As I sit here on the eve of my 700th day of being quit from nicotine, I am unsure of my future. I have lived the last 699 days one day at a time, never really planning into the future. Now that I know I no longer need nicotine to live my life, I need to actually make plans to live it. That being said, I am finally taking bake my life. I have two surgeries scheduled for early next year, the first is in January to get my foot fixed (I have a huge bone spur on the back of my heal under the Achilles tendon). Later in February, I am having a Sleeve Gastrectomy performed to help me get my weight under control. I have lost 30 pounds so far on my own but I need to loose another 150 to get where I need to be.
Once these have been done and my healing is mostly under way, I can then concentrate on doing things I have missed out on for so long, mostly spending time, and actually engaging in activities, with my family. Things that being overweight and tied to a dead plant have robbed me of for so long.
I have been very depressed for the last year because of my situation and now I can finally start to see the light at the end of tunnel.
Now, let's talk about nicotine. Nicotine is in the top 5 most addictive chemicals known to man. It has a 67% addiction rate for those that have tried cigarettes or chew. That means that 6 out of every 9 people that try products containing nicotine will be addicted to it. That, my friends, is really shitty odds. You'd have a better chance of surviving a game of Russian Roulette.
Now, let's talk about the mortality rate. Tobacco KILLS up to half of it's users. More than 8,000,000 million deaths can be attributed to just cigarette smoking (1.2 million of those people were none smokers that died from second hand smoke exposure). <----That was always my way of justifying my dip use, I would say, "well, at least I'm not hurting anyone else with my dip".
So let's recap, 6 of 9 people who try tobacco, will become addicted to it, 3 of those 6 will mostly likely die from tobacco use. If I knew these statistics 33 years ago when I stuck that first dip in, I would probably have declined it that time. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and here we are, addicts all of us hoping we have skirted the big C. Some of us will not make it out alive, but we can sure live free from our addiction until that day comes.
So what is my point today? I don't know. I just had some thoughts rolling around and they needed to find there way here. Who knows, something in this diatribe might help someone.
Anyway, tomorrow is day 700 for me. I am truly thankful to all those who have supported me and continue to do so. I only hope I have been able to support all of you the same.
Thank you. God bless all of you. I love you all as brothers and sisters.
Chris
