False Start!

I am smoking again, but on doctor's orders.  Sort of.  Since I was still an obsessed stress case using the patch, I decided to try the Chantix.  Started it on Tuesday.  The list of precautions was like nothing I've ever seen before for a pharmaceutical product.  Without exaggeration, which I am sometimes prone to, the insert for Chantix is a full 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper two columns, single space, of things not to do and other things to look out for.  Not the least of which was the precaution against going crazy and trying to kill yourself or others.  Eeek!  So far no pharmaceutical induced fits of rage, homicidal or suicidal, but stay tuned. 

I did get a wicked headache last night, that was still around today until late this afternoon, but it is now gone.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't return.  Now that I can find out anything about anything on the Google (which is on the internets), I did some searching and learned that some other folks got a headache from Chantix that stuck around for six months after they had quit using the drug. 

Here's the thing about Chantix.  You get to smoke for a while when you first start taking it, so I have temporarily started my old smoking habit.  The drug is supposed to block the nicotine receptors in the brain so that a smoker no longer has any physical reaction to the drug, and ergo, no longer wants the drug.  So I smoke again for two to six weeks and hopefully, by then, no longer care about smoking.  Sounds impossible, but lovely.  So hear I am at the starting line again (that's why I chose the racing picture).  Here's to no terrifying fits of rage!  But stayed tuned just in case.