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

[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.
            :{   : {    :{  

[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.  

[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

[Forseegood]

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

[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!

[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