Nicotine replacement therapy

I have not tried "the patch." But I have used nicotine gum. Not to quit, but to keep from going insane on long airplane flights, and in certain situations where I knew beforehand I would be in for long hours unable to sneak away for a smoke.

I am using the nicotine lozenges in my current attempt to quit. They come in 2 strengths: 2mg and 4mg. Guess which one I need.

The determining question put forth to determine the dosage one needs is: "Do you usually light up within 30 minutes of waking up in the morning?"

Do I really need to tell you the answer?

The thing that sucks about the gum and the lozenges is that they share a stipulation with chewing tobacco, plug, etc. This regards swallowing.

It seems like common sense to avoid swallowing any of the items mentioned above. But just the mere swallowing of the saliva that normally accumulates in the mouth is warned against.

With actual chewing tobacco, you will suffer instant nausea and most likely vomit if you swallow a reasonable amount of your own saliva teaming with the juices. (I did this once, despite fair warning, but that story is for a later post.)

But with the gum and lozenges, swallowing is discouraged as well. With those, one experiences a burning indigestion right away. The gum even made me belch more than usual. It made one-guy-I-know's stomach bleed/spit up little bits of blood. I seem to remember having tiny traces of blood in my spit in the midst of using alot of the gum on a weekend plane trip.

So here I am accumulating gobs of foamy saliva in my mouth, waiting for a chance when I can spit it out unobserved. Just like the hicks and baseball players at my high school who would "dip" in class. (more on that in another post, as well).

I spit some in the side of the street, in a length of puddled water moting the curb. A local dog soon approached, sniffed the foam in the water and set to lap it up before I shoo'd it away. I shuddered to the think it's adoring owner would see and understand what was happening and forever look at me as a careless poisoner of pets.

Indoors, I must tack between sinks, trashcans, empty soda cans, or disposable cups.

It's embarrassing when caught between spitting outlets for a time, and then being engaged in conversation by someone who isn't aware, nor would be sympathetic, to what is going on. I can only hope to breeze through it with 1 or 2 "mhmm"s.

Worse yet, a loved one actually picked up a disposable plastic cup I had on a the desk that I had been using as one of my temporary spitoons. Wide eyed, I yelped, "DON'T!" She thought it was milk, which would have been perfect to wash the chocolate candy she just ate. Embarrassing. Again.

So I feel like I've traded one disgusting habit for another. Obviously, the long term benefits of this far outweigh this short term situation.

That is, of course, if I ever actually do wean off the replacement products. After all, it's still nicotine.