Cigarette Smokers Please Respond

[billstrong1969]

I know cigarette smoking is bad, but I've been a smoker for years and am 38 yrs old.  I know also that cigarettes are bad when you have HCV.  How many of you guys are smokers and has anyone quit?  Has anyone just continued smoking anyways and still had good results?  How does being on TX and smoking make you feel?  Thanks everyone........

billstrong1969

[ejoli]

I still smoke and just finished tx. I know I shouldn't but .....   I did cut down alot!  I just didn't feel like smoking much. I'm down to 4 or 5 a day....but I'm an addict!   It really isn't good for your liver. If you could quit or cut down it would be for the best.                            -Libby

[sfbaygirl]

Sorry to say I am a smoker and continue to do so. I relapsed, I doubt b/c I smoked throughout tx, but I would say it would be good if you stopped. My doc told me not to stop during tx, as I had so my sx.  So before you start would be a good time.  While in the hospital at the end of tx I didn't smoke for 3 weeks. Like an idiot I started up again. I am looking forward to the time I WILL quit. I did before for 10 years, I know I can again. Good luck and do work on Quitting!

[billstrong1969]

What kind of side effects where you having?  What meds where you taking to manage the side effects?  

billstrong1969

[Stiffneck]

I was a 20 year pack-a-day smoker and used to have all sorts of reasons why any given time in my life was a bad time to quit.  Then I had a heart attack.  It was easy to quit after that.  I quit cold-turkey 15 months ago and never looked back.  

Is Hep-C scarier than lung cancer?

Tim

[JodyLynn]

I smoked from age 11 to age 41, im now 49. I used the nic gum and it worked, but im still chewing it lol 8 years later, but at least i dont smoke anymore ha.

[pigeonca]

I smoked about three-quarters of a pack a day for thirty-five years.  Quit using Zyban, which is the same thing as Wellbutrin.  Nothing else worked for me.  Every now and again, I'll cheat and smoke one cigarette - maybe once or twice a month.  As long as I take the Wellbutrin, I can do this.  I know I shouldn't have any at all, but being a city girl, I figure car exhaust and other pollution are equally bad, so what the hey...

[hondapatches]

I have smoked for about 35 years. I have cut way down since starting tx. I can't smoke much anyway being a school teacher. I know it is hard on your live, but cold turkey I cannot do. At least not right now.
hondapatches

[GrandmaBRZ]

I have been looking for a post that addressed this issue.  I was too sheepish to bring it up because i was sure I was the only smoker left in the world!  

I was 1-2 packs a day before treatment. Been on treatment for 10-11 weeks & I am now down to 7-10 cigs a day. I do keep a record of how much I smoke each day which gives me an incentive to cut down more.  

I no longer relight a cig, even if I have only taken one or two drags. Right down the toilet with those cigs. The treatment has made it much easier for me to cut down.  I have been smoking since i was 13, quit 2x for 3 years & 7 years. This time cold turkey has not worked but maybe continually cutting down will lead to Zero.

Good luck in whatever way you chose to go.  Jenn

.  

[PrettyPoisonNoMore]

I smoked for a LONG time, and continued to thru treatment.  NP said not to quit while on treatment, it was tough enough without quitting smoking.  Two weeks past treatment I had to have an emergency appendectomy and I quit smoking then with the help of a morphine drip!  I didn't start back.  Here we are almost 1 year to the day that I quit.  I am SVR, but I don't think it had anything at all with quitting smoking after treating!

[Lonestar823]

Ummmm.....Tobacco.  I'd walk out of my way just to linger outside a good tobacco shop for the scent.  I've always been mesmerized by the tobacco rituals.  Cigarettes... Camel Lights, jeez, they were the best part of the show. ; ]  I still miss them.  Just reading these posts make me want to drive uptown and buy a pack, just to hold 'em again. ; ]  Wonder if I've got any stale ones in a pocket somewhere?

[sfbaygirl]

My first sx was the anemia around week 3-4,  had to get the shots Neulasta (don't recommend, take procrit). then my white count went down and had to go on aranesp, which was great. Both of these drugs are pegalated forms of Procrit and Neupogen. I was on them for many months.  Watch for these by getting CBC's every week. Ask your DR. for a standing STAT order from your lab with copies sent to YOU every time they take blood.  

I had headaches, sweats, pain in the joints and bones, some of which I think came from the rescue drugs. I was tired alot and was one of those couch potatoes that didn't work and considered tx my work. It is doable and most can work, so don't think you can't. I was already NOT working.  Don't worry too much, It is so much easier once you start and know how your body is going to handle the drugs.  You may be one of most that work and do fine with the sx of tx.  Hope you are.

Linda

[shastri20032003]

i was a heavy smoker pre tx--a pack a day... and i continued smoking thru tx
it is not the correct thing to do but  i could not stop smoking completely,though i did reduce from 20 cigarettes a day to probably 15...at least some improvement!
you are already dehydrated during treatment and smoking just makes you more dehydrated
if you can stop,nothing like it since it has been proved that your chances of clearance reduce if you smoke during tx
best of luck with trreatment and with trying to stop smoking!

[Forseegood]

but this thread makes me feel like coughing...:) I hope you get the conviction to quit...

[FL_Gal]

I smoked most of my life, but after my hgb dropped and started hovering in the mid-9's, it was all I could do just to breathe, let alone try to smoke a cigarette.  I finished my 48 weeks on 9-3, and I'm still a non-smoker.  I do get some pretty strong cravings at times, but I find that once the initial desire to smoke passes, I forget all about it.

FlGal

[sfbaygirl]

Yeah, I know...god do I want to quit!!!!  My doc wrote a script for a drug that 50% helps.  My ins. won't pay. I have to appeal it and get them to do it. It is a HORRIBLE addiction.  I cough at the cig and want to quit so bad.  Perhaps when I can get over some of the depression I will. I did it before for 15 years. It is awful stuff.  It only gets worse with time too.   I quit for 4 weeks in the hospital, why couldn't I have stopped?  What an awful thing it is.  

[Lady Lauri]

I was just asked this by B-bunch on my post "anemia, nutrition" .....basically how can I be a 'health nut' and still smoke, which I am! Organic food, wheatgrass, yoga and than freaking light up a cig! HATE it also. I could quit s*x easier (well..maybe, don't give me that choice..please!:)
Started at 15 to be 'cool' and have never quit! My hep Dr. also said don't quit starting tx, cut down, but feels my body will be going thru enough for now. ( Riba rage AND nic withdrawels ? I'd run everyone in my world off!)
Stiffneck....how many times have I thought of that...(Hep C scarier than lung cancer!).
I even tried organic, chemical free cigs (yeah, right, whatever) and honestly....I craved the chemicals in the others! I could have 10 packs of the 'organic' and still crave a Winston! That was wierd and the best I can figure is that is IS the extra 300 chemicals and nicotine they put in them.
From 16-18 yrs old I tried every 'party' thing out there, and I mean all of them! (when we believe I got this!) NEVER got addicted to anything, by 19 said 'enough of all this' and walked away...with a d*m cig in my hand! Strong, strong woman....that can not (YET) put down-beat nicotine.
            :{   : {    :{  

[Forseegood]

oh, what is it called? I just had "posting remorse" ha ha...I think what I said was kinda insensitive, I''ve never smoked (ciggies that is) so I should be more understanding...I just hope that all who smoke can find some way to quit..guess what I really hate is these tobacco companies formulating the cigarettes to be as addictive as possible...that really burns my butt...I can't stand evil corporate interests...guess a few here are w/ me on that? huh OH? hope youre feeling better and better SF....

[billstrong1969]

Thanks so much for the feedback guys, it gave me a good insight on what I should consider doing in the future.

billstrong1969

[couchpotato]

I smoked all the way through tx and am 3 years SVR.  Quit if you can, cut back or stay the same, I don't think it really makes a difference to the end result.

Good luck
Mattie

[APKhaos]

I smoked for maybe 25 years. About midway through tx I figured that quitting could not make me feel any worse than I already did, and stopped. It worked. Its unlikely that anyone would suggest HCV treatment as a good therapy to stop smoking, but it worked for me.

[miked]

I quit 18 years ago through willpower (got to have that or nothing will work) and the nicotine gum.  I did find that I liked chewing the gum though.

The cigarettes may kill you before HCV or old age.

You can do it, quit.

[beamishboy]

i also smoked thru trx,but like APKhaos says,midtrx is an excellent opportunity to kick the habit....wish i had

[MrsOckert]

I started smoking when I was 13.  At 43 cut down to 2 packs a week.  Couldn't quit (didn't really really really want to! just knew I should) smoked during TX.  Ended Tx last Sept - was told I had a lump in my lung.

Scared me so bad I quit.  Haven't had a cigarette since that day.  It's been a year now.  Doesn't mean I don't think about it when I get stressed or something but it usually only lasts for a minute or two.

[JodyLynn]

Same here i like the gum more than i ever did the cigs lol and i was a 2 pk a day smokers lol. Has alot to do with me being OCD too didnt like the smell in my hair. I can be around smokers now, matter of fact it smells good to me now lol.