An area woman successfully quits after more than four decades of smoking

Diane Krekelberg isn’t going to let anyone tell her she couldn’t do it.

Krekelberg, five months removed from her last cigarette, plans to stay tobacco-free for the rest of her life. It’s a tall task for the 55-year-old Mapleview woman, who has a long relationship with cigarettes: She first smoked when she was 8 years old.

But she had always wanted to quit smoking, especially as she smoked more and more per day.

“I was up to two packs a day,” she said.

Yet Krekelberg decided about seven years ago to seek help in quitting. That’s why she went to Mayo Clinic Health System — Austin’s Tobacco Cessation program, about seven years ago to try to quit. She is one of more than 1,300 residents Debra Skare, tobacco treatment specialist, has seen over the years at Mayo. Krekelberg has had her ups and downs, but she is celebrating five months without having a cigarette.

“It was something that I’ve always wanted to quit, to feel better. And I toyed with it,” Krekelberg said.

Krekelberg, like many smokers, struggled at first with quitting. According to Skare, tobacco is one of the most addictive substances on the market, and getting someone to quit smoking is far more difficult than it sounds.

Yet some people are motivated enough to quit, mainly through focusing on a specific goal like saving money, because they don’t want to end up sick, or other reasons.

For Krekelberg, who smoked menthol Remington cigarettes, the cost was simply too high. Once the latest tobacco tax increase kicked in this past July, she was done smoking.

“I said when they hit $2 a pack, I was done,” Krekelberg said. “And they hit $2.14, and so I was done.”

Yet Krekelberg was also motivated by fear. Her family has a history of smoking, and Krekelberg worried she could be susceptible to the same cancers and diseases that have killed or injured her loved ones.

“Three years ago, I lost a sister to lung cancer,” she said. “A year and a half ago, I had another sister that just lost half of her lung, due to lung cancer. I said I was going to quit then, and I went right back to smoking then.”

Skare knows how frightening tobacco can be: Her father, grandfather, and several uncles have died from illnesses made worse by tobacco use, from heart attacks to COPD.

“It’s quite a few relatives,” she said.

That, in part, motivated her to become a counselor of sorts for people like Krekelberg who want to quit. Skare found working with people in a tobacco cessation program was fulfilling when she worked on her master’s degree, and has worked in Austin for the past 11 years.

“It kills over 450,000 people every year, so it’s the most preventable cause of death that there is,” Skare said.

Skare said one of the most important things people who want to quit can do is to set specific goals or reasons for why they want to quit. It makes quitting easier, since the biggest challenge for people is changing their smoking habits.

Many only show up for one meeting with Skare, which can take up to an hour, and never come back. Skare said those people usually aren’t ready to quit, as most people need coaching and motivation to break the physical and emotional attachment people have to smoking.

Krekelberg was one of those people who needed help. She used to see Skare about once a week in order to help manage her cravings.

“We’d talk about different strategies, what could I do, when the triggers would come,” Krekelberg said.

Those triggers could be anything from the taste of a cigarette to a stressful situation. Skare would advise things like sucking on a straw — according to Skare, satisfies the “hand-to-mouth motion many smokers are used to” — and to keep busy, so as to not think about smoking.

At times Krekelberg would talk with Skare on the phone about her cravings, if she was in the midst of a sudden urge to smoke. Skare would also check in on Krekelberg at night. For Skare, the phone calls are part of a monthly check-in

“You can call Deb any time and she’s there. If you need somebody, she’s there, she’ll talk to you,” Krekelberg said.

Skare also prescribed patches, gum, inhaler and lozenges for Krekelberg, as she was so used to nicotine in her system.

“It’s a long process, but it gets easier as you go,” Krekelberg said.

Yet it’s a process that has gotten easier for Krekelberg, the further removed she is from her last cigarette. She even de-smoked her house: Krekelberg scrubbed her walls, ceilings and floors to get rid of the ingrained smoke smells that permeated her Mapleview home, the type of husky, dirty smell she says people who smoke wouldn’t ever notice.

Krekelberg has also tried to stay away from situations where people are smoking, and no longer allows people to smoke in her home. All of this is part of the plan to quit, she said.

For Krekelberg, the months without smoking have been a blessing, though she has struggled with cravings and has been tempted to cheat. But she says her children are proud of her for accomplishing her goals, and she is pleased to tell would-be doubters about her progress thus far.

“I was real close to just saying no, I don’t want to fight the fight no more,” Krekelberg said. “But I wasn’t going to let people say to me, ‘We knew you couldn’t make it.’”

A Tobacco Cessation Open House will take place at the Austin hospital from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, as part of the Great American Smokeout, a national trend marked on the third Thursday of November each year. Residents can stop by the hospital and learn more about how to quit smoking for free, and will include a free carbon monoxide screening.

Krekelberg is using her spare time to pick up new hobbies, like making table centerpieces and learning how to crochet. She’s nervous about the winter — she’ll have more spare time, which makes her more prone to cravings — but she’s thankful for the help she has received thus far.

“Deb is my lifesaver,” Krekelberg said. “I know if I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t be as far as I am without her and her program.”