Joslyn Eatmon smoked religiously for 40 years. With the help of Quit With WakeMed, she will have been free of cigarettes for an entire year. Here is her testimony:

“I smoked for 40 years and started as a teenager by sneaking my parents’ cigarettes. I was hooked by the time I was 19. Once employed, it provided me a way to keep up the habit. I never really thought it was bad. I just saw it as doing what I wanted to do. When I visited my WakeMed primary care physician, Revella Harmon, MD, she told me that she was referring me to the smoking cessation team. I honestly didn’t want to stop.

“I realized, however, that if I said no to smoking cessation, it might impact my health insurance, so I moved forward with it. To get out of it, I decided that when they called me, I’d be so ugly that they’d not want to call me again. Fortunately, the person who called was Stacy Thiedeman, PA-C. I was cold toward her, but it didn’t stop her. She called me again. During the second session, she asked me why I smoked. I told her I smoked because it was what I wanted to do. ‘I’m grown. I pay my own bills. What’s wrong with it?’

“She repeated the question more slowly.

“At that point, I thought about a time I’d asked my grandsons why they were doing something, and they said they didn’t know. I told them, ‘If you don’t know why you’re doing something, you need to stop right now.’ I was tortured by the hypocrisy of demanding that my grandsons stop a behavior when I, too, was doing something just to do it.

“Because being a grandmother is a role I take seriously, I decided on June 27, 2022 to quit immediately.

“Now that I’ve stopped smoking, I’ve found positive ways to keep my hands busy. I didn’t realize that my leisure time was spent sitting around smoking. Since I quit, I now spend more time doing laundry, cleaning my house and making epoxy crafts. I’m much more productive in every area of my life and take pride in being the example I want to be.

“As far as my health, I take in better breaths of air. I have more energy. I don’t cough a lot like I used to. I also don’t have to make sure I’m brushing my teeth all the time. I no longer put up with stuff just to keep smoking.

“I still keep in touch with Stacy. We text each other and video chat. She has been very supportive, and I appreciate that.

“I am now telling my friends to quit smoking. I know if I can do it, they can do it!”

Quit with WakeMed