Bean,

I asked my doctor how soon I should quit smoking after he had delivered the news about my biopsy being positive. He said a few days were not going to make a great deal of difference after 30 years of smoking but he wanted me to have quit at least one week before treatment began.

This gave me a few weeks to wind my smoking down to a few cigs a day and to get a few self-help books. I also went on the patches and then kept some nicotine mints around for those sudden urges.

I had fully and finally quit a week before I went into treatment. Take some time and work your way into quitting the cigs. Make a plan, look for any support you can get and then just follow through. There are some great support groups on the net so you might want to try that.

The key here is to give yourself time to implement a plan and then get to the point where you are a nonsmoker. It does not have to happen overnight but it will need to happen fairly soon (it took me three weeks).

Best of luck, I know you can do this.