Chantix

Ok, so yesterday I went down to student health and spoke to a nurse practitioner about getting on Chantix to quit smoking. She gave me the script and then I had lunch with my "buddy" Rebecca. Rebecca is a 2nd year student in my program that I have been paired up with as my "buddy" to help me figure out what the hell is going on. Anyway, after lunch I went and got the script filled and went home.

They step you up with the dosage. The first three days you take .5 mg once a day. Then they step you up to two .5 mg a day. Then after like a week of that you go up again, etc. I took my pill yesterday when I got home. I was tired so I took a nap. When I got up, I felt like I might be getting a headache. Ended up getting a migraine which kicked into full gear around 5am so I had to take one of my migraine pills then.

Woke up with remnants of it this morning but it went away. I was very tired and felt thick-headed, but that might have been from the migraine pill. Anyway, I read a lot of forums today about side effects of this drug and I'm a little worried. I decided to take my dose today after eating (to avoid nausea) and see if I got another headache. It's now almost 8pm and I'm fine. I have definitely cut down on my smoking today, even though technically you are supposed to keep smoking your first week and set your quit date a week after you start.

A lot of people have trouble sleeping on this drug, and also undergo some of the withdrawal symptoms of quitting nicotine, like tiredness, thirst, etc. I'm definitely going to watch out for that. I did have trouble sleeping last night, but that might have been because I took a nap.

I really want this to work for me with minimal suffering. It was expensive, and also, I don't see another realistic way for me to quit smoking at the moment.

I'll keep updating my progress.