How I got here.

Like I was saying in the intro....Hello, the name is Gax. Nope not my real name.I am a PC/Xbox360 gamer. I play strategy games on my PC and shooter games on my 360.Strategy games are my fav as they require lots of thinking and since smoking helps me think, (Ya I know it does not really.) I do alot of smoking while on my PC and less on my 360.I have a rule of no smoking in the house that I frequently break while on my computer, more so when my wife is not home. There are no ashtrays in my house so I usually end up using my coffee cup from the morning.About 4 months ago I got laid off from work. Got a two weeks severance and I am collecting the max from my unemployment insurance. The wife has got a stable federal job, so our budget did not suffer much.About 2 months ago I started experiencing a strange sensation in my chest. It felt like my heart was coming up into my throat, ya know like the sensation you get when the roller caster pulls you over the top of the crest and you see the drop for the first time. When it did that I could also feel it skipping beats and pausing between beats. They were rare at first only occurring in the evening when I was relaxing. Then they started happening during the day. When they stated waking me at night, I made a dr. appointment and quite caffeine cold turkey. The episodes seem to wane with the reduction in caffeine. (2-3 cups of coffee and 5-7 Barqs rootbeers /day) After two weeks I was finally at my heart scanning day and the episodes and diminished by half but still a concern. They did an ultrasound, isotope scan, treadmill stress test and a 24 hour holter monitor.So armed with a renewed determination to quit and a two pound bag of strawberry twizzlers I quit on the day before my Dr. appointment, April 1st 2009.(Ya,stop smoking, I know the parody is not lost on me! ) Told my wife, my friends and my family. 15 hours passed before I broke, 8-9 of that was sleeping.The next day after my appointment the treadmill tech called me and said my heart did excellent. A few hours later isotope tech called and said the images showed no significant blockages at this time.(Ok, that was good news with an unspoken "but") And a couple days later the ultrasound tech called and said my heart muscle was in great shape and my valves where all in good working order. (Whew! that’s good news!) "But, the ultrasound picked up and anomaly on your liver. Please make an appointment to have an ultrasound." Hmmm... I don’t drink alcohol that much. So I Made an appointment to get an appointment to get my liver checked, and told the doc at the first appointment that I would like to quit smoking. The Dr. suggested Chantix, which is I had already done some research on. Had heard tales for others that said, "I simply started forgetting to smoke". Hay sounds good to me, sign me up. So I left the dr with a $138 box of Chantix and 30 fluid ounces of Barium Sulfate. Yesterday the holter monitor tech called and said my rhythm looked fine and that every once and I while I would get a skipped beat and my heart would kinda reset its rhythm and all this was normal, and the fact that I had a good strong heart was why I was feeling the heart make the proper corrections. (More awesome news! ) That was the final straw needed, my heart was still in great shape, let’s not ruin it with cigarettes.I am now on day 6 of Chantix and smoking like a chimney, it has taken me over 1/12 hours to type this up and smoke at least 5 6 cigarettes.On the evening of day 4, an hour I had taken my first second dosage I got a sudden and violent chill, I had just went to the bathroom and got the classic after shiver (WHAT THE HELL IS THAT! ) and it did not stop, I was suddenly violently cold. I was shaking like I was having a small seizure, I threw on a fleece pullover a hat and wrapped myself in a thick blanket, I was feeling warmer and the shaking subsided a bit, after about 5 minutes I could get up and walk without the blanket, but typing was out of the question. After about 10 minutes I was warmed up and shivers were all gone. No more episodes since, will monitor that.I have a habit of going to bed then getting up after an hour or so, smoking a cigarette, eating a bowl of cereal, smoking another cigarette,stop smoking now, then going back to bed and falling quickly back to sleep. Last night I realized as I was climbing back into bed that I had forgotten to have my after smoke. I switch the TV to the science channel and faded off to sleep.GaxDay 6 Chantix