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Nicorette Inhalater
by Emma1973
As with my review on the patches this is not about giving up smoking, its not about why you should give up smoking, and it's not about what smoking does but about the product that's supposed to help you do it. Hence this may seem a little shorter than some other reviews. I'm doing it with this and the Nicorette patches and its going ... quite well I must say! At the time of writing 80 days without a ciggie!
You can either buy them in the chemists or major supermarkets, if you are eligible you may be able to get them on prescription as I do, they can be prescribed by a nurse or a smoking cessation advisor. If you get them prescribed then you pay the price of a prescription which I believe is around £7.50, to buy the box is around £22, so it doesnt make any sense to get them non-presciption!
What you get for your money is a cardboard box with 36 'cartridges; in it and the inhalator. The inhalator is a tube about 2 1/2" long, it flattens at the end with a lip around the edge. Into this goes a cartridge.
Easy enough to use, the sections pull apart, you push a cartridge in one end breaking the seal, place the other end on, click together and twist. Then it's all ready to go.
So the Inhalator is used at those moments when the cravings hit, not as a complete replacement for cigarettes, sorry to say but you are still going to need some willpower!
Each of the cartridges has about 40 minutes of use and you can use this time as you please. So let's say, 4 10 minute inhalations, or 10 minutes the six lots of 5 minutes. However you mustn't use more than 6 cartridges in one day. Then it's up to you how you use it. You can take deep or shallow 'sucks'. What I have found is that I need to take really deep inhalation to feel like its working but that's' just because I've felt like I need to taste it in order to think it's worked. I have been known to just stick it in my mouth for long periods though and continually suck on it long after the cartridge has run out. And no, I couldn't think of one single way to write this without it coming across as a rude innuendo! The taste isn't entirely pleasant either, it's almost a peppery taste or sensation on the roof of my mouth, and you do get used to it though and it's nowhere near as vile as the taste of the lozenges or spray.
Another side effect that I have got is that if I over-did it I felt slightly sick and this went on for a while. Oh, and decide to use it just as you put a patch on and you'll get a huge whack of nicotine. Subsequently I managed to make myself extremely dizzy which wasn't at all pleasant.
There is a whole list of other side effects; they include Very Common, Common, Uncommon and Very Rare. It could be a cough, nasal congestion, hiccups, palpitations or abnormal heart beats, the former 2 can just be a side effect of giving up smoking anyway, the latter 2 caused by too much nicotine. And as for hiccups, I presume that's just from sucking in too much air!
Frightening sounding stuff though. Use them sensibly and there should be no problems.
Do remember to clean the filter out a few times a week. I left it a few days and there was loads of fluff in it, I may as well have been sucking on my jumper!
It does work, but for me it wouldn't have been enough on its own. It does work as a 'top-up' when the cravings particularly hit. I have reduced its use quite considerably but always have it just in case! It has been the mouth and hand thing that have always been my problem, but this has pretty much solved that problem.
What I don't like is, and which was a bit of a revelation was that it is too much like a drug preparation. As is smoking, I guess! But hopefully a couple more months and I'll be totally free of both of them!
**Update** After writing this a month ago I'm now off the patches and down to about 1 cartridge a day. Go me!
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