Posted on 02/04/2020 4:22:35 AM PST by Kaslin
It’s always a good time, but it’s never the “right time” to quit when you’re a smoker. You can always find a “reason” to keep doing it – “I still have a few left in this pack,” “I have a stressful week coming up,” etc. But the news of Rush Limbaugh’s diagnosis with advance lung cancer is as good a time as any to quit. If you smoke, call it a day. If you know someone who does, get on their case. It’s a cliché, but it’s also true: never quit quitting.
Limbaugh’s shocking announcement Monday left fans stunned, wondering how to react to the announcement that a man who’s been a part of their daily lives since the late 80s is engaged in a fight for his life. When I heard the news it seemed unreal, a kind of sick Internet joke. Rush, after all, was known for referring to his “formerly nicotine-stained fingers,” referencing the fact that he quit smoking decades ago.
Quitting smoking is no guarantee of anything. The effects of cigarettes linger long after the smell is washed away. But the damage those cancer sticks have done can’t start to be reversed unless and until you’re rid of them forever.
While Rush quit cigarettes long ago, he was famous for being a cigar aficionado. But tobacco is tobacco; inhaling smoke in any form, even the small amounts cigar smokers who “don’t inhale” are inhaling is still inhaling smoke. It’s better just to walk away from all of it.
I know a little of what Rush is going through. Last year, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. We got lucky, if you can call it that. My father had pneumonia and ended up in the hospital because of it. While treating him for that, they noticed something on a chest x-ray they otherwise wouldn’t have done. They biopsied it and it was cancer. Thankfully, it was very early.
My dad wasn’t really forthcoming about the diagnosis, he never has been. When Rush made his announcement Monday he said, “I wish I didn’t have to tell you this, and I thought about not telling anybody. I thought about trying to do this without anybody knowing, ’cause I don’t like making things about me.” That’s how my dad is about such things. You have to ask, you have to pry. He’ll tell you, but he won’t volunteer anything. Maybe it’s that generation.
When my mom died in 2017, my dad was obviously very depressed. But he never let on. He’d talk about it, when asked, but after 57 years of marriage, there simply isn’t any way for me and my siblings to relate, even with our own sadness. The thought of losing him too was too much.
My siblings and I conspired, plotted, researched, prepared for every possible treatment option to help dad fight. But he wanted none of it. He’s lost friends, and his father and mother, to cancer: mother, after a long, painful battle with bone cancer, and father to lung cancer in his 80s. He’s seen chemotherapy and its ravages of the body; he would have no part of it.
My dad would only do radiation, otherwise, he wasn’t interested. He’d quit smoking long ago, but the consequences had caught up with him. He’s 10 years older than Rush, and has lived a great life. If my mother hadn’t been lost to an infection after heart surgery, there’s no doubt he would’ve done anything. But she was, so he was content with his decision.
Thankfully, the radiation has worked, at least so far. Like I said, they caught it early. Doctors still recommend surgery, he won’t do it. It’s been in check for a while now, and every single day we’re blessed to still have him with us. My dad is the bravest, hardest working, smartest man I’ve been lucky enough to know, and I know my mom is watching over him, waiting for him. But I also know she’s content to wait, as long as possible. They are the only people either of them were ever in love with. What're a few more years in the context of eternity? Plus, I hear my mother in his words sometimes, which means she’s feeding him her thoughts even now. And I know she loves that.
Rush doesn’t have any children, but what he lacks in offspring he makes up for with other family and millions of fans. His brother David is a good and strong man of faith who I’ve been lucky enough to get to know and can safely say he’s worth at least three kids in situations like this. And Rush is willing to do whatever is necessary, which will help.
Add to that the millions of fans pulling for him, and no prognosis is absolute.
If you were like I was and started smoking as a kid because there’s nothing dumber than a teenager, quit. You feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof when you’re young. You realize you aren’t when you grow up. Quitting is no guarantee of avoiding a horrible diagnosis or good health, but continuing is simply stupid. If you love someone, or even ever hope to, quit. Your body can’t start getting better until you stop making it worse.
Yule Brenner and Chuck Connor.
Whenever a famous smoker gets lung cancer, there is a big drop in smokers. But smoking is not what it used to be anyway. Vaping will completely replace it in the US. And without the tar and other carcinogens in cigarettes, it’s technically nowhere near as dangerous.
No, I don’t smoke (or vape) and never have. I think it’s stupid. I’ll throw this out, though: One of my friends has been a tobacco grower for decades and made the switch to hemp this last summer. I thought it was because hemp was the new big thing and though that is part of it, that is not the main reason. The main reason is that the bottom is already dropping out from under the tobacco industry.
When it’s not a thing to young people, its days are numbered.
COPD got my dad. That’s a horrible way to go....not being able to breathe.
walked by a guy yesterday morning at an outdoor cafe, drinking his first coffee and coughing as he lit up a cigarette; I said “smoke and coffee for breakfast?”, he went ballistic, “NEVER smoke, do not start, never ever smoke a cigarette” - I’m 62 not sure why he thought I would start now.
I agree.
I quit several times. I would quit, then I would quit again. And again.
Finally I actually stopped. It has been 25 years now. Recently I had my lungs checked, and the doctor said “very good”.
If you smoke, quit.
Really.
Quit.
I suppose the smoking Nazi’s will be out in full force.
One of my Sunday School friends never smoked a day in his life died of Lung Cancer. WW 2 Vet.
Both my parents died of lung cancer. Dad was WW2 and worked in a Steel Mill, back before they knew masks or ear plugs were need 2 packs a day. VA didn’t find it until he had 6 weeks to live despite every 3 months lung X Rays. Mom’s 1/2 package mostly burned up in the ash tray after a few puffs. 3 months to live. Mad 6 months.
Many substances including FDA approved drugs cause Cancer.
I don’t nor never have smoked as it is a ugly way to die.
It’s your life your choice not the Freaking governments or we’d all be eating rabbit food.
Word.
Quit 1 year ago yesterday.
Agree with your libertarian perspective.
But.
WE really can’t spare any more FReepers.
So.
Quit.
Congratulations!
Agree. Smoking is stupid. I am an ex smoker of cigarettes and cigars. I quit decades ago. Rush might have given himself lung cancer.
Or someone may have found a way to give it to him. It’s been done before. Don’t think it can’t happen.
” The main reason is that the bottom is already dropping out from under the tobacco industry.
When it’s not a thing to young people, its days are numbered.”
Tabaco sales are stronger than ever, they just export it all.
That is good and very wise. How long did you smoke?
I quit smoking in 2012-—cold turkey and never even thought about it again.Lost 70 pounds—excersize diet, lifestyle changes.
The real surprise was that I soon became VERY sick—my ulcerative colitis flared up and destroyed my health.
My GI doctor told me that the nicotine actually suppressed the disease.Go figure—I quit smoking in an effort to get healthy and get horribly sick and have been dealing with it ever since.
WTF
The best thing is not to inhale, which I never did. You might laugh but I didn’t know you had to inhale.
The Daily Mail periodically publishes pictures of Malia Obama and her boyfriend smoking cigarettes. I’m sure she gets an earful from her mother. Nancy Reagan was right - just say no to all drugs, including nicotine and too much alcohol.
I quit over 30 years ago. Threw my last pack away as I exited the Funeral Home having just seen my 25 yo cousin who died from cancer. Haven’t touched tobacco since.
Started smoking at 12, quit at 62, I’m 74 now.
The good news about quitting....
If you stop smoking before age 40, your risk factor for lung cancer returns to normal after 5 years.
If you quit after age 40, your risk factor never returns completely to normal, but, after 10 smoke free years, your risk factor is dramatically lower.
From memory, only 15% of smokers get lung cancer, but many of them still die young from other smoke-related diseases.
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