Newbie

I'm a smoker for almost 17 years now. I started when I was 20 years old. It all began one day with the thought that it can give me more confidence and that it will make me look more macho. Something that I didn't know I wish I would have never tried.

I know for myself that in my first two years I could have easily quit smoking but I didn't.

Taken today. 06-30-2018

The Prize

I was able to find my two half-sisters on Facebook, I'm going to write about this later on, in 2014. We met in person afterwards. In 2015, my half-sisters invited me to have Christmas and New year vacation in their house in Cagayan, Philippines.

We had pork barbeque at the back of the house on New Year's Eve. I was having coffee and cigarette while participating in making BBQ. I'm used to having coffee be it cold or hot and any beverage while smoking. That's true until today.

Typical Filipino street food. I ordered chicken BBQ here not pork.

I was about to sleep on New Year's day a few hours before midnight when suddenly I felt awkward in my throat. I can't remember the feeling if it's itchy or what. I stood up and saw cotton buds on the table. I grabbed one, held the tip and tried to reach my uvula because I feel like it's the one itching. 😅

Moments later I felt my face like it's tingling and numbing then down to the back of my arms up to the tip of my fingers then down to my feet. I suddenly became nervous and started to feel like I'm having difficulty in breathing. That was already past 12 midnight. I decided to wake my sister up in their room because I started panicking. It's the very first time I had this.

My sister's house is about 2 hours away from the nearest hospital so we went to the health center. I didn't want to have dextrose so I only asked oxygen. I felt relief after a few hours and I was okay in the morning but I had an x-ray before going home. The result was clear.

The next day I felt difficulty in breathing again and went on for a week till I went home in MM where I currently live. I had to go because I've already missed more than a week in school. (Yes, I was still studying that time 😃).

Medication

I went to an ENT doctor somewhere in Makati, Philippines. I showed my x-ray film and diagnosis from the health center in Cagayan. My doctor said that I have GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease). He then prescribed me medicines for this. Since the doctor was kinda arrogant, I transferred to another ENT. That went on for months. I felt no change. My doctor then advised me to undergo a lung function test (spirometry). My doctor said afterwards that I have asthma so he prescribed me medicines for that.

After about 3 months, he (my doctor) rulled out asthma. I never felt any change except for one day when I had this certain medicine - I forgot the brand name. I had medication for more or less than 6 months but I felt no change so I decided to stop. I'm paying medication and all that for nothing.