*curls with cough syrup*

This is filled with a variety of complaints, so you know, you were warned. This is whining.

So perhaps the worst is over, and there is not quite like, super rejoicing, because I have watched after school specials and that's when it comes back, but tentatively speaking, bronchitis is probably at an end.

What is not at an end is the fact that right now, everything tastes hideous or wrong or both--tea tastes bad. Tea! Water! Coffee! Gatorade! Food! I know this is all part and parcel of bronchitis and all, but seriously, while I love that I can breathe, life also needs to be worth living.

There's also the fact that there came a moment where I decided to quit smoking because I don't think I can keep doing this twice a year without snapping. This does not make me happy. Yes, I know it should. And I get this is a health thing. So I am totally on board with improving my health. But. Everything tastes bad and makes me nauseated, I have a week of steroids left, and now I cannot smoke. I mean, I can breathe. That is the good. I am not feeling the rest of it.

I seriously think that may be the worst part. I've been steadily cutting down, but the concept of just never getting a single cigarette again actually seriously makes me want to cry. However, you will need to take that with a grain of salt. I also almost cried when as it turns out my favorite tea is now like, hideous, and I also had this moment when I lost on Tetris and then on another game, then when I got a neck cramp. So I could break into tears conceivably iff it starts raining, which I have heard it shall do. It's just that kind of a month.

I am going to sulk for a while longer and continue the pathetic coughing. Normally, I would say this is the point where things have to start going right, but I have on excellent authority not so much.

I keep wondering--what if nothing ever tastes right again? I am cheerful, yo.

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I am here to say that if you need someone to say "YAY!!" *every single day* you do not have a cig, I am that girl.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Can't we just invent a lung-cancer-curing ray that regenerates lung tissue? I seriously think that I could do that with a lot more ease.

God, and it is HOT and I have just re-read my entry. I am so very whiney. I have decided I'm allowed two more days, then I either must dye my hair or cut it, as hair shock usually helps.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I have also seen, in the smokers in my family: esophageal cancer; throat cancer; mouth cancer; all-over-the-lot cancer; emphysema; heart attack.

[fyrdrakken]

Yes, this. I lost a grandfather to an emphysema-related heart attack and then last year a grandmother to lung cancer.

[villeinage.livejournal.com]

*gives you virtual hugs*

Steroids are crazy-inducing, be gentle with yourself.

You are doing the single-most important thing you can do for your health by not smoking. Seriously.

Bigger impact, by so much of a factor its not even funny, than diet, exercise, sleep, meditation, cholesterol--anything.

Things will get better.

(I'm watching my own mom die a lingering, miserable death from smoking-induced COPD, and I'm so happy to hear of anyone quitting.)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the reminder. While reading this, Child wandered by on his way to the desktop. That was really well-timed.

[cofax7]

My mother smoked for close to fifty years. I cannot blame all of her (many) health problems on smoking, but it certainly contributed to her inability to spend her declining years in anything approaching comfort. She gets bronchitis every winter, like clockwork, but it's better since she stopped smoking.

The fact that three of the five children in my family have fairly significant allergies/asthma is, I think, not unrelated to the amount of smoke in our house when we were children. (None of the offspring smoke, btw. We learned by example.)

So good luck with the quitting!

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

Smoking killed my mother and it was a long, slow, horrible death and in the end, I waited, with my heart breaking, for each breath. And then there weren't any more. Give your family a great gift and stop!

Things will taste right again. They will!

[anjak-j.livejournal.com]

I realise everyone is different but I tried quitting a load of times by 'cutting down'. In the end, I found it easier to just stop - and I've not looked back. It's just finding something to occupy your hands - I found equally as much of the habit is in having something to do with your hands.

There are so many pros to quitting - better health, actually being able to taste stuff, not smelling of smoke, the extra cash you have from not buying cigarettes. Not to mention smoking makes your skin age faster.

Quitting isn't pleasant or easy at first and I've been there myself - I wish you luck with it.

[eleveninches.livejournal.com]

:(

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Right so we agreed I can run the book on this.

We have openings at crying, negotiating, writing porn about smoking and asking child to hide cigs.

ANYONE IN?

(I make money off of you because I love!)

Good luck on a great move

[trienne-hovus.livejournal.com]

If you have any cravings again, get Chantix. It will absolutely help. Chantix blocks the nicotine receptors, so if you do give in and light up, you get no rush, no pleasure. You taste just how awful the cigs are, and you feel just how awful it is to be inhaling toxic fumes.

Your lungs should recover a great deal: you're still very young. I figure I'm at least 20 years older than you; I smoked more and longer, and even *my* lungs have recovered a lot. Not all, maybe never all, but I can exercise and hike and walk for miles without getting winded. So you should get practically all your function back.

Best of luck.

[jamjar.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, smoking does dampen your sense of taste, so it's likely that (when you stop taking the steroids), you'll taste things better and more intensely than before.

[naughtyoldlady.livejournal.com]

Wellbutrin combined with nicotine patches has helped my sister-in-law finally quit smoking. Completely. Not just cut down - STOP.

Get whatever medical help you need to ditch this habit. Child will want you around for decades to come!

P.S. Yes, things will start to taste good again. Right now you're ill and doped up on a variety of things that can change your flavor perception, so don't sweat it.

[alessiana.livejournal.com]

Wellbutrin alone is helpful. That's how I was able to do it. After I quit smoking, I was able to diet and lose weight. But smoking had to come first.

The best thing about wellbutrin is that as an antidepressant, it is the one least likely to negatively affect the sex drive!

.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

Go you!

I hope you feel better, and am here to cheer you on for quitting smoking. I never started, because I knew my asthma would kill me if I did, but I know from friends how tough it can be. The benefits are worth it! Really!

[lunefin.livejournal.com]

On the bright side, if nothing ever tastes good again, you could live the rest of your life eating only disgustingly healthy food, like those people who eat rice cakes instead of chips.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

...I hate to say this, but that's an incredibly good point.

*ponders*

[fyrdrakken]

That's why my mother quit smoking a year or two back -- she had the flu and just. couldn't. breathe. and had to quit while it was running its course, and when it was finally gone she decided not to start back up again. Having lost another grandparent to smoking-related complications in the last year, I'm very glad she did. (Also it's improved the air quality in the house markedly.)

[eponymousanon.livejournal.com]

On the nausea thing: it may be the antibiotics. God knows that freakin' Zithromax (the only kind I can take, damn you penicillin allergy) made me lose 5 pounds in 3 days last time I had to take it. Not even exaggerating here.

Also, make sure to drink lots and lots of water; I had a friend who was taking steroids for a similar thing and even though she was making an effort to stay hydrated, she got dehydrated and ending up going to urgent care.