Posted on 07/30/2011 7:31:27 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
Good luck!
It was watching a sad video of a woman dying of cancer which finally motivated me to quit.
Six months prior to making the video, the woman had been a school teacher vacationing in Hawaii. She had a wonderful life and saw nothing but rosy prospects ahead.
Six months later she was skin-and-bones. She made the video to tell her story to others in the hopes that it might save them. She died two weeks after the video was made.
I couldn't stand the idea that I might find myself in her situation and would have only myself to blame. Some people have the sad misfortune to get cancer and die young through no fault of their own. Smokers have only themselves to blame.
I cut down as much as I could over several weeks in order to reduce the physical withdrawal symptoms. Then I just quit. I have described my decision-making as "throwing a switch". I simply threw a mental switch and became somebody who would never smoke again.
The real test came about six weeks later. I think I was taking college classes then, falling behind and needing to work hard to catch up. I felt quite a relief when I made it through that challenging time and didn't light up.
Like others have described, I had dreams of smoking again. In the dream I pick up a pack of cigarettes and start smoking again, only later remembering that I had quit. It's a very disappointing feeling in that dream that I have let myself down by accidently taking up the habit again.
It took ten years before the sensation of smelling second-hand smoke was not pleasant. It has been over thirty years since I smoked. I also had to quit drinking in order to quit smoking. Otherwise, I would have grabbed a cigarette after just a couple of drinks. I'm so much better off without either of those bad habits.
The only smokers I have ever said that to were the ones who were already lighting up and expected me to say go ahead. My insulting comment gave them the permission they wanted.
Your doctors are grasping at straws when they tell you that something you quit doing 15 years ago has anything to do with your current illness. It is IMPOSSIBLE for them to prove a direct link between any tobacco use and any illness, especially after so much time has elapsed. There is correlation, but that is NOT causation.
See the W.H.Org's own tobacco study.
I personally quit 5 or so years ago, after 20 years as a 2+ packs/day smoker. I have since learned that just about everything the anti-smokers say is either a bald-faced LIE, or an exaggeration bent to suit their agenda.
Oh, and I still miss the weed, too, but I refuse to pay them one more red cent in taxes to propagandize against smoking.
I remember going to weddings years ago, and you were assigned seats with smokers. You were dressed up and went home with smoke on your clothes and in your hair.
Smokers obviously like the smell, which is not understandable to non-smokers..
I remember going to weddings years ago, and you were assigned seats with smokers. You were dressed up and went home with smoke on your clothes and in your hair.
Smokers obviously like the smell, which is not understandable to non-smokers..
Yikes! Are you still having regular checkups and PET scans?
So far, I seem to have missed lung cancer although that's a favorite met spot for bladder cancer.
Smokers hate the very idea that cigarette smoke smells bad to former smokers. I never knew how bad the smell was, until I hadn't had one in a long time.
See posts #11 and #16. Nuff said....
Snort. Had to go back and look, but you are funny.
I know what you mean. I quit over 7 years ago and a few years back when we went looking at used vehicles, as soon as you opened the door of a vehicle owned by a smoker the smell would hit you in the face like a frying pan.
Sometimes it would be so bad I would gag. Its funny how you never noticed the smell as a smoker but when you are not around it for awhile due to quitting, it really IS offensive.
Once in a blue moon someone may be smoking nearby and it will smell good, but most of the time it just stinks.
Ummm I the first 5 or 6 times I tried to quit were cold turkey. I did manage to quit the first time for 6 months. But again, for me the first 2 or 3 weeks were the worst. Using One Step I didn’t have any of the anxiety, but I think that is because I had already removed most of the tar/nicotine from my system.
God bless you, I pray you never have cancer again!!! Have you had your vitamin D levels checked? They are linking a lot of cancers to low D. I also had breast cancer. Did I mention, I HATE CANCER. My D level was extremely low. Believe it our not, most American’s have low D. Either because of where they live, or because our lifestyles have changed over the years and we don’t spend much time outside, or if we do we are slathered in suntan lotion which blocks vitamin D absorption.
oh yes. We jogged for years and years WHILE we smoked if you can believe it!!!! However, we decided would serve us better and it did. I think it was walking and exercise that caused us to quit and never look back. Thank God for that. But...like I said...i laid my cigarettes on the window sill and said: “That’s it.” And...it was! That was January 1987. We still walk and exercise.
Yup, like clockwork.
Good News: 2 years cancer free!
Bad News: My Oxygen tank has become my best friend, it goes everywhere I go. A real bummer when only 55 . . .
What about leaving a widow and fatherless children?
He is harming them, and it becomes THEIR problem, though I agree it’s not yours and mine.
Granted, if Michael Douglas dies prematurely from smoking-related cancer, his wife and children will suffer from the loss of a husband and father. However, that is a responsibility issue that is restricted to the man's family and has no bearing on anyone else, which was my point - the one you agreed with.
Financially, Michael Douglas is a multi-millionaire and his family will never be in want. In addition, his beautiful wife, an actress, makes big money on her own. Even so, I'm sure Douglas' wife and children would rather have Michael than just his money. Still, when a woman marries a man 25 years older (Zeta-Jones is 41, Douglas is 66) she has to realize that she'll very likely outlive him. When a man in his fifties fathers babies (Douglas' kids are 11 and 8) both the man and his wife must realize that he may not live to see them grown, although it's natural to assume you will. That is another risk taken by the indulgent Michael Douglas and, like his smoking, affects his wife and children, no one else.
That being the case, the issue of Michael Douglas smoking after a bout with throat cancer and by doing so, risking the chance that he'll die prematurely, depriving his wife and children of a husband and father, becomes slightly less of an issue - but still one that is not our concern. I called him a fool but I defend Michael Douglas' right to act like a fool. We all do at times. However, calling Michael Douglas a fool (for smoking) is about all anyone can do when an adult human being chooses to engage in legal but risky, life-threatening behavior. If you're close to the person, you try to steer him right. If it's some rich, famous actor being foolish, you post a message about his stupid behavior. I've done that, twice. The End.
As my Mother use to say (in a sarcastic voice), very funny, very funny.
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Thank you.
My Vitamin D level is fine.
I too hate cancer. I accept the fact that my smoking has probably led to both my cancer episodes, and that keeps me from having any desire to get near tobacco again. I’m just grateful that there so far has been no indication of lung cancer.
When I was a kid in the ‘30’s we called cigarettes coffin nails. Even then we knew they sure weren’t healthy. And that was long before there even was a surgeon general (I think).
Hope you are okay now.
I remember that the late Peter Jennings had quit smoking for years, then started back up after 9/11, and then got cancer a few years later. Of course had he not started back up again, would it have made a difference? I don’t know.
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