Homely Scientist

My process to quit smoking took a major leap forward yesterday, I bought a nicotine inhaler!  I had tried one at Lorraine’s brother’s house and thought it was pretty good.  But since I couldn’t find one right off the bat I continued with the cold turkey routine.

No, it hasn’t been easy.  No, I haven’t slipped.  But the nicotine cravings were still pretty intense and I really missed the whole smoking habit thing.  The nicotine inhaler handles that all really well for me.

Here’s how it works (and it’s really cool).  The nicotine (with a little touch of menthol) is in this sponge within a plastic cylinder that is sealed until you use it.  The mouth piece opens up and you push the cylinder into one end breaking the seal then put the other end on breaking that seal, then lock together.  The next part, of course, is to puff on it.  The nicotine is pulled into the air coming into the end of the device then into my mouth.  My mouth then absorbs the nicotine.  Ahhh.  You can "smoke" up to six of the cylinders a day and they each last for about 20 mins of total puffing.  You can tell when you’re getting a hit because you can really feel it in your throat (not pleasant, but manageable).

How does this help?  I can have a hit when I need it.  It’s compact, and pretty cost effective.  The kit with 30 cylinders was about $30.  Unlike the patch where I have to use one everyday, all day and it doesn’t help with the habit of smoking, this is really up to me.

Yeah, it’s helping.  I used three yesterday and only one so far today.  The idea, of course, is to slowly wean yourself off them.  I think I’ll be able to do that and keep some around for emergency "nic fits" in the future.

You can see more pictures of the system in this Flickr set.  I am not endorsing the brand shown, that’s just what’s available up here.

Tags: quitting smoking

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