Something to go in your "memories" folder -

[kyburg]

*ahem*

I've said this many times. But it bears repeating.

Gift me if you will. I will only ask for one thing, and one thing only.

If you smoke, quit. That's what I want for Christmas, New Years, Divali, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Birthday, Fat Tuesday, Happy Friday - what have you.

If you smoke.

Quit. Please.

Lung cancer is only at the top of a very, very long list in the teeniest print you can imagine of things that can happen to you, just because you smoke. Teeny print, I tell you in all honesty.

I never have. I grew up in hospitals, and Jim still works in one. He takes x-rays all day - you tell me who's motivated not to smoke, and to coax other people away from it.

If you don't smoke, I adore bath fizzies. Woodsy scents preferred.

..

Mom's bladder cancer was directly tied to her smoking earlier in life - it was one of the first cancers to be determined to have a direct link to it.

..and jeez, isn't it expensive enough to consider not spending the money?

Comments

[vampireanneke.livejournal.com]

I'm still doing some calculations...but in general I tend to see that those people who don't smoke (those who have never smoked) are smarter in general. I'm sorry but you have to be 1. stupid to start smoking, 2. weak willed to start smoking due to 'peer pressure', etc... I don't need stupid or weak willed people around me. They say it's an addiction, and hard to quit...well why did they bother to start in the first place? Idiots!

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*nods* Easy, easy. They got suckered into a bad deal, and sometimes that's all.

Addiction to nicotine, I'm told, is worse than kicking smack and that's saying something.

But the other thing that doesn't surprise me about this, is that they also find significant elevated levels of mental illness among smokers - austism, depression, schitzophrenia and personality disorders.

In other words, forgive them. They know not what they did when they started...and it might be neigh impossible for them to quit.

People who never smoked? Might be a bit brighter than the norm (or better informed), but those who did and quit? The odds are against it, and for beating them, they have my admiration. That's intestinal fortitude, baby!

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

Amen and testify!

[makeitepic.livejournal.com]

AMEN, SISTER.

I dunno if you know this, and I'm pretty sure you do, but Christopher Reeves' wife has been diagnosed with lung cancer and she never smoked a day in her life. Full story here.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I saw that. I'm told that the air quality in Los Angeles here has been like having a two-pack a day habit. I don't buy that, entirely - but cancer is definitely a equal opportunity disease.

Cancer is only at the top of the list. The one that breaks my heart? Remebering the loved ones who kept asking the nurses to "turn the oxygen up" to help their loved one breathe. Except there was no way to turn it up any higher, and they had to watch the person struggle and suffer until they suffocated on it.

*brr*

The money you'll save...

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

The money you, the smoking reader, will save can keep Donna in bath fizzies for the rest of her life!

She'll never exit the tub, again!

Okay. What was in my meatloaf, tonight?!

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Right after my chain-smoking paternal grandmother (the token grandparent to still smoke after 1964 and the Surgeon General's warning) got diagnosed with lung cancer I was approached by someone at San Jose State with a petition for anti-smoking legislation.

I told her, "Stop the spiel now. Just hand me the petition and let me sign it."

She was confused. I then told her of my grandmother's at-the-time recent diagnosis.

She understood.

What nobody tells you is lung cancer hurts. Nanny constantly complained about the pain and how the doctors only wanted to give her dope and not something that would actually get rid of the pain.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Colon cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer, mouth cancer (lose your jaw, try that), throat cancer (lose your voice, aiee, and any ability to eat solid food you can taste again), stomach cancer and most of them end up in the brain (that's how George Harrison and Carrie Hamilton died from smoking) or in the liver.

I'll pass. It's entirely elective and I can skip the whole thing.

Then, I can move down the list to the other things that can go wrong? Want a hint? Go look at the list of things diabetics have to look forward to as complications - every last one of them, smokers are exposed to the same risk. Because smoking narrows circulation pathways. They can go blind, develop kidney disease, nerve damage - the whole profile. A bit slower, but the risks remain.

Oh, damn - don't forget the heart disease! Sheesh.

[jobunches.livejournal.com]

Done! On day 5...feeling damn good I might add!

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Well, you're off the fizzy list for this year....good for you!

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

I have never, ever been tempted to smoke. But then again, I grew up with smoking parents. So who knows what's going to happen to me?

BTW, washingtonpost.com is having a Q&A session about lung cancer right this very minute.