Is this the 1st day of the rest of my life?! xxx

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Well, i finally did it. After 12-14 years on the dreaded 'weed', i finally made the move to try and give up the cigarettes. In the bin went the ciggies, and on my arm went a very sticky (and rather itchy) nicotine patch. I'm 27 years old and although i'm generally very healthy, what urged me to give up once and for all was actually a health-scare ~ i'd been getting a sort of stiff neck feeling in the right side, on and off, for a few weeks, which gradually became more noticable and began to worry me a little. As a smoker of 20 a day since i was 13 or 14 yrs old, the older i get, the more aware i am of the health-risks of smoking, and the more worried i have become about these risks affecting me, in a potentially life-threatening way. So when i found what felt like a lump in my neck, around where i'd been getting the aches, this sent a fearful panic coursing through me, immediately worried that it could be something to do with me smoking; perhaps even the dreaded C word. The area around the lump was tender, and would hurt without even touching it, so it was a constant reminder, eacha nd every time i had a cigerette, that i could be doing myself untold damage health wise with each puff. Thats when the Patches came out the drawer (where they'd been on 'stand-by' ever since my last failed attempt at quitting smoking.. one of many).. but this time i took one big leap of faith, and told myself i COULD give up the nicotine, i COULD, i WOULD and quite frankly i HAD TO! All the Lung, Neck, Throat and Tongue Cancer stories you hear arising from smoking became real at that point ~ so real, that i realised that it could happen to me if i didnt stop NOW. It had to be then. Leaving it anymore time to quit felt crazy. I was scared because im quite young, and i'd love to have children and to grow very old gracefully with my fiance ~ i realised that if i continued smoking, after all this time and damage i've done to my body, i may not live to eve see my children grow up. It all just hit me like a tonne of bricks,a nd i knew i ahd to stop then.. or probably never. So on the patch went (im far too mardy to go through withdrawals without some help ~ last time i gave up the cigs cold turkey i turned into an absolute crazy woman, crying one minute screaming the next lol... i hoped the patchesd would prevent a few of the nastier side-effects of withdrawals.. for my fiances sake at least!;). Well.. its now 30hours since i made that life-changing (and hopefully life-saving) decision, and i'm on my 2nd Nicotine patch. Unbelievably, all is going well so far. I feel actually much better in certain ways than if id been smoking, but just a little on-edge maybe. I'm so glad i took that opportunity to quit when i could ~ I'm still a little worried about the tender slightly swollen area on my neck, and i'm going to the Doctors to have it checked out... if it is something serious, the fact i've given up smoking should surely help a little towards getting back to full-health; and if the lump is nothing at all to worry about (which im so hoping it is), then i'll be a much happier, healthier non-smoker because of the scare. I hope i can keep this up though, as im only on my 2nd day, and i must admit i've had just a couple of sneaky puffs here and there... but i just thought id write my experiences down for everyone to see that even a healthy 27yr old smoker can have a cancer-scare, directly because of smoking.. Has anybody else given up smoking lately? Or anybody had a smoking-related health-scare? I'm not a seasoned quitter, so i dont what to expect on day3 and on ~ any tips ould always be a big help, and maybe even some relaxation techniques for when the urges make you feel a little anxious. Sorry for such a long post ~ i just wanted to share with you all. Lots of luv, Marie xxxxxxx