Kybo

[kybo]

Day 226

Darker Skin Linked to Nicotine Dependence

Stumbled on this article today. I found it interesting, but I thought the conclusion might be a little naive.

The author seems to think the more melanin from environmental sources in your skin, the more predisposed you are to nicotine addiction. He came to this conclusion by measuring the darkness of a person's skin on their foreheads and on their inner arms. The thinking being that the darkness of your inner arm is mostly genetic versus the darkness of your forehead being a combo of genetics and sun exposure. The author found, "the darkness of the forehead was positively correlated to the number of cigarettes smoked per day as well as nicotine dependence, while darkness of the inner arm did not demonstrate this link." So, his conclusion appears to be that the amount of melanin in your skin determines your addiction level to nicotine.

You can read the article for yourself and draw your own conclusions. My first thought when I read the article is that people who work in an office setting aren't going to smoke as many cigarettes as a person who works outside for a living. Common sense would tell you that the guy that works outside is going to have a better opportunity to smoke more cigarettes than the guy that sits in a cubicle 8 hours a day. And, the guy that works outside is also going to get more sun exposure which is going to make his forehead darker. The more nicotine you put into your body the more dependent your body becomes on nicotine.

This study kind of reminds me of the studies in the past that have determined that people that drink diet sodas weigh more on average than people that drink regular sodas. So, the conclusion must be that diet sodas make you overweight. The conclusion couldn't possibly be that people that are already overweight are drinking diet sodas as part of their attempt to lose weight.

[kybo]

Man I'm really curious, what's in the mouth of that northern pike now?

I hang a Sammy 100 in the mouth of one and Chatterbait minnow in the mouth of the other one. Those are the lures I caught them on. 'oh yeah'

[Athan]

Man I'm really curious, what's in the mouth of that northern pike now?

[kybo]

Random ramblings on Day 209
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I thought the scar on my arm was beginning to look a lot better, then I went to the bank today. I was about 15 feet from the teller when he said, "holy cow, what did you do to your arm?" Obviously I am going to need to come up with a somewhat believable badass story so that I can at least get a little entertainment out of this situation.

Since I have now made it to the 2nd floor I have another $400 to spend on frivolous shit. I spent the first $400 I saved from days 1-100 on a badass BBQ grill/smoker. I am still thinking about buying a drone, but damnit I almost have enough to buy a decent rear tine tiller. I could sure use one of those. But, a drone might be fun.

I really do feel pretty damn good. I can honestly say I haven't had anything I would call an actual crave in six months. Sure, I still think about chew every once in awhile. And occasionally my mouth will just start watering for no damn reason. But that is it. Well worth the price of admission if you ask me.

The weirdest part of my quit is that I have basically lost all interest in reading books. Before I chose to quit I was averaging about 2 books a week. I usually waited until everyone else went to bed and then I would throw in a chew and read until I went to bed. After I gave up chew I stayed away from reading for awhile to avoid the obvious trigger situation. But now I just find that I have zero interest in reading altogether. I would almost rather just sit and stare at a wall. I don't think I have read 2 books in the last 6 months.

I finally found something useful to do with our old iphones. When my family upgraded our phones last year I decided to keep the old phones since there wasn't anything wrong with them. Then last week I stumbled across an app called Presence Video Security. This is a free app that you can download on your old phones via your wifi network that turns your old smartphones into security cameras complete with motion detection and a small amount of free cloud storage. I have to admit that I have been totally impressed and I haven't spent a dime on any of it. I now have an iphone 5/camera set up inside the window next to my front door that covers my porch and all the way down my 200 foot long driveway. The motion detection feature picks up cars almost as soon as they turn into my driveway and sounds a small audible alarm from the phone as well as recording 20 seconds of video and sending me a push notification and an email with a link to the video clip. I also have a phone/camera set up inside a window in the back of the house that covers my barn and part of the pond. The cameras aren't much use at night because they don't have night vision, but they do trigger motion from headlights and flashlights. Plus, you can log into presencepro.com and remotely monitor your cameras whenever you want from an app on your current phone or from any pc. And all of the camera phones run on wifi so you don't need to activate the old phones on a cellular network. It obviously isn't a top of the line home security system, but it is free if you have your old smartphones lying around.

[Doofus]

I'm climbing the stairs!

[kybo]

Clear margins!!

[Skolvikings]

Congrats on the second floor brother, you are a rock in April and one Bad Ass Quitter!!!!!

On to 300!

[Doofus]

Yeh, they make you sweat it out....3 months from finger test to prostate core sample result to tell me it's just calcium deposits and totally normal. It's a good wake up call, it happened back in January and had a lot to do with waking my ass up. Literally and figuratively, lol....you will be fine, if first biopsy good then the worse it could be is early stage....the key on melanoma is getting it early.....My father in law did not catch it early and it cost him his life......you are nowhere near that territory, easy for me to say I know but trust me....I learned more about skin cancer through him than I ever needed but those full body scans are life savers.

[kybo]

Try having a prostate biopsy.....had the finger test....thought they felt something.....turned out to be nothing butv3 months of limbo scared me shitless

Ouch! I can't imagine. The waiting is the hardest part.

The last month has been a roller coaster ride for sure. I was stressed as shit for a few weeks over the biopsy. Then the pathology report came back and they told me it was nothing to worry about. Then I went in last week for the excision and the surgeon told me I wasn't out of the woods until the biopsy on the excision was declared clear. I am still waiting to hear back on that.

I obviously haven't been in a great mood lately. But, through it all I am still nicotine free. So I guess I at least have that going for me.

[Doofus]

Try having a prostate biopsy.....had the finger test....thought they felt something.....turned out to be nothing butv3 months of limbo scared me shitless

[kybo]

Day 178

Last month I went in for my work physical. Everything was going great until the doctor stopped and started looking at a spot on my forearm. He wasn't a dermatologist, but he definitely freaked out when he saw the spot. He wanted to know how long it had been there and if it changed at all over the last few months. It was a fairly new spot and it had been changing ever so slowly. I had already noticed it and was watching it pretty closely, but it wasn't raised or bleeding or anything like that. The doctor told me I needed to see a dermatologist ASAP. I saw the dermatologist two weeks ago today.

The dermatologist also freaked out when she saw the spot. She did a punch biopsy on it (and on another weird spot on my leg) and sent them away to be evaluated. Needless to say, the last two weeks have been pretty stressful for me. I went in today to get the sutures removed and find out the results of the biopsies. The thing on my leg turned out to be benign and nothing to worry about. The spot on my arm turned out to be melanoma in situ. It scared the shit out of me when the words came out of her mouth. In all honesty, my life flashed before my eyes. But then she explained that melanoma in situ is basically stage zero melanoma. It was contained in the epidermis and hasn't spread at all. She wants to excise a bigger portion of my skin to be on the safe side, but she said I will be fine. I will just have a zipper scar on my arm and need to be checked regularly for more melanomas. OK, I can live with that.

She talked me into doing a full body scan while I was there to make sure there wasn't any more suspicious spots on me anywhere. I am not going to go into any of the details, but I will say that I was surprised at how thorough she was in her work. My wife rarely touches my junk that much any more.

I told her about my 35 year addiction to tobacco. So, she did a thorough check of my mouth and told me it all looked good. No sign of anything suspicious. Whew! What a relief.

I go back in a couple more weeks to have the excision done on my arm.

I know someday something is actually going to kill me. But that someday isn't going to be today, and it doesn't look like that something is going to be that spot on my arm. Thursday morning I am going to call the doctor that did my physical and thank him for insisting that I go see a dermatologist. He might have saved my life.

The amazing part of this story is that as much as I was stressed out the last two weeks I never even considered having a chew.

Day 193

I had the spot on my forearm excised this morning. They basically cut a four inch long by two inch wide in the middle diamond shape in my skin and it looked like they removed everything all the way down to the muscle. I about shit my pants when the doc dropped what looked like a half inch thick by four inch long walleye fillet into the specimen cup on the table in front of me.

I turned down the offer for a prescription painkiller because I was honestly afraid it might somehow blur my resolve when it comes to my decision to quit tobacco. So, I am going to stick with Tylenol and Ibuprofen. The doc says the pain will subside after a few days. It is a strange pain. I am not sure if the pain is originating from the actual hole in my arm, or from the tightness of the sutures pulling on my skin. They had a really tough time getting that giant crevice closed up and the skin on my forearm is super tight and getting tighter by the hour as the area starts to swell. The doc warned me upfront that it was going to be a battle to suture because my forearm is pretty muscular and the skin was already tight before the surgery.

The highlight of the whole situation for me was when the nurse was prepping me for the surgery. She was making small talk and asked me if I had any kids. I told her I had two daughters, and she told me that I wouldn't be able to toss them up into the air and catch them for a few weeks after the surgery. I laughed and told her that they were both a little too old for that game. I told her my kids were almost 20 and almost 15 years old. The nurse then picked up my chart and checked my date of birth, and then said she would have never believed I was a day over 35. I think she was serious, but who knows? All I can say is that the smile stayed on my face right up until I could smell my flesh burning. Then that shit got real!

Tomorrow will be 194 days quit for me. I am going to wake up and post my promise just like I have every day since I joined KTC 180 some days ago. I just might have to type with only my left hand.

[kybo]

Day 178

Last month I went in for my work physical. Everything was going great until the doctor stopped and started looking at a spot on my forearm. He wasn't a dermatologist, but he definitely freaked out when he saw the spot. He wanted to know how long it had been there and if it changed at all over the last few months. It was a fairly new spot and it had been changing ever so slowly. I had already noticed it and was watching it pretty closely, but it wasn't raised or bleeding or anything like that. The doctor told me I needed to see a dermatologist ASAP. I saw the dermatologist two weeks ago today.

The dermatologist also freaked out when she saw the spot. She did a punch biopsy on it (and on another weird spot on my leg) and sent them away to be evaluated. Needless to say, the last two weeks have been pretty stressful for me. I went in today to get the sutures removed and find out the results of the biopsies. The thing on my leg turned out to be benign and nothing to worry about. The spot on my arm turned out to be melanoma in situ. It scared the shit out of me when the words came out of her mouth. In all honesty, my life flashed before my eyes. But then she explained that melanoma in situ is basically stage zero melanoma. It was contained in the epidermis and hasn't spread at all. She wants to excise a bigger portion of my skin to be on the safe side, but she said I will be fine. I will just have a zipper scar on my arm and need to be checked regularly for more melanomas. OK, I can live with that.

She talked me into doing a full body scan while I was there to make sure there wasn't any more suspicious spots on me anywhere. I am not going to go into any of the details, but I will say that I was surprised at how thorough she was in her work. My wife rarely touches my junk that much any more.

I told her about my 35 year addiction to tobacco. So, she did a thorough check of my mouth and told me it all looked good. No sign of anything suspicious. Whew! What a relief.

I go back in a couple more weeks to have the excision done on my arm.

I know someday something is actually going to kill me. But that someday isn't going to be today, and it doesn't look like that something is going to be that spot on my arm. Thursday morning I am going to call the doctor that did my physical and thank him for insisting that I go see a dermatologist. He might have saved my life.

The amazing part of this story is that as much as I was stressed out the last two weeks I never even considered having a chew.

[Doofus]

I have to get to Labor Day weekend to break my quit record.....solo quit record. I WONT FEEL RIGHT OR SATISFACTION until I get there...but then it's still ODAAT. I'd still say you've earned a HOF speech.....I say this because this quit feels stronger than anything I've attempted solo before.....stop and smell some roses bro then keep WUPPing.

I agree this quit feels stronger to me too. I think it is a combination of a lot of things, but I have already cleared several hurdles this time around that I firmly believe would have "caused" me to fail in the past. The thing that gives the most hope right now is that I go several hours at a time without even thinking about tobacco. And I am not just talking about when I am laying around watching television. I will go hours doing things that I used to 100% associate with chew and not even think about the fact that I am doing whatever it is without a chew. I am getting to the point where I will almost be done with whatever it is I am doing before I even realize that I just did it without a chew. I mowed grass and weedeated for three hours yesterday and didn't think about chew until I was cleaning off the mower after I was done. And even then, the thought I had was, "Wow, I just spent 3 hours mowing and the thought of chew never entered my mind!"

Yes, I've fished an all night a few times....normally that would have been to or 3 tins.....I've remarked at the dinner for breakfast....wow, didnt even think about a tin all night.

[kybo]

I have to get to Labor Day weekend to break my quit record.....solo quit record. I WONT FEEL RIGHT OR SATISFACTION until I get there...but then it's still ODAAT. I'd still say you've earned a HOF speech.....I say this because this quit feels stronger than anything I've attempted solo before.....stop and smell some roses bro then keep WUPPing.

I agree this quit feels stronger to me too. I think it is a combination of a lot of things, but I have already cleared several hurdles this time around that I firmly believe would have "caused" me to fail in the past. The thing that gives the most hope right now is that I go several hours at a time without even thinking about tobacco. And I am not just talking about when I am laying around watching television. I will go hours doing things that I used to 100% associate with chew and not even think about the fact that I am doing whatever it is without a chew. I am getting to the point where I will almost be done with whatever it is I am doing before I even realize that I just did it without a chew. I mowed grass and weedeated for three hours yesterday and didn't think about chew until I was cleaning off the mower after I was done. And even then, the thought I had was, "Wow, I just spent 3 hours mowing and the thought of chew never entered my mind!"

[Doofus]

I have to get to Labor Day weekend to break my quit record.....solo quit record. I WONT FEEL RIGHT OR SATISFACTION until I get there...but then it's still ODAAT. I'd still say you've earned a HOF speech.....I say this because this quit feels stronger than anything I've attempted solo before.....stop and smell some roses bro then keep WUPPing.