Random and Odd

Chantix — Take 2

I’m now on the 7th day of Chantix, the quitting smoking pill.  The first couple of days were odd because I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open.  I felt the mood swings, but they weren’t enough to want me to drown anyone in the toilet, so I figured everyone was safe.
Somewhere around day 2 or 3, I got Dan’s flu. I knew it would come with a cough, but because I had been chain smoking in fear of never wanting another cigarette, my cough was a doozy.

Every thing has been smooth sailing and I even forgotten the side effects.  On Friday night I had a disturbing dream where I was involved with Rick James. Mr. SuperFreak himself.  In my dream, my goal was to unbraid his hair and run my fingers through his hair. In an awake state it’s discusting and I want to hurl, but in my dream state it was a turn on.  I woke up thinking, “My therapist is going to LOVE this one!”.

Since I have sporatic cases of insomnia, going two days without sleep and then being able to sleep for 5 hours without a problem, I figured the ‘problem sleeping’ warning level on the Chantix wouldn’t be a problem.  IT SUCKS.  I was FINALLY tired last night. It was a little after 11pm when I decided to go to bed. This would be like going to bed at 6pm for normal people.  I felt like I was awake, but asleep…or asleep, but awake.  I kept waking up looking at the clock thinking, “NO Fing WAY!” HOURS had gone by and it felt like I was just laying there trying to sleep…but I was.
At 3:45am I caved in and took a Xanax and slept until 10am.   I’m going to try something new tonight and take the last of 2 pills at 6pm and see if makes a difference.

Now for the smoking part of this whole thing.  I honestly think the fact that I had the flu is what slowed me down.  Taking a drag of a cigarette is painful on my throat. I’m still fighting to the cough and after I finish writing this up I am running to the store to buy me and Alyx some Musinex so we can get rid of our rattling coughs.
Good news though…last night, I actually didn’t feel like smoking when I normally would have grabbed one.  I was hoping that within the first few days the taste of a cigarette would have me wanting to put it out and become a non-smoking snob, but no such luck.
I start the higher dose tomorrow.

Bring on the creepy non-sleepy dreams!