Not smoking

[TrevL]

On my 16th birthday in 1968, I started smoking cigarettes, mainly as a fight against my mother's iron rod authority :.  1978 I moved onto cigars as they were cheap in Hong Kong where I was then living.  Late 1980, I again moved tobacco products onto a pipe, where I have been ever since.
The 19th August 2021 was my first day of not partaking in tobacco products and I am still good today .
However, a couple of days after giving up, I got a cold.  Nothing unusual there, but today, I still have that same cold. That's over 10 weeks, untold tissues,  my second bottle of nasal decongestiant, packets of cold an flu capsules, and Vick on my chest every night.  Getting fed up now :'(!  Wondering if this will ever end. 
Any of you ex-smokers had a similar experience?

[Flange Squeal]

Do you have any symptoms other than an excessive quantity of bogies?

[TrevL]

No, just the usual , runny nose interspersed with blocked nose or sneezing.  No cough or other chest issues, typical head cold really.

[Malc]

I alternated between cigarettes and Café Creme cigars for 30 odd years. Gave up in 1999. But what caused me to give up was the worst cold I ever had. Rather the other way round To you Trev.

[Flange Squeal]

You might have sinusitis or something like that. I would suggest it's worth getting it checked by a professional. Although it's tricky to get face to face GP appointments currently. A doctor may be able to prescribe something more effective than Vick's vapor rub.

[guest311]

Do you have any symptoms other than an excessive quantity of bogies?

do they have the pizza cutter wheels, or the later type. ?
might be useful for scratch builders 

[LASteve]

There's a condition called "Quitter's Flu" which can give you cold- or flu-like symptoms when you quit tobacco or nicotine, including a runny nose as you seem to have. Should clear up if that's what you're suffering with. Keep it up!

[daffy]

I had a persistent bad cold some weeks back and my GP said I had to have a Covid test before he could just put it down to what it turned out to be, a cold.
I've had both Covid jabs but of course I can still get the virus as the jabs offer zero protection, just a good defence against symptoms.
Many medics are asking the Government to redefine Covid onset symptoms as with the Delta variant they can now often be very similar to a cold.
I would recommend you get a precautionary full test (not a self test as they can be inaccurate) to definitely rule Covid out.

[Newportnobby]

@TrevL There is a bug going round christened by the redtops 'Supercold' so I don't necessarily think it's smoking withdrawal related.
I smoked for 50 years (what an idiot ) My mate Dave used to buy them when we were 12 as he was taller than me. We smoked under the railway bridge at Wolverton and wore gloves so we didn't get nicotine stained fingers. Over the years I smoke all sorts of fags including menthol and a feeble attempt to give up using herbal fags but they were just like smoking an incinerator
Pipes and cigars also featured in my smoking history and I had my last fag the evening before I went in for a triple bypass op. 3 weeks later I was chucked out and never smoked since.
The money saved (some £1500 per year) buys a lot, I've found.

[LASteve]

What @Newportnobby said.

I began smoking at 12; I was always send down to the shops by my parents to get their supplies anyway, so as long as I smoked the same brands as them there was never a question asked, which is why I started on Silk Cut (my Mom). Dad rolled his own.

I found that a pack of 10 Silk Cut would fit neatly inside the Hornby 00 signal box on my layout, so hiding the contraband was relatively simple. The whole house smelled of smoke anyway, so as long as I smoked hanging out of my bedroom window no-one was any the wiser (or no-one cared, probably the latter).

On breaks, behind the squash courts at school was also acceptable under the "out of sight, out of mind" policy of the teachers.

About 20 million packs of Marlboro Reds and Lights later, I finally saw sense and quit, about ten years ago.

[stevewalker]

The good news is that supposedly, most of the effects of smoking and the risks return to pretty well normal after about 10 years of abstinence.

[Newportnobby]

The good news is that supposedly, most of the effects of smoking and the risks return to pretty well normal after about 10 years of abstinence.

Knowing my luck then, in the next 5 years I'll be killed by an electric car I won't hear

[Bealman]

I bought 200 Dunhill duty free in Fiji in 1983 and they're the last cigarettes I smoked.

I've always been partial to a a cigar, though, and continued smoking them, but even gave them away about fifteen years ago.

Your problem sounds to me like something that will eventually go away, Trev, so stick with it, mate. It's gotta be better than smoking.

I'd definitely get a covid test, though.

[Railwaygun]

I used to tell my patients to put their weekly spend on fags in a piggy bank, and go on a bloody good holiday!

As they are now £13,50 a packet after the latest budget,I'm surprised anyone can afford it!

[Bealman]

Yeah, they're unbelievably expensive. If that's not an incentive to quit, I dunno what is.