We all know that the side effects of smoking are really bad but yet there is an estimated 9.4 million adults in the UK alone still doing it. Once upon a time I couldn’t goto bed without having a cigarette and I went through around 15 cigarettes a day. I don’t think I was addicted as such, as I could do without them when I had a cold virus. I also could never smoke before breakfast and I know people who are really addicted have a cigarette in their gob before their eyes are open, so I guess for me, it was more of a habit than an addiction. I started to smoke when I was a kid, around 13 years old. Trying to look cool in front of my mates, as you do, definitely a big regret.
From leaving school I smoked all the way through my twenties and most of my thirties and still smoked when I was struck down with pancreatitis in 2008, I was 36 then. I continued to smoke until I was 39 after another acute pancreatitis attack. If you have read my story you’ll know I had a bad time with my pancreas and you’ll also know why I stopped smoking but for those of you who hasn’t, I’ll cover it quickly now. From 2008 when I was diagnosed with pancreatitis I would say every few weeks I had little attacks. These attacks were crippling and had me lying in bed eating strong pain killers for a few days and sometimes they were that bad, I had to be in hospital. This went on for 3 year, it wasn’t much of a life and it put a massive strain on everyone around me especially my wife, who had to pay the bills, look after me and work 65 hours a week. One day when I managed to get into work, I was working at a consultants house. I was doubled over with excruciating stomach pains while smoking a cigarette next to my van. The consultant saw me from his window and came out to see what was wrong. I told him my history and he said “you need to stop smoking if you ever want to get better”. I thought yeah yeah, every doctor blames smoking, blah blah blah!
A few months later, I was at my works Christmas party, it was the 25th November 2011. I had pretty much been ill for the whole three month after being given that advice. I was managing the pain with slow release morphine pills which came with their own set of side effects. That night it was particularly bad and I had to leave the party early and head to the emergency department at Sunderland Royal Hospital with my amazing wife by my side. I was in hospital for 2 weeks this time and on the day I was discharged, I walked out of the hospital and was met by a group patients in dressing gowns, some attached to drips on wheels, standing outside ill, in December, smoking cigarettes. I never smoked another cigarette since leaving hospital that day and I can honestly say, hand on heart, I have NEVER had another attack of pancreatitis either. The consultant got it absolutely spot on and it proved to me just what affects smoking has on the body.
Diabetics are already at an increased risk of heart attack and stroke due to damage to the artery walls, so to add smoking into the mix is going to increase them risks even further. Surely a prevention is better than a cure, especially for illnesses like these. It’s not just the health implications it is also the cost and the crazy prices cigarettes are now. I found an app on my phone which told me based on todays prices, just how much money I have saved in the 6 year, 3 months and 16 days since I stopped. It is £15,845,35, that’s like £2,515.76 a year. So this is how much 34,484 cigarettes would have cost me. Please don’t ask me what I have done with that money, I think I must have been robbed at some point.
When I first stopped I used an electronic cigarette, these were still quite primitive in 2011 but have come on along way since then. It’s a great way to start the process of quitting and you can get them in hundreds of different flavours now as well. Its crazy walking out of the pub past a group of butch looking men and they all smell of strawberry shortcake, but it’s definitely the lesser of the two evils and these fruity tastes won’t raise your sugar levels either.
