It is a loss, of sorts

I lost something really big in the last month. No, not a big weight loss month, but I didn't gain so that is good.

After being a pack a day or more smoker for 10 years, I quit. It has been 5 weeks since my last cigarette. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I've only threatened to kill my husband a couple of times, and even those times I really didn't mean it. I wouldn't recommend my method of quitting to anyone.

I didn't set out to quit. I really didn't even want to quit most days. At the end of November, I came down with the upper respiratory infection from hell. I couldn't smell anything. For once that was a blessing, a particularly noxious patient came into the ER, and I was the only person in entire ER that couldn't smell him, and I took his clothes off.

After about a week of cold medicine and sleeping in the recliner because I couldn't breath lying down, I realized that I hadn't had a smoke in over a week. It hadn't killed me or anyone around me. We had all survived a nicotine free week. And then two weeks. Before I knew it, it was a smoke free month.

I didn't eat everything in sight. I didn't gain any weight. Maybe because for the first two weeks the only things I could taste were cough drops and Nyquil. Whatever ever the reason, I'll take it.

Now what am I going to do with that extra hundred dollars a month?