March 2 seems to be a storm day. Maybe not always, but fairly often. I saw people posting online that we had a snow storm of March 2 into March 3 last year. And I know for certain we had a snow storm on March 2 into March 3 in 2019. Beyond that I’m not really sure.
I remember the 2019 date very well. That’s the day I quit smoking. As of today, I have now been smoke free for four years. Something I am actually pretty proud of. I can honestly say that after four years, I really can breath better, taste better and just overall feel better. Quitting smoking seems like a really good idea, looking back at it now. However, I do not recommend the method I used.
I gave up because I was in the hospital. I was in the hospital because of a heart attack. The heart attack was brought about by the snow, which is how I can remember it snowed that year.
I usually just say I was shoveling and had a heart attack, which isn’t exactly true. I did shovel a bit, but I was using a snow blower. I cleared the driveway, shut off the snow blower and a neighbour asked if I could maybe help clear hers. No problem, I thought. My body disagreed with that.
Since the snow blower was at the street end of the driveway I decided not to use the electric start, so I pulled the cord. The machine didn’t start, and I immediately felt pretty bad. So I went and sat down on the front step for a while. My wife commented that I didn’t look good. Apparently gray is not a good colour for a person. So after arguing about it for a half hour or so, I finally let her drive me to the hospital to get checked.
I must say our medical system does a pretty good job dealing with things like that. They looked after me very well. But over the next few days there was a steady stream of medical professionals coming through all with similar advice. Quit smoking. Smoking can be related to heart attacks, so it seemed to be at the top of the list of things not to do. So I decided to stop.
That was it. I just stopped. Haven’t had one since. I don’t plan to ever have one again. I know simply stopping isn’t something everyone can do. I tried it several times and failed, but there was just something about having a heart attack that gave me a bit more incentive I guess. I won’t say it was easy. I won’t say I don’t still have the occasional craving. But I’m done with it.
Like I say, I don’t recommend it as a method to quite smoking. It’s a lot to go through to give up, and I’m sure there are easier ways. But it worked for me.
And I’m glad I did.
