Welcome to Life and A Breath of Fresh Air at the No Smoke Cafe

"Christine...if you don't stop this smoking NOW, you're not going to live another 5 years," said my pulmonary Doctor after listening to my lungs, checking my oxygen level and checking the emergency Room's report from the night before. I had been there after experiencing great pain in my lung area to the point where I could only take half breaths, gasping for whatever air I could get. I later learned that I was experiencing an attack of Pleurisy, which I'd never had before, and hope never to experience again. It just felt too much like I wouldn't be able to take the next breath, so every breath was scary, but every breath was gratefully taken with a prayer that the next breath would be there.

Taking my health for granted and flying in the face of facts that were daily being unearthed and published was something I could no longer do. I had been smoking cigarettes for over 30+ years and had been trying to quit smoking seriously for the past 5 years or so, using many methods, including classes and the patch and going cold turkey. I was fearful of going through the withdrawal from nicotine as I had experienced it many times before. I became cranky, impatient and seemed to be viewing everything from afar in a fog, and I always felt deprived when I "couldn't" smoke...I noticed how everyone else seemed to be smoking... everyone but me. This time, I watched how an acquaintance experienced surgery on her throat, only to almost totally lose her larynx and parts of her neck and jawline. Cancer had her in it's grip and they couldn't seem to get it all. Susan died of cancer caused by smoking and she was still in her thirties. She left a husband and children behind and her death made an important impression on me.

The addiction of tobacco is so very strong and tenacious. Ole demon nic knows every trick in the book for convincing those of us who want to become ex-smokers to stay in his thrall. My "smoker's cough" was hacking constantly and wouldn't let up. I was again to begin quitting tobacco, this time using the new patch that had recently come out and was acclaimed as being the way to successfully quit. I'd been on the patch for 3 days, when I was in my workshop soldering a stained glass project. Suddenly, I began to shiver and shake uncontrollably and felt nauseous and strange. After the seizure settle down, I went into the house where I let my husband know what was going on. Another seizure hit me. We had no idea what it was. I had guessed I might be coming down with the flu and was going to call the doctor the next morning. It was already 10 p.m. so there was nothing I could do at that hour.

Unfortunately, I awoke at about 3 in the morning, again shivering and shaking and now, I could tell, I had a fever....and more importantly, I was coughing up lots of phlegm with blood in it. This scared me and my husband tossed me in the car and we raced off to the Emergency Room. It was determined that I had pneumonia and my stay in the hospital lasted for a week. I was never so glad in my life to get home! They don't let you sleep at night in a hospital! They wake you up to take your blood pressure and give you medicine and all manner of things!

I managed to stay off cigarettes for the next 7 months, but one day got in a bad argument with my teenaged daughter and husband that "caused" me to go out and start smoking once more. I'd fully intended to not smoke the next day...even to the point of tossing about 1/2 a pack away that night. Unfortunately, I began to feel deprived and the cravings hit me and I didn't know how to fight the cravings then. I bought another pack and it took me another 7 months to get OFF the cigarettes once again! It is much harder the second time around! It was at this point, when I had the Pleurisy attack and the Doctor warned me what would happen if I continued to smoke...that I became determined that I'd smoked my last. But, how was I going to be successful?

Over twenty-two years before, I'd successfully battled another addiction with AA's help... alcohol. And from my years associated with that wonderful 12 Step program I had learned that one of the very BEST ways to help yourself to stay sober was to help other alcoholics to stay sober. Whenever I got depressed and felt deprived, I came to discover that the more I threw myself into working with others, the less depressed and tempted I was to slip.

After discovering the Internet some months before; being enchanted with all the wonderful places one could go on the Net and all the things one could see and do and learn...I just HAD to become part of that World Wide Web myself. It took me a while, but I soon was working on getting on the 'Net via Prodigy, which was newly on the net itself and encouraged us subscribers to put a page on the 'Net, which I did. Now, after being off cigarettes for a couple of months and still getting bad urges to smoke again, I decided that the thing to do would be to make a web page for people who had quit smoking and for folks who WANTED to quit smoking.

I threw it together somehow and named it after one of my fellow Prodigy subscriber's little niche in the Medical Support Smoke cessation group.....the No Smoke Cafe.

It came about in October of 1995 and grew. It grew slowly at first as I had to announce it to as many of the submission and search sites as I possibly could. I found this to be a very time consuming activity..... which was very good for me. I WANTED to stay busy. I WANTED my hands to be looking for the keyboard instead of those dumb cigarettes. I WANTED my mind to be focused on doing something to help others rather than to be focused on how deprived I was feeling and how poor me should do something about that. Well, it apparently worked!

There have been over 11,000...yes, eleven THOUSAND people who have been through the No Smoke Cafe portals in a little over a year now. I've been revamping the site....consolidating it into smaller pages as it had gotten very unwieldy and disjointed due to being mostly on one main page. Now, I concentrate on adding linked pages rather than adding to the body of the main page. We have a CHAT room which has become a "hangout" for many of the ex-smokers......We also have a Guest Book which is a wonderfully uplifting read all by itself. I often go there to find newcomers to write to and encourage them to stick with their program so they give themselves a good chance to successfully become ex-smokers.

Now there's a brand new Message Base on the No Smoke Cafe, something I've been hoping would come about soon, since occasionally the Chat room has been down. This gives our ex-smokers another outlet and helps prevent the panic of communications cutoff. After all, I feel that the best thing the No Smoke Cafe can do for a person is to let them know in every way possible, that they are NOT alone. There is also the wonderful benefits of having successfully stayed smoke-free through it all right up through today and having new friends with common goals to help each other become and stay smoke-free. We are having some fun as well as learning that one doesn't have to see life through a smokey haze. I can begin to see clearly now.....

Swift: "May you live all the days of your life."

HOPE is a doorway. It is up to us if we choose to walk through it. You are all invited to visit me at The No Smoke Cafe. For Folks who have quit smoking and those who want to quit.