Good luck Chet!
FWIW I've found that in the first couple weeks (at least for me) that doing the patches
and the nic gum together seemed to help fight the craving the best. I would always wear the strongest strength patch and then in moments of craving chew the strongest strength nic gum. Doing one or the other never seemed to be enough nic for me, but I do chew quite a bit, odds are if I'm not eating or sleeping I have a chew in, I go through about 10 cans a week... The toughest times for me were always during the morning coffee, after eating, and drinking beer, which are obviously tough things to avoid.
I found that having something big as a motivater mentally is the way to go, at least for me. The longest I ever quit was when I bought my Carrera Turbo, I told myself that if I bought it I would quit and I did, everytime I felt weak I'd just go for a drive in that car or even just hang out in the garage with it and that helped me big time mentally. After I sold that car though I somehow stumbled back into it...
I wish ya all the best bro!
Gumbi chewed for quite some time too and kicked it a while back, he might have some insight on what worked for him.