Good for you, SB!! Keep it up!

It's so hard, SC. I can't believe I've stuck with it, but I guess that finally telling the girls has helped. Now they'll be watching me!! My daughter's very happy, though. And that's certainly worth it.

Thanks for the support. A gal my age needs all the support she can get!

They sell bras for that.

Oh, I thought maybe she was talking about a walker.

LN, you just MIGHT have topped SC with that one!

I searched for a smoking thread and found this one. I thought I would bump it up for one reason.

My mother-in-law has smoked for 60 years. On December 17th, she had to have triple bypass surgery. Two of the arteries were 100% occluded and one was 90%. 5 days after the surgery, she was moved to a rehab for physical therapy. A few days later, she was rushed back to the hospital in respiratory distress. She cannot fully inflate her lungs, and they continually fill up with fluids. Today she had her third procedure to drain the fluid. Tomorrow she will have a fourth. The doctors have tried medication to relieve it, but so far nothing works.

Since she smoked for so many years, she has advanced COPD. She has no other health issues, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, she's not obese, although she does have high cholesterol. Whatever health issues she has are all smoking related.

If any of our friends here are looking to quit smoking, I am telling you this in hopes that it will be a motivation. After numerous attempts to quit, it has now been two and a half years since I've had a cigarette. I am so grateful that I was able to do it this time around.

Please, please, please, I see the pain this has caused my mother-in-law and I see how my husband is consumed with fear and worry. I hope and pray that she is able to rebound, and we'll know more in three or four days, but QUIT. It's an expensive and dirty habit, and you will feel better without it.

Although there is more of me to love since I quit (30 lbs.!), I know that my husband will live with it, rather than see me sick like his mother.

And, in the meantime, please send any good thoughts you can her way. She's going to need them.

Heartfelt thoughts & prayers to SB and her family. God bless & good luck.

SB,

It's stories like your MIL that gave me the final push to finally quit. I've been smoke free now for 3 years and am so glad I am. Although their are never any guarantees on one's health, I sure do feel healthier.

My thoughts/prayers are with your MIL


TIS

TIS, I think of Plaw so often. He was so young, and his loved ones were robbed of so much when he died, especially his son.

Giving up cigarettes was one of the hardest things I've ever done, and it took years and several tries to do it, but I am grateful that I did.

Thanks for the good wishes, folks.

Best wishes to your MIL, SB. Mr. Babe is fortunate to have you in his corner right now.

Aw, thanks. She does seem to be doing better, so if she continues to improve over the next 48 hours, she can come home!

I notice that our Don hasn't said anything. Geoff, I swore I would never be one of those preachy ex-smokers, but......

Best wishes for your MIL- SB

My father is against all smokers. Big Time!
Even if people joke about it being good for our business.

He lost his father to them and saw both his father's sisters struggle to take a breath in the final stages of lung cancer. First not being able to get out much, then not even being able to walk around a room, then even the movement of being in a bed became a chore to them.

He says it is a slow death, stealing the quality of your life away from you. I think the final straw was when he lost his sister and she was only 50 years old at the time. Spending days at her bedside watching her go down hill. The cancer eating at her and the pain getting worst and worst. Having to lift her every time she wanted to move trying to find a soft spot to relax in. Many nights he came home with tears in his eyes and you could tell he had been crying all the way home from the hospital.

And yet years ago it was made popular by the tobacco companies with so many adds and actors doing it in all the movies and TV shows. Making people feel that it was a natural thing to do, cool, sexy and being a real man to light up. People just didn't know the danger back then. But today we do, but it doesn't keep anyone from lighting up...
Even with the price of the name brands being almost a hundred dollars a carton, it hasn't stopped people.
What are we doing?
Sorry for the soapbox, the old man must be rubbing off more then I think!

I agree with everything you said. Back in the day, nobody knew the dangers (except the tobacco companies, and they weren't going to tell!), but that's no longer true. However, they have a very powerful lobby, plus the sale of cigarettes brings in an enormous amount of sales tax.

Best wishes to your Mother-in-law SB.

The Col's uncle was in the hospital dying of lung cancer mean while he was in the bathroom smoking away and setting off the fire alarms. He could not give them up and it took his life.

I guess if you're dying, you figure you might as well keep smoking. I was at the hematologist this morning, and he's also an oncologist. They give IV chemo treatments in the office. The nurse told me they've had patients ask if they can take the IV stands outside for a cigarette break!