Joe Hornaday
Greensburg Daily News
November 19, 2008 07:34 pm
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Every year, smokers all over the country take part in the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout by smoking less or kicking the habit for a day on the third Thursday of November.
This year’s Great American Smokeout is today, Nov. 20. According to the ACS, smokers are most successful in kicking the habit when they have some means of support. Several local individuals have managed to kick the habit and wanted to share their stories of success.
Decatur County resident Penny Feldman quit smoking more than six weeks ago.
“This time, it’s done,” she said.
Feldman had smoked for 35 years before deciding to give it up.
“I’m a Sunday school teacher, and Sunday school teachers don’t smoke,” Feldman explained. “When I saw a real smoker’s lung, it changed my mind forever.”
When she decided to quit, she knew immediately that the journey would be difficult.
“I think it’s awful hard to go cold turkey,” she said.
To help her in her quest, both Penny and her husband Edward began taking Chantix, a non-nicotine prescription medicine developed to help adults say good-bye to smoking. The two were suggested the medicine at their smoking cessation class at the Decatur County Memorial Hospital.
“When you quit, you’ll feel 100 percent better,” Feldman said. “You’ll smell better, and your sense of smell will pick up. Of course, food tastes a lot better, you’ll feel better and have a lot more energy. You’ll live longer too, hopefully.”
For Feldman, there were other benefits to quitting.
“You don’t know how bad you smell from smoking until you quit. I know my energy levels is a lot higher than it was before. I think it changes your whole life when you quit. I know I’m not going back.”
With the help of her group, her medicine and her support structure, Feldman has been smoke-free for almost two months.
Greensburg resident Sheila Charles has been smoke-free for years, after smoking for 13 years. When she smoked, it was between one and two packs a day, and before it began to really hit her hard, Charles gave it up.
“It was starting to affect my health,” she said. “I was starting to get bronchitis a lot.”
To kick the habit, Charles enlisted the help of a few of the common methods to escape from smoking.
“That patches didn’t work, and neither did going cold turkey,” Charles said. “I talked to a counselor who suggested the gum.”
It was the nicotine gum that gave her the ability to finally get away from cigarettes. But the road to recovery was not an easy one. It was through her experiences that she gained the wisdom to provide advice for potential quitters.
“Every time you fall, and you might smoke a cigarette, don’t give up,” she advised. “It just means you have to start over.”
Thomas Ybarra gave up smoking directly after a heart attack.
“I had no urge to smoke any more after that,” he said. “I haven’t smoked since.”
After the scare in November of 2007, his nicotine cravings subsided. Ybarra had smoked for more than 30 years.
According to the American Cancer Society, only about one in seven current smokers have tried to quit. Today, an estimated 45 million US adults smoke. The ACS has for years tried to change attitudes about smoking and taken strides in understanding the addiction and in learning how to help people quit.
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