http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x49038Oh my.
Th1onein (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-16-08 08:44 PM
Original message
2 weeks and 2 days of no smoking
Never thought I could do it. The thoughts of smoking are getting fewer and farther between.
My electronic cigarettes should arrive tomorrow. I think I'm going to make it until then.
One wonders what "electronic cigarettes" are.
liberalmuse (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-16-08 08:47 PM
Response to Original message
1. Congratulations!!!
Good for you! It will be worth it, believe me.
I used to smoke almost a pack a day over 10 years ago. Quitting was the best thing I ever did. The first year was tough, just because of the weight gain and having been used to grabbing a cig during stress. I lost all weight gained in the 2nd year. Over 10 years later, I have no regrets and will never pick up a cigarette again. It's been much too nice being able to breathe, and not have that winter hack.
TomInTib (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-16-08 08:48 PM
Response to Original message
2. Way to go!
I have seen a few of your anguished posts, and I have been pulling for you.
But I am not quitting. I am going to stick with my 2-4 cigarettes/day habit. In my line of work, sometimes you gotta look Kool.
applegrove (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-16-08 09:09 PM
Response to Original message
7. What are electronic cigarettes?
franksolich thanks the apple pie primitive for asking franksolich's question.
Th1onein (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-16-08 09:21 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. They are a nicotine delivery system that is almost exactly like smoking a cigarette, except you don't take in any burned tobacco. You pull on them just like a cigarette, but they put out a vapour that contains nicotine and a tobacco flavor (like Marlboro) that you inhale for your nicotine "hit." I've researched them and they seem to be used by people who smoke, to entirely replace cigarettes.
franksolich is on record--official medical record, admitted into a court of law--as imbibing in "223 packages" of cigarettes every day.
Circa 15 years ago, when I worked for the second- or third-biggest Democrat in Nebraska, he decided to change health insurors for his employees, but when he did that, the health insuror questioned whether or not they wished to have me included.
My then boss, a guy who in January 2002 put the barrel of a pistol into his mouth after it was discovered he had kited $7,000,000 in checks, was always looking for reasons to sue people, and jumped on this opportunity.
His attorney told me to get my latest medical records, which I did, from a Lincoln (Nebraska) cardiologist. (For the record, I wasn't seeing the cardiologist for heart problems; it's just that all my life, since an M.D. is an M.D. is an M.D. is an M.D., and they all know the same things, I've always taken the first one to accept me. As in this recent somewhat-still-lingering case of pneumonia, left over from Thanksgiving; the M.D. treating this is a.....dermatologist. They all know the same stuff anyway.)
I gave the records to the attorney without reading them. The attorney, being assured by me it was "all good," passed them onto the insurance company without reading them.
Ooops.
The insurance company noticed the "223 packages" of cigarettes per day.
Now, such is impossible, utterly impossible, to smoke that many cigarettes a day, even if one were to be puffing out of every aperture in one's body.
But the insurance company took it as gospel truth.
My boss then raised Hell with the cardiologist, and here it gets murky. The cardiologist refused to revise my records. I could be wrong--remember, I didn't "catch" everything--but I guess once a medical record is written, it's unethical or illegal or unprofessional to alter it, and hence the refusal of the cardiologist to do so.
It was obviously a typographical error (the cardiologist dictated things into a recorder, and a secretary later transcribed the tape, after which the cardiologist signed off on the records), but this cardiologist would not correct the record.
The court ruled the cardiologist was correct; the records had to stand as they were.
There were some memorable incidents during this litigation; once, while in the corporate headquarters of the insurance company, my boss actually yanked the two sliding parts of an elevator door out of the walls.
edited to spell "primitives" correctly in the title; sorry
