So, once again, I’m quitting. I stopped two nights ago. The problem is, and I knew it was going to happen, that last night I woke up several times hacking, and by the morning my bed was covered with my spleen, pancreas, and several feet of my large intestine. The most painful part was that I knew (from other attempts to quit) the one cure for these hacks - a cigarette!
I’m not here for pats on the back, etc. I am curious if anyone out there knows:
a) Why these coughing jags when I’m quitting smoking, when I don’t get them when I am smoking?;
b) Why does a cigarette ease these coughing jags?
I am a smoker, but I had quit when I got pregnant. I too experienced the hacking and I believe that it is because the tar that is in your lungs gets loosened when you do not smoke for a while (in the morning) I think it clups and breaks loose of the little cilia mickbobbers and there for you have a nasty nicotine lougy. Maybe when you smoke it surpresses this nastiness becuse the smoke is heating the tar up and therefor causing it to be sticky and therefore stick in there? I really do not know if this is right or not but I dunno check out http://www.thetruth.com for cool reasons to quit and the stupid things that “big tobbacco” says about it’s customers and the addiction to nicotine.
I have to agree with Yosemite_Joy. When you quite smoking, the tar does loosen up. It’s not a wonderful feeling. Coughing is your body’s natural reaction to dislodge what ever foriegn objects are your lungs. this is IMHO of course
Smoking stills the cillia in your bronchial tubes. When they start moving again, they are able to free up the goop and make you hack it up. Mmmmmmmm! Thank god for RJ Reynolds!
If I recall nicotine is, among other things, a mild anesthetic. So it seems possible that while your lungs are pleasantly anesthetized, you don’t experience any coughing and that when you quit, your lungs suddenly realize that they don’t like this coating of tar that’s been accumulating and begin to do their best to get rid of it. Lighting up another cig would quiet them down again.
Don’t know this for fact, but it’s the best I can offer.
I just hit one year of not smoking. I experienced the hacking for the first two-three weeks. The best thing I found to help is a really hot shower. You need to generate lots of steam. This adds moisture to the goo in the lungs, the cough becomes more productive and less sticky in the bronchial tubes. (IMHO)
** Note: If you have respiratory problems, don’t do it.
The other thing, you cough up some really ugly stuff. :eek:
