Its not all about the smoking babeee

I didn't sleep very well last night. I had run around a bit during the day, with a short shopping trip and some wandering around the grocery store. It felt so good to be able to breathe well enough to do this, for the first time in about six months, that I kinda sorta forgot that this kind of thing is not exactly easy on my ankle, and I paid the price in big time pain during the night.

I fell in late December, shortly before Christmas. My activity level dropped way down, and when I developed pneumonia and lingering respiratory problems, I thought that it was caused by this change in my lifestyle. In any case, I have been pretty much a slug since December and I never was able to tease out what was going on. It didn't help that I gained a whole lot of weight as all of this was happening--partly do to lack of activity, perhaps, but also because of the steroids I was taking, and mebbe some depression.

As the date for the surgery on my ankle drew closer, I became very scared that the problems I was having breathing could prove deadly. I have never been a fan of general anesthesia. In any case, I decided, in what I now see as a flash of brilliance, to stop smoking before the surgery. I did not really expect it to make a dramatic difference, but it did. I have not had to take any breathing meds since the day I quit--a week ago. In Quitnet terms that would be: 7 days, 8 hours, 42 minutes and 36 seconds smoke free, 294 cigarettes not smoked, 2 days 5 hours, lifetime saved, and $56.00 not gone up in smoke.

The dollar amount is not all that impressive, but that's only because I was buying gray market smokes. I guess I could add in a line about no longer breaking the law.

I know that I still need to have the surgery, but I have decided to pay attention to that little voice in the back of my head that is telling me to regain my health before putting my body through this. My job for the next six months or so is going to be to keep my quit and to lose the el-bees I have put on.

Poor Ron, he not only has to put up with my non-smoking bitchiness, he has to continue to do the shopping and related shtuff for awhile longer. Apparently being able to breathe and being able to run around are really two different things.