A few days ago, my sister passed away, from advanced COPD and emphysema brought on by years of cigarette smoking.

We family members gathered around her for several days, watching her fight for her last breaths, and listening to the awful rattle and gasping that goes along with it.

For all who still smoke- do yourselves, your families and loved ones, a great favor, and for God's sake, give it up. There may still be time- the body can recover from the effects of smoking, if the lungs haven't yet become damaged to a point of no return.

My sister would have been 68 in May. She lost her husband 9 years ago, also from disease related to smoking. The heartache, tragedy, and expense of dying from smoking can be avoided!

Excellent, heartfelt advice sir.

Are the national numbers decreasing? I do not see many people that smoke any more. It sure is nice!

About the time my mom left us last month, we got the news that our dad was diagnosed with, in his words, "a little bit of emphysema". There's not a chance in heck that he's going to quit. Both he and his second wife smoke like chimneys.

It really sucks knowing that you're guaranteed to be parentless within the next few years.

Sorry to hear about your sister. Smoking killed my dad and my mother has advanced COPD and is on oxygen 24x7. I HATE cigarettes.

Preaching to the choir here. I sat there helplessly watching my dad literally gasping like a fish out of water after only walking across the kitchen floor.

His passing was almost a relief at that point.

Same here, in 1992. After 30 years of two packs of L&Ms a day, he died and the last few years were no picnic.
However, I have given up on ragging people about it. If they want to kill themselves, its their life.

It will be six years on May 10th that I quit smoking. Wasn't easy but not quite as hard as I thought it would be. I even dream about smoking sometimes and second hand smoke smells good at times. But, I'm damn glad I quit and don't plan on ever starting again. Not that I could afford it!

My oldest sonsmoked. Stage 4 lu g cancer has spread to liver, colon, sansplean.

I quit in 1985.

2 years smoke free, and glad of it.

GFY - And I mean good for you!

My Dad thew his cigarettes in the trash and quit cold turkey the day the Surgeon General's report came out in the 60's. He lived to be 89 and showed no effects of having been a smoker. My Mother dropped dead of a massive heart attack at age 50, she had just smoked a couple of cigarettes on her coffee break at work. Her sister got throat cancer at age 52 and underwent surgery and radiation, it looked as though she had beaten the cancer. In her early 80's the cancer returned this time she lost her bladder and had a urinostomy. She lost all quality of life after that, her final two years were really miserable. The wife's Mother was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 50 the month after she retired, the cancer spread rapidly to her brain. Her feet became necrotic, essentially dead black in appearance. She live a little more than 2 months during which time the cancer formed two hideous masses trying to grow out of her body. No one I know that smoked cheated cancer and a hideous death. What I find the stupidest of all is the offspring of these people continue to smoke after having witnesses these hideous deaths believing it can't happen to them. Long before any of this happened I chose not to ever start smoking though many peers got hooked by cigarettes and nicotene thinking it was the coolest thing to do.

November 30, 1997; 11:30am after dragging a deer out.

Don't miss it...not even a little bit.




Sorry for your loss Bighorn.

Gal I considered getting married to back in 1990... but she was a smoker and I wouldn't put up with it and she wouldn't stop.. so I walked away... which shocked and made her mad..

really outgoing attractive gal...

read her obit back in 2014 passing away from lung cancer.. she started smoking at 14....

I can proudly say, I've never had a puff from one cigarette in my lifetime...never could understand why people started...

Exactly....I don't see how any sane person could put that crap in their body. My dad laid em down cold turkey in the 60's, my mom was like some of the emphysema stories previously posted. Shaking my head....

For those who have seen success in quitting the smoking addiction / habit my most sincere congratulations. For those who wish to be left alone to do be free to do as they please. Please see it this way The addiction owns you as long as you choose not to fight the difficult battle to give up the addiction.

I know it is not easy, Though it is worth it! Plenty of good reasons offered above to kick the habit and a list as long as the Nile not mentined.

21yrs since i quit cigarettes. i will puff on a cigar once in a while when with friends.

24 years for me. Both of my wife's parents died from lung cancer, and both smoked as does my wife. She will not even talk to you about quitting. miles

so did i.

Nothing will piss off a smoker like a non-smoker preaching to them to quit as if it's as easy as giving up a morning donut. The words GFY come immediately start dancing in your head. Second worse is a former smoker bragging how easy it was for them to quit. You start to feel your palm quiver as it forms into a fist looking for a target.


I know everyone means well but simple sound bites aren't going to help anyone hooked hard. I easily gave up drinking because alcohol didn't get a hold of me like it has millions who have a terrible time breaking free. And I know better than to tell anyone who might be under it's grasp how easy it was for me. All that does is piss people off.



What I will do is offer a solution that might help some who are having an extremely hard time getting off the cigs. I'm sure by now many of you smokers have heard of e-cigs or electronic cigarettes. It's basically vegetable oil mixed with nicotine. You still get the same nic hit as you would a cig but the draw is a bit different. There is no smoke and no carcinogens. You exhale water vapor. It's harmful to no one. The long term affects of ecig use still hasn't been determined so keep that in mind but you will incredibly different right away. No more hacking, gasping for air or waking up in the middle of the night choking for air. You will feel basically like you would if you quit cold turkey but you will not have the panic attacks or irritation.





For anyone willing to give it a shot, this is a fail safe setup that's easy to use and reliable.


Battery

http://www.myvaporstore.com/Eleaf-iStick-40W-TC-Kit-p/elis-is4060.htm


Tank(where you put the e-liquid)- screws into battery

http://www.myvaporstore.com/Eigate-Aspire-Nautilus-Mini-2ml-p/ap-mna-k.htm



Buy 5 extra atomizers. These easy to screw in parts are what turn the e-liquid into vapor) Replace every 2 weeks. Simple to do. I suggest putting 2 or 3 drops of e-liquid down the mouthpiece every time you change the atomizer. Will keep it from tasting burnt.


http://www.myvaporstore.com/Atomizer-head-for-Aspire-Nautilus-BVC-V2-p/ap-na-2ah.htm


Then all you need is the liquid. I'd suggest a 50 ml to start. Should last a week. Start with 18 mg nicotine.


I prefer this one but choose your own.

http://www.myvaporstore.com/eLiquid-RY4-p/liq-ry4.htm

On why people start smoking: Because up through the 70's into the 80's everybody smoked. Not literally everybody, but it was commonplace. My parents never smoked but would put out ashtrays in the house for guests who did. All restaurants had ashtrays at every table. Theaters had a "smoking loge" which was just a section of seats across the aisle, planes had smoking sections which was just the back half of the plane. There were no "No smoking" areas at work, I smoked at my desk up until the late 80's. Movie and TV stars smoked, celebrities would come out on talk shows and smoke through the whole interview - heck, Sheriff Andy Taylor smoked. Only athletes who needed their wind were really prohibited from smoking, and a lot of them still did anyway.

There was no stigma about it and teenagers saw it as the fast doorway to looking and acting like an adult.


On quitting: I guess everybody is different and I've learned not to doubt what others can do just because I can't but I have to wonder at or admire those who say they just put it down and never looked back. I smoked for 23 years and quit 13 times, usually only lasted 2-3 days but once for 6 months. But like alcoholics, take that first cigarette again and you're off the wagon real fast. I finally quit for good in 1991. You can overcome the nicotine addiction in a few days but the habit remains far after that, as least it did for me. For well over two years after quitting any time I was in a situation where I used to smoke I'd find myself reaching for a cigarette - coming out of a theater, getting in my truck, whenever.

I'm glad folks nowadays realize how damaging it really is but being a libertarian I figure folks should be able to do what they want. As long as I don't have to breathe the smoke - which I can't stand the smell of any more - they can puff away until they slowly choke and die gasping for breath over the course of months and months. It's their life and their choice.

My dad smoked Pall Malls for 35 years. Diagnosed with heart disease at 59. He was told he had a 20% (and increasing by 20%) chance of having a fatal heart attack each year to 5 years, when he would most certainly be guaranteed to have one that would kill him.

He quit cold turkey, moved to a different climate, and lived to be 81. But, he did die of pancreatic cancer.

Yep.

Add smokeless into there. Cancer of the mouth, esophagus, and stomach from that stuff ain't a pretty way to go.

My HS sweetheart died from brain tumors that metastasized from lung cancer when she was 42. She started smoking when she was 15 as a way to rebel against her controlling father. I tried to get her to quit, but she really liked those Salem 100s. I don't bother encouraging people to quit smoking, 'cause like any other addiction, the addict has got to want to quit or it won't work. I do encourage smokers who can't, or don't want to, quit to smoke an Altria Group brands.

Speaking of Altria Group, their web site has this on it:

​Philip Morris USA agrees with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases in smokers. Smokers are far more likely to develop such serious diseases than non-smokers.​

These have been, and continue to be, the messages of the U.S. Surgeon General and public health authorities worldwide. Smokers and potential smokers should be guided by these messages when deciding whether or not to smoke.​

You can obtain more information directly from these public health organizations about cigarette smoking and disease in smokers: International Agency for Research on Cancer, the World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society, and the U.S. Surgeon General.​

Our Support of a Consistent Public Health Message​
We support a single, consistent public health message on the role of cigarette smoking in the development of disease in smokers, and on smoking and addiction.​

Any reason anyone can think of why the all powerful govt has chosen gun control as it's #1 agenda over cigarette control?

Anyone?

I was up to a 4 1/2 pack a day habit and just quit. Gave away nine packs in a carton and my lighter that day. Never smokes another cigarette. Now, 38 years later I enjoy a good cigar when in the mood but starting up cigars at 66 will probably not kill me.

With all of the knowledge out there I find it hard to believe that anyone still smokes...You would have to be a serious dumb Arss to take up that filthy habit.

My mom is 69, now has advanced copd, is supposed to be on o2, and refuses. Still smoking...she was out of breath simply cooking easter dinner. She also has heart disease now too.

One of my best friends was recently diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. Cigs got him too...

My father and another family member died of smoking, emphysema got both of them. Ugly to watch, takes about 10 years of pain, progressively getting more and more winded, coughing and hacking at the slightest exertion. Both smoked Bull Durham and Camels, not that it matters.

I quit 30 years ago, hardest thing I think I ever had to do, took every ounce of willpower I could summon up over a period of about 6 months. Cant stand to even get a whiff of it now.

Even now, I wish I could go back to freshman year in High School, find the little punk who thought it would be cool to smoke like the big boys and kick his azz real good.

Same here. Oct. 15, 1985.

Ed

That's simple the taxes on cigarettes are astronomical and every one that works and smokes pays a pile of taxes and then dies before collecting any government benefits such as social security.

And if you were a lying, cheating, stealing politician would you like your constituents to have guns?

Big tobacco's genetic manipulation of tobacco to increase nicotine content thus making cigarette smoking more addictive along with propagating the myth that second hand smoke was harmless are two of the biggest crimes commited by the tobacco industry. As regards the second hand smoke I've had two acquaintances die of throat cancer. Both were non-smokers but grew up in households with smokers. My step mother thought she had beaten epiglotal cancer but succumbed to bladder cancer may years later. Think about that for a minute, all the toxins contained in cigarette smoke have to exit the body therefor setting the stage for bladder cancer. If you think a colostomy bag is bad, a urinostomy bag leaks urine and quality of life is pretty much gone.

All insurance will cover Chantix now. It works for many.

My mother is slowly dying from emphysema/COPD, is on Oxygen 24/7 and has zero quality of life. I hope the 40 years of smoking Pall Malls were worth it. I get to see her a few times a year and each time I'm filled with a mix of sympathy, pity and anger knowing she did this to herself. My dad has resorted to being a closet smoker and invents ridiculous reasons to get out of the house so he can light up. If watching your wife of 50+ years die a little more every day can't convince you to quit then it must be one bad SOB of a habit! I kind of think he's just trying to catch up to her declined state of health so he won't have to be alone so long after she passes.

The whole thing is just sad and seems so avoidable. I often wonder when all the second hand smoke from 20 yrs under their roof and in the backseat of the car is going to manifest itself in me.

LOL

My MIL also smoked Pall Malls for years, so addicted was she that she kept cigarettes and a lighter at her bedside. Upon opening her eyes in the morning the first thing she did was light up a cigarette. Many times she would forget she had a cigarette in an ashtray in one room and would light up and have more than one cigarette going at a time. Needless to say many times she lit one cigarette off another. Can't say how many packs she went through in a day. Later on she switched to Marlboro Lights, you opened the front door of her house and the stench was so overwhelming it nearly knocked you down. When I got home from visiting her the first thing I did was change my clothes they reeked of cigarette smoke that bad. Before being diagnosed with lung cancer her breathing had become so labored that she needed to have special steps half the height of normal steps made in order to allow her access to her house. Climbing steps made her puff and wheese that bad yet she continued to smoke. Even though I saw her demise close up I can't tell to this day if the addiction was physical, psychological or both.

I quit 27 years ago TODAY!

Not an April fool's joke.

I realized it about 4 days later. There were times I would have used that as an excuse to start again.

I'm certainly glad I didn't

The secret for me (My old man quit his cigars this way also)

Don't Smoke the first one! Ever.

Good luck to anyone trying to quit.

Condolences to all those who have lost loved ones.

Geno

I can also proudly say it, Seafire...

As a kid one of my chores was emptying the trash, last thing before I took the trash out all the ash trays got emptied into the trash can. When I dumped the trash into the garbage cans all the ashes and stink from the butts swirled up into my face. Reason enough for me not to ever want to start smoking cigarettes.

In the 1960's the smoking rate was in the 40% range for adults. It is now at about 19%.

I don't know anyone who smoked because it made them feel better, if they're honest with themselves. They smoke because they feel bad if they don't.

The addiction is physical short term and psychological long term.

I quit years ago due to a course called SMOKENDERS after trying many other times. SMOKENDERS only offers their classes today in New York and Washington state but sells a self tutoring program you can do at home. I'm not sure the self-tutoring program would be as effective as the classes.

I understand the American Cancer Society's program is very similar to the original SMOKENDERS.

A lot of people who don't smoke die younger then 66.

Death is part of life and it gets us all.

Just a matter of what odds you want to face, and what kind of health you want to have while you are walking around.

Some choose to take chances with that.

Some choose to take another path when faced with reality.

I used to say the same thing when I smoked.

Quit a long time ago. Then the hunting buddies got me onto cigars.
Now Twice a year I'll smoke one or two at a hunt. That's about it.

OK, Now how many above gained a lot of weight right after quitting.

I went from 180 to 210 in three months. Eating food and drinking took place of smoking. Still at 215 after 30 years. topped out at 260.

Sorry to hear of your sisters passing, My condolences to you and your family.

I lost my mother to this same disease in 2008, it was not pretty.

Anyone know what the cancer numbers are now compared to 20 years ago? Just curious as the smoking rates were so high back then compared to now, you'd expect cancer rates have fallen along with it.

I'd never advocate smoking or pretend its not harmful to a person, but I think sometimes when someone gets a sick its automatically assumed to be due to their smoking.

A friend of my older brother died before his 20th birthday of lung cancer, never smoked. An uncle of mine died of cancer last year, also non-smoker. My father, who is active and always jogged or walked several miles a day had a heart attack a couple years ago, never smoked or drank. My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last month, never smoked or drank.

I agree that smoking increases the odds of getting some sort of debilitating or fatal illness, but by how much I'm not sure. Seems people are dropping like flies at a relatively young age anyway despite the sharp reduction in smokers. Those stories about someone dying at 80+ years old due to something possibly caused by smoking? Thats a success story! The guy got to do something he enjoyed all his life and lived to a ripe old age! Not too many people get that old and just die of nothing, in the end something will get you.

I agree that in order to have the best chance of living a long and healthy life, smoking is a bad idea. Still, seeing all the "healthy" people sick and dying of various illnesses, I can understand why some say phuggit and take their chances.

I don't smoke except for an occasional cigar (like a few a year) but I do base my outlook on such things on life experiences. For example my Mother didn't smoke,worked out almost every day,ate right,and died at 54 from lymphoma.

Her Mom smokes daily,doesn't work out or even leave the house daily,and she's still alive.

But yeah smoking is terrible because it catches up to some people in their 60's.

At noon today,I'll be on day 23 !
Mike

I worked as a cemetery superintendent for 10 years. In that time I buried one helluvalot of people in their 40's , 50's and 60's who never smoked. Most common causes of death for people in that age range were heart attacks and cancer.

I'm thankful that I never took up the habit. I've got enough vices but thankfully smoking is not one of them. My mom and dad smoked, dad gave it up cold turkey around 1980, mom smoked until the day she died, even after cervicl cancer treatments. I had an uncle that from COPD after having half of his colon removed from colon cancer, they got all the cancer but his body was weakened by the surgery and he refused to quit smoking. A couple of months later he was back in the hospital on a respirator and never came off. He would have likely been fine if not for the smoking even though the smoking didn't cause the cancer.

I'm a live & let live kind of guy and know that preaching to an adult does no good, it just makes them dig in their heels harder. Truthfully I get tired of hearing others complain about smoking, I've got a couple of buddies that'll start doing the fake hacking thing anytime they smell smoke to let everyone know how annoyed they are. It's embarrassing and a childish way to try and make your point. A little whiff of smoke as you walk into a restaurant isn't going to kill you. It's a nasty habit and I don't like it, but it's not the end of the world and there are far more annoying things. Ghetto music being blasted from a vehicle makes me wish I had a rocket launcher in my hand at the time.

Keep at it! After 4o years, I quit cold turkey on October 20th, 2014. I gained about 18 pounds.

Weight gain is somewhat of a given after quitting smoking, if you substitute exercise for the smoking the weight can be lost and kept under control. A daily walk of about a mile or so has helped me lose 50# in the last year, I try not to miss more than one day a week or three to five days a month. Once a week I'll walk farther, one to two miles this program has kept my weight stable and also helps maintain stable blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Unfortunately there is another "quality of life" perspective to this issue so I don't judge those who Smoke anymore.

Rest Homes all across the Country are chocked full of healthy non-smokers who have no idea who they are or where they are due to Alzheimer's and Residents who have healthy Heart and Lungs but can't get out of bed to feed themselves or take care of their own bodily functions.

Good for you GW, 50# loss is quite an accomplishment.

Awesome mike I'm on day 2292! You can do it. It gets easier the longer you are smoke free, Cig smoke is absolutely disgusting to me now but I still get an urge now and then but it is only a fleeting thought now.

Keep at it.

My Dad quit cold turkey the day the Surgeon General's report came out in the '60's, he live to be 89 years old. My Mother and her sister continued to smoke, she died of a massive heart attack just after getting up from having a couple of cigarettes, less than two months past her 50th birthday. Her sister had throat cancer surgery in her early fifties and died of bladder cancer at age 81. The last year or so after having her bladder removed she had absolutely no quality of life.

So very sorry for your loss.I smoked for 57 years.I quit when my heart specialist told me if y0u do not quit you are going to die from them.I had open heart surgery 3 years ago and I'm proud to report I have not had a cigarette in 3 1/2 years and do not miss them at all.

The only advice I can give to someone who wants to quit,dont go back once you are smoke free.I thought I could have just one at the end of the day.That lasted about a week,then went to two a day,then three.....pack a day again.I quit again last June and havent touched one since.I get an urge every now and then but it quickly goes away.It isnt easy but it can be done.

ps,I used Chantix to quit