.

(By the way, this tribute to the unique-ness that is Livlife just so happens to coincide with my 300th posting. Yeppers, this is my 300th contribution to the blogosphere.....thanks for reading!)

Here's to you, O Fellow Smoker, sitting in your plastic chair and sparking up a fag, just like me, right outside your apartment door, just like me, not ten feet away from me, not three drags ahead or behind me. Here's to you, determinedly looking away--but for surreptitiously curious glances--from every other living thing, just like me, and fiercely refusing, like me, to make conversation. Inevitably, one of us stands to leave, glancing awkwardly, nearly apologetically, at the five or six others also indulging in our sick, carcinogenic ritual. someone grunts, unimpressed, in dismissal and the cigarette-finisher leaves. Heres to us, the cancerous isolationists; may our silence weigh heavier with every drag and may it not be quelled with the snubbing of the cherry.