I hope the stupidity of the question doesn't offend anyone...I have "rubbed snuff" for about 20 yrs. Within the last 5 yrs I have been getting more and more ferquent soreness in my throat (adams apple area). I have never been a heavy user...once or twice a day..one hour appx. per chew. Over this past year I have cut tobacco use to once a day. Since June the soreness has been so intense and persistant that I can only chew every other day.I have seen an ENT and he said my throat looks pink or red but no cancer. He used a long mirror to look down my throat. I know I should quit, but my question is this...does this sound familar to anyone. It's sore right now when I swallow because I've talked a little bit today. I guess I'm looking for someone to scare the hell out me so I'll quit. I've quit many times only to talk myself into it again. What a terrible thing to get started.
Randy

hi randy
its good that you have been cleared by the specialist and maybe this is the kick up the butt you need to stop rubbing snuff altogether,i had tongue cancer no soreness just a feeling of a lump in the throat and coughing up lots of mucous.if you can give it up please give it a good try.if you read our posts on here and see what awful journeys we have had with getting over oral cancer then maybe that will help you give it up.all the best shirl xxx

Randy,

You know damn well that continued use of chew or any tobacco product is harmful to your health. There's not only oral cancer to worry about, but heart disease as well. There are, however, contributors on this board who have never used tobacco or alcohol who nevertheless developed oral cancer. I think there were stats published here that reported 25% of cases were not tobacco/alcohol related. That's the crap shoot factor or the second hand smoke or other environmental factor. There are no guarantees in life, but to play the best odds you have to eliminate the known factors that lead up to cancer, heart disease and whatever.

There are a few posters on this board who admit to smoking even while being treated for oral cancer. Boggles my mind! Had to have been painful, inconvenient, embarrassing, etc., and I can only imagine the mental hell they were going through knowing they were sabotaging the harsh treatment they were undergoing. I had breast cancer in 2005-6 and continued to smoke through treatment; as a matter of fact, I even increased the amount I was smoking. How sick is that? I quit through an intervention type thing by my daughter who was thoroughly disgusted by me continuing to smoke and who made me feel like a pile of...ummm....shit. It worked. I couldn't imagine asking her to care for me, disrupting her life and family because I couldn't get over something that was self inflicted and that I had control over.

I went to my GP, got a prescription for Wellbutrin, which is primarily a script for depression but was found to decrease the desire to smoke. I quit smoking on December 7, 2006 (Pearl Harbor Day) and never looked back. It's a different type of drug. There's no target quit date, no weaning from x number per day to another x number. I continued to take the pill once a day for about six weeks and on December 7th at around one in the afternoon realized I had only about 5 smokes left and would have to go to the store for more. I thought that maybe I didn't really need them and would try to quit. I finished the remaining smokes in a short period of time and actually waited for the usually overwhelming crazies to appear - that type thing where I thought I could probably harm someone or something to get that fix....and nothing happened. I woke up the next morning panicked that I might need that fix, but I didn't. Go figure. Beats the hell out of me.

That's just my story and something that worked so well for me probably hasn't for hundreds or thousands of others who've tried the same drug. My dentist told me that he'd seen all sorts of methods to quit smoking from prayer to very expensive rehab; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. There's that crapshoot again.

Let's see...what can scare you? How about surgery where a good portion of your tongue is removed and a portion of your upper arm or thigh is used to reconstruct the missing tongue parts? A 'peg' inserted into your stomach so that you can accommodate nutrients because you can't pass anything down your throat? Surgery that removes parts of your lips or chin or other facial feature so that you are deformed? Loss of taste buds so that you can never again enjoy whatever foods you now enjoy? A loss where everything you eat tastes like salt? Or like nothing? Lack of saliva so that you can't masticate food? Mucous in your throat that gags you, interferes with sleeping and that you might have to use a mechanical method to suck that crap out of your mouth? Every day - ten times a day - never ending? How about speech therapy so that others can understand what it is that you're trying to say? What if your throat box is removed? Radical neck dissection so that your affected cancerous lymph nodes are removed but can lead to lymphodema, lack of movement in your head or shoulders, pain in your neck and shoulders and even in your ears?

Because of the harm caused by the treatment that helps you (this is the irony), any teeth that your docs (medical oncologist, surgeon, radiation oncologist) believe will hinder treatment will have to be pulled and you'll be fitted with dentures, implants or whatever is required. One of our favorite posters did not have teeth pulled and what he's left with are rotting stumps that can't be pulled because of some radiation effect that I don't understand, but that I know would be harmful to him if his teeth are removed. Willing to undergo that? He can't open his mouth far enough to accommodate a denture that would fit over the stumps.

What else? Oh yes, you can die. Early. Way before your life expectancy.

Up to you, bro.

Mimi

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mimi McC,

well done mimi i could not have put it better myself.love shirl xxx

Mimi, your post is a keeper and i recommend Randy prints it off and reads it every time he thinks about "rubbed snuff"........

this way he has insight into what the future might hold for him if he continues to use tobacco.....

My God Mimi you have me terrified and I quit the fags almost three decades ago, and still experienced my share of the delights you describe in paragraph five a quarter of a century later.You have made global warming seem a minor inconvenience.
Keep Smiling
John

Thanks to all of you that replied. Thanks for the scare Mimi...I'll do my best to make this my final quit try. Does anyone know a good forum like this for quitting.
Randy

Hi Randy,

Glad I scared you somewhat - I hadn't even got to radiation burns, morphine patches and constipation caused by pain meds; you know, the really fun stuff. I started to scare myself and decided to stop.

There are a bunch of stop smoking websites with message boards but I think you'd be more comfortable with boards for smokless tobacco users.

Here are a few:

Dip, Snuff & Chewing Tobacco

Quit Smokeless

You can google 'quit dipping' for many more sites. Be sure to find those that aren't Sponsored Links - those are the ones that want to sell you something.

Looking through these two links I see that some posters are using Chantix, a stop smoking med that really works but I think there's been some controversy over it - better check that out too if you decide to do anything other than cold turkey or Wellbutrin. One link description of a drug gone wrong (Chantix Problems) is Suicide and Unusual Behavior. Yikes!

Good luck to you! If you ever need another kick in the butt, let me know and I'll be glad to oblige.

Mimi

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mimi McC,

Thanks for the sites...I've quit for seven days now. Helps to talk online with Those who know.
Randy

Woooooooo hoooooooooo! Fantastic, Randy.
What a great accomplishment. Although I've never had to quit, I know from friends that it is very difficult. You have done yourself a great favour. Well done!
Cheers from Down Under
Deborah

Hi Randy

Well done. I reckon the first week is the hardest. I gave up smoking 29 years ago (I can remember the exact date - December 7 1979). Did it by going cold turkey - is that what you are doing? Whatever it is - keep it up!

Regards

Gwyn

hi randy
well done on quitting for 7 days thats your first milestone so brilliant news.it wont be easy but you are doing the best thing for yourself hon.i must admit mimi's post scared the life out of me and i have been there!so i can imagine what it did to you.please pop in from time to time to let us know how its going.love shirl xxx

Hi Randy!

What great news! It's tough; most of us know that, but you can do it. Again - it's Really Really Really Tough! Hang in there buddy, you've got a fan club rooting for you.

If you should slip, don't give up, just start over. Don't ever fall for the "I'll just do this once," bit. Doesn't work that way.

Let me know if you need another ass whoopin.'

Mimi

Well done Randy. It took me a while to give up but I'm glad I did. Hang in there and never give up giving up. Hagg.

Excellent Randy, as Hagg says remember never give up giving up. I remember trying to do a deal. "Please god if you get my son through this I promise I will give up smoking" Well God kept his end of the bargain so I had to keep mine, nearly 18 months now!

Mum
xxx