I chewed tobacco from 1979 until 2002. I started at age 12 when my baseball coach gave me a pouch of Redman. After getting perilously sick off that a couple times, I was hooked and transitioned to Copenhagen. Chewed it all day, every day throughout high school, college and the workplace. Very few people knew as I never spit it out and I’d transfer it to a little ziplock bag to avoid the “ring” in the back pocket. I quit cold turkey when I miraculously woke up in the ICU of the hospital I worked at after suffering a bilateral pulmonary embolism via a clot thrown from my lower leg a week after knee surgery. A guy out walking his dog found me just outside the parking garage at the hospital and started CPR. People took notice and a code blue was called. I spent a month there and decided since I got a 2nd lease on life, I might is well pare back the risky behaviors and Tobacco was at the top of the list. I quit near-dead turkey.
Nicotine is a cruel, sweet mistress. Even 22 years later when I see someone chewing or worse yet, smell Copenhagen, my mouth starts watering like one of Pavlov’s dogs and I get a shiver down my spine. I walk away.
I certainly congratulate anyone who has knocked the nicotine habit and those in the midst of quitting too….keep at it!
