So from as far back as I can remember, I just coughed my way from day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year, always finding that perfect excuse to fail in any of my many quits. Also I commuted a lot between Europe and USA together with shuttling between USA East and West Coasts. Naturally, this made me a dedicated supporter of Smokers Freedom when flying. "Hey, I paid for this seat so I'll smoke in it." Likewise in restaurants, especially in California, I wanted my smoking table and as more and more became no smoking establishments, I denied them my trade. Yeahhh, that taught them....

But getting back to the saga of quitting, I was working away from home when my leg became swollen and returning to UK in mid June 97 my General Medical Practitioner diagnosed phlebitis. Six weeks later followed emergency hospitalisation for PE arising from Deep Vein Thrombosis.

For at least four days, smoking was the last thing I wanted to do and with oxygen squirting out all around my bed, would have made me a good bomb in any case. My Doctor didn't once condemn me for smoking though and when asked, refused to attribute my hospitalisation to it. Nevertheless he did advise to consider stopping anyway and confessed he had done so over ten years ago, but still often fancied one when walking out to his car each day.

So, I asked the nursing staff for literature on quitting smoking, only to find that three out of the seven nurses on my ward did smoke. However, between them they quickly put together a very good folder with everything they could find on the subject and including a `house' program offered by the hospital to help it's own employees to quit. Note, employees and not patients. We are talking social medicine here under the British National Health System, a fantastic concept with highly dedicated and skilled medical staff at all levels, but somewhat crippled by the expense of skyscrapers full of non medical career managers.

We digress again...... From all the data sheets and brochures offered it became clear that they were in unison that after about six days, all chemical nicotine should have cleared the body, meaning that I was already at that point so phase one was complete. The urge wasn't all that strong anyway but as health improved, in the form of being able to breath without an oxygen mask, brain started to come up with all the reasons to have `Just one.' Being now mobile to a degree, it would have been quite easy to walk with my portable oxygen bottle to the external area of the wing and join other the other dedicated smokers outside in the wind and rain.

Something muted to one of the nurses, to be told then to get on with it but if I needed to smoke in a hospital then there was no way I'd stay quit at home. Ouch, error one, because that was one of the smoking nurses. Result, didn't go for smoke and had cup of tea instead.

Ten days with no cigarette and no valid excuse to have one either. What a new situation to be in!

Day eleven and discharged to go home, with every possibility to light up as often as I wanted, but at least I'd convinced myself I'd hold out as long as possible. Note, not forever but as long as possible. At the time of writing that incidentally has been just under eleven months!

Still physically weak I immersed myself in computer and the internet, searching for everything I could about quitting smoking. IRC was a total mystery to me but seeing it mentioned several times I downloaded the mIRC program and started looking. #nosmokers was one of the first channels I found and from then on became the one I consider supreme to anything else in the field of support on quit smoking. Without this IRC there was no way I'd have remained quit but I may have lasted a month or two, so if that long why start again? It's a mixture of many things and without a doubt chemical depression is a major influence. Without support of others to confirm such, it's so easy to light up and convince oneself that the evil weed was a perfect cure. Nicotine is in fact the chemical craved, not though all the other rubbish contained in burning and inhaling something akin to the contents of dumpy dumpster. That's what does the major damage.

As an out patient, taking a daily dose of Warfarin (Rat Poion - Blood Anti Coagulant) and what seemed like interminable follow up checks, weekly blood tests indicated the need for a biopsy, in turn confirming another permanent medical issue but not connected with lungs in any way.

Great excuse to start smoking again, especially as lungs given all clear - Didn't though and don't intend to.

During subsequent tests I visited a teaching hospital in England where the sole treatment is for malignant growths. You name it, from head to toe it's there and over 5,000 patients a year. In my case the visit was to access the diagnostic equipment and not for any treatment, because such equipment isn't available in many other places around England.

The point of mentioning this is because I encountered so many people with lung problems, many of who had stopped smoking several years prior to getting any symptoms or breathing problems. I was there overnight and on the wing I was in, basically everyone was walking capable, in fact many went home each night.

I Buddied with one guy, 55 years old, who revealled that he had half of one lung removed only to be told a year later the other one also had developed a tumor but was inoperable. This guy knew how very low a quantity of life remained for him, was an ex smoker of seven years past, yet had no intention of starting again. Did fancy it often though and knew if he did, that it wouldn't impact his remaining life at all. Just didn't intend to.

What a perfect excuse to start smoking again. He didn't though.

Now. You tell me about excuses. Got some good ones?

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