Quit Smoking Edema

I have had an awful time! I am a mess! I was never sick and since I stopped smoking I am sick, bloated and now I have boils I cry every day for this to all stop.....I dont miss the smoking I miss MY BODY, MY HEALTH and MY clear skin......

All I can say is it will get better...drink lots of water ( I am up to about 100 oz a day)! That seems to be what is helping me the most. I am on 66 days of no nicotine and my last analog was Nov 6, 2014. Really thought I would loose my mind,,,Still I am not 100% I would say 60%, So much better than 30 days ago. Will never go back to nicotine,,,,it was too hard to kick! Still crave the nicotine once or twice a day.

i know your post is over a year old and i don't know where you are with regards to your smoking and general health but i'm in the same boat as you. i've tried the niacin flush. i use powdered niacin. it really seems to take away the edge. i'm next going to try clear g formula. it looks like it may help with overall health as well as with the swelling. google it and see what you think. it's not cheap but our health and life is worth it. i still smoke every now and then but i use nirdosh brand i got off amazon. it really helps and it is actually pretty good for your health. it's tobacco-less and made from herbs.

i know your post is over a year old and i don't know where you are with regards to your smoking and general health but i'm in the same boat as you. i've tried the niacin flush. i use powdered niacin. it really seems to take away the edge. i'm next going to try clear g formula. it looks like it may help with overall health as well as with the swelling. google it and see what you think. it's not cheap but our health and life is worth it. i still smoke every now and then but i use nirdosh brand i got off amazon. it really helps and it is actually pretty good for your health. it's tobacco-less and made from herbs.

A quit coach against a qualified medical proffesional? Please, tell me what makes a quit coach a coach. Some online c**p? Its these half baked non qualified douches that stop people from seeking qualified medical help and can cos lives

Well what I can tell you is it does get better. At 5 months I was still ready to kill people! You can do this and it will get better...every day is a little better, then finally those days add up to months. When I learned that the crave only last 4 mins I was able to cope very well. The physical problems about broke my spirit to quit. I am so glad I stuck with it...I will never go back to cigarettes...ever!

Stick with it....

My last cigarette after 40 years of smoking a pack a day was Oct 2014 and my last nicotine was Feb 2015 using a vapor stick. I stayed on zero nicotine vapor until Sept 2015. The edema started in February 2015, extreme and painful my legs and feet felt like tree trunks I could hardly move. My fingers looked like sausages for the longest time.
I have some minor edema in my legs and feet now (not near what it was) and mild acne. I went through some terrible anxiety and mental c**p. All of that is over and I am beginning to see the light. My weight gain is outrageous, I should have gotten control of it before now.
My best advice is to make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids and try to eat healthy. Take care of yourself, try not to drink alcohol and cut back on the caffeine and salt...

Hello, same thing. After 3-5 weeks of being smoke free I swelled up like a balloon. So uncomfortable - it was awful. Acupuncture helped relieve the swelling. The first time their I actually had a tiny enough puncture that I started to leak out so fluid............oh well I am smoke free. It did eventually go away.

Some of us have done all you said and only made doctors rich for nothing. You write and speak like a surgeon and technically....I feel you are just someone trying to put down people from using experiance as a means of communicating problems. I have all the same symptoms...however, having been a military man for 30 years...I am mid fifties and body of a 20 to 30 year old...with swelling feet. And no medical explanation to explain it. Most people here have tried everything, but according to them, none were lucky enough to win the lottery and get your bad luck prognosis. This is an extremely serious problem, which needs addressing by the medical profession as an illness that effects those that attempt to give up smoking. The medical proffession has been demanding people respect themselves and give up smoking for decades, and yet have no developmental proceedure to investigate and control these drastic dissadvantages to doing any such thing. As one who suffers, I can assure you I tried to give up so many times in the past. Always I lost to my symptoms. Married late in life, I now have the support of a wife and the relaxation of civilian life to assist. Its so damn bad I just sometimes wish I was still in the military and existing what i thought was healthy. This is not healthy. Concidering my wife is a Bio chemist and doctor and mother is a chief medical examiner, this is a real symptom of no real diagnosis or prognosis. They have looked everywhere done every test and nada. Just swelling feet. You will notice everyone writes same to same symptoms and yet no one has a prognosis. If you really suffered as you did..the congrats on the outcome...all deserve that...but you situation is completely different to what these people and I suffer. The only thing these people have...is this communication..the ability to share the hándicap and maybe oneday get someone compassionate enough in the medical profession who will study this affliction and address and maybe cure the problem. Untill then, I can see so many people who would want to give up smoking..actually continue in fear of being afflicted as we are. In reality, I hope this is not the case....because I am the first person to tell you that smoking will make you suffer. During or after. Dont do it.

You are absolutely right. My wife is an MD and has ragged on me for the last 25 years of the 32 years I smoked to give the cigs up. Well, i finally got on the patch in January, smoke and nicotine free by mid-March. Yes, it was damn tough, my feet still swell, heavy feeling in my chest and Edema in my legs and on and off severe constipation. The mental part of it is by far worse than the physical. Recent imaging showed my heart size increased 10% while my kidney reduced by 7%, my lungs have however started to expel the fluid in them, and my breathing is getting easier and fewer labor, thank God.
The entire medical profession comes on very hard about stopping tobacco usage in all forms. Yet no scientific studies, to my amazement, has been done on the real effects of quitting smoking. I guess I was just ignorant and figured that some MD or Ph.D. had done some research for the AMA or the Surgeon General, nope was the answer my wife gave me when I told her I wanted to read it. Surprising not one article. Most of the advertising is the typical feel-good advertising showing a guy happily playing sports after quitting or sitting at a table drinking coffee reading a paper, complete bullsh!t.
You are right, if I could wind the clock back to when I was 13, I would have never lifted those fuc#ing things from my dad's pack to start with.

I to have stop smoking .its been a month and a half I feel like c**p. I told my husband last night that if I've known I would feel like this I would take my chances .I always weigh no more than 120 PDS at the most even when I was expecting a child. Now I weigh 150pds my legs hurt my back hurts and my feet and most of all my tummy is so bloated it looks like I'm 6mos pregnant. I'm 57 year old need help .I've had just about every test you can think of and EVERYTHING is Good. So why I'm I so bloated and why have I gain 30 PDS in a month and a half gone up 7pant sizes I would wear size 5 now wear size 12 what is going on ?

Hi there I went to the dentist to find I have gum disease from smoking. I quit two weeks ago this past Thursday cold turkey just before the dentist ripped out cuspid #2. Losing my teeth or wanting to keep the rest is my resolve, so am doing okay. However I noticed yesterday my right foot ankle looked big and was swelled up. I was a bit concerned by this as I thought quitting= Healthy. I had quit when I was age 19 for three years and never saw something like this. In fact you hear the quit quit aspect of it all but never post negative events that impact the body once you do. Does anyone on this thread have any thoughts on why the edema? I am age 46 off cigs approx. two weeks post quitting symptoms are choppy sleep, getting up to urinate, dry mouth, swelling of ankles. I really don't want to find that in order to alleviate these symptoms that I would have to start smoking again. Cold turkey is not as radical or scary as what people put into your head about it. Please let me know anyone who is having the swelling of the ankles issue.

Hello, I am a 60 year old female that quit smoking cold turkey over 7 months ago. After the initial "high" I got from breaking away from the nasty habit, I realized my body is now falling apart!
I am currently on disability because of my health and doctors cannot find anything wrong with me but they are still "testing".
I assumed my aches and pains were due to my age, although I do not have a regular healthy diet, I was always very active and pretty much kept myself fit. But I started complaining to my friends how fat I was getting all the way down to my toes, and my feet, legs knees and lower back would hurt so bad I couldn't walk. And still I contributed it to my weight gain of 30 pounds and told myself it was all the extra weight.
Finally one day at work, I realized I was unable to walk more than 30 steps without felling like I was going to fall and I was so out of breath I had to sit down. That is when I realized my feet and legs were not fat and my abdomen was bloated, I was retaining water!
I have many more aches and pains, too many to mention but my main reason to post is because I now realize that this is the same symptoms both of my parents suffered when they quit years ago and they doctors never found a cause in either one of them!
I believe many, many more people out there are suffering as I am and to tell you the truth, the doctors are getting rich trying to find cause! I have searched and searched the internet to find some medical studies, but I come up empty handed.
Meanwhile, I have to conquer this before it conquers me, and I will. But I want to wish all of your fellow suffer well in your journey to get better.

This has happened to me too. I believe it's the interplay between the adrenals and thyroid that has become completely deranged. Check your cortisol, FT3 and FT4 guys, as well as TPO antibodies. I predict it will shed some light for a few of you!

I have also experienced a small amount of swelling to my legs since quitting five days ago. I'm attributing it to improved circulation since smoking decreases circulation. Taking away the smoking is like opening the floodgates. :) If I start experiencing swelling in my abdomen and difficulty breathing, as some of you have experienced, I'll definitely be heading to my doctor.

I AM NOT A DR...But after reading all these comments from others...I'd say thou are definitely dealing with the toxins trying to get out of your body. Hence the bloating/swelling and boils. More water might be very helpful to you in getting them out. good luck!!