Peter Jennings, Christopher Reeve's wife, Barbara Bel Geddes, Char Bierer...people in my life that I admire. The last one being my mother. All died or will probably die from lung cancer....over 650,000 deaths this year in the US from lung cancer and although some are NOT from cigarettes, most are, that or pipes, cigars or chewing tobacco. All of these are able to be given up...easily no, but they can be given up.

Yesterday, I watched a young mother in her 20's with three little stair stepped kids, asking for two packs of cigs....I so wanted to ask her who she had planned to care for her kids when she dies of lung cancer? I stood behind a man not much older than I (53) who wanted to purchase a pack of non filter cigs. I wanted to ask him, if his life insurance would pay up for this wife when he died of lung cancer. I am sorry it is the activist in me. I don't actually come right out and say it, because looking at me, people would respond and when are you going to quit eating.....yet. I have lived through my mom's death and dying of lung cancer, it's not pretty and I wish that on NO one. First they are tired, then they can't or won't eat much, then they can't get out of bed, then in comes the O2 tanks, and some continue to smoke and turn off the oxygen. Then they get to the point where they can't get out of bed, it's way too much work, in comes hospice, and then the bed pan, and then they can't breathe and you up the O2. Then they can't talk except with their eyes, they give up talking to you, they go inside preparing to die. AND then you go to the hospice unit and that's usually where the end takes place. All you can do is sit and listen to the air go in and air go out from the O2 tanks....the vigil begins and if you and they are lucky it's a short vigil. One last final gasp of air, and they are gone.

Their skin has turned yellow from the smoke inside their bodies, their bed sores are infected or not, and the person whom you once saw as a vibrant living being is no more.

So what do we do. ABC has said since Peter's death 10,000 and more people have written in to say they have quit smoking and chewing. YEah or them.They need our support. If you smoke or have a loved one who smokes, keep on them don't give up, even if they get mad. They are worth it. If you see a person in the store buying cigs, especially young people, ask them to stop for their own good.

I know, I know, I am an activist, but you know I hate funerals. I hate visiting people who are going to die. And when there is something I can do about it, be it lung cancer, prostrate cancer, breast cancer whatever, I will speak up.

If you smoke, please quit, I care about you too much to allow you to keep killing yourself.

cathy j

Whether you like him or not, the next time you see Arnold Schwartzneiger on TV with his big stoogie in his mouth, think of the wonderful body he has(d)n and what he gave up to get it.
Then wonder what that body would look like riddled with cancer. Sad, so sad. I am writing him a letter, telling my thoughts on smoking and the image that he sends out being a 'big body builder/ the picture of health" with a stoogie in his mouth. Interesting role model.

What you said is so true!

" I don't think we as a country or as individuals are doing enough to educated people of our own generation and older that if they quit, they can repair themselves. It is stated that if you quit today, in five weeks your lungs have started to repair the damage. In a year, you have given yourself five more years of life, providing there is no disease in them at the time."

This is really essential information, isn't it? Now, with Peter Jennings, he had quit I believe, but started back up after 9/11. I remember with my mother (who died of breast cancer which went to her brain quickly) they did a full body scan, and her lungs were cancer free after about 40 years of smoking. She got such a kick out of that. Way to cheat fate, huh? Although I think her body was definitely more susceptible to any attack because of her smoking, even though it isn't what ultimately ended her life.

I think most people stuck in the smoking habit just don't know how to learn to substitute new pleasures and release themselves from the form of comfort that cig's offer. You do have to learn that, in order to quit successfully. But all you ever hear is take a pill, use a patch. That, and ex-smokers are so obnoxious sometimes (I should know ) that they give the free life a bad name! It is hard to say, I want what you have - can you tell me how to get it? But isn't that what we are doing here?

Lynne

Jennifer, give that daughter of yours a big hug from me. Oh that we should all be as bold as children.

Lynne: I am not about to tell someone how to live their lives. God knows I am not a poster girl for any healthy living right now.

I think I find myself so filled with grieve and anger that I feel as if I "should" do something, thankfully, my sense of "it's your life" prevades, and I don't say anything. But I don't think we as a country or as individuals are doing enough to educated people of our own generation and older that if they quit, they can repair themselves. It is stated that if you quit today, in five weeks your lungs have started to repair the damage. In a year, you have given yourself five more years of life, providing there is no disease in them at the time.

My children and my bro' children would not go upstairs to visit with grandma and grandpa at their home because of the smoke. All of them came home with respiratory infections after visiting over a weekend. So you know second hand smoke must have been a cause.

I applaude communities like Madison and MPLS/St. Paul who have banned smoking in public areas. They should get awards.

I won't tell the woman or the man to quit....I will pray for long lives so that their families can enjoy their company. I just find it so sad and unnecssary that so many families won't know that joy.

cathy

quote:

Originally posted by Sandy:
Madison has a complete non-smoking policy, even in bars and restaurants.

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where my best friends live, is like this now. The law passed about 2 years ago. I LOVE it. It's so wonderful to be able to go in anywhere and not be near cigarette smoke.

The downside, at least for my friend David, is that the law meant that his mother, who was in a nursing home at the time, could no longer smoke in the facility. Faye was a heavy smoker of 40 or 50 years and she was ANGRY about this policy. David tried all he could, even writing to his Congressman, but nothing worked. So his mother had to be wheeled outside to a special area to smoke. The end result is that she smoked less cigarettes (a good thing). She died a little over a year ago.

I keep forgetting that I don't have to ask for the non-smoking ANYTHING anymore in Rehoboth. Last time I stayed in a hotel there, I asked for a non-smoking room and he said "Ma'am, ALL of our rooms are non-smoking." Before that, I hadn't considered that this new law even impacts the hotels. They built a little sheltered area by the parking lot for the smokers to smoke.

Cathy,

I am not pro-smoking or pro-cancer, but I do believe that everyone has the right to choose their own way of life. I guess it's really about respect to me. I would no more scold a stranger about smoking than I would humiliate an obese person by taking their ice cream cone away. Unlike our parents' generation, ignorance is a flimsy excuse for a person with a brain to say they don't know they are making a bad health choice when they smoke. People do know what they are doing, they just continue because it is a relief to them. In a way we all choose our own demise, unless we are victims of crime or freak accidents. Even then, who knows? Our choices lead to our consequenses.
However, I so agree that people who die prematurely because of their habits rob the rest of us of their dear lives. Yet, I wouldn't want anyone dictating how I can or cannot choose to spend my time in this body. I've lost loved ones to their own poor heath choices, but I would still fight for their rights to those choices.
Lynne

Well I can certainly understand how you feel. My dad has had emphasima for several years, and now this tumor outside his lung. It is heartbreaking to watch. And yet he still insists on smoking. He says Why bother quitting now? It is so hard to see him not even caring whats going to happen anymore.

My mom and sister both still smoke as well, I just pray my 15 year old neice doesn't start.

Laurie

Recently, I have been more grateful than ever to live in a comminuty where there is NO smoking in public places. Madison has a complete non-smoking policy, even in bars and restaurants.

My Dad died 13 years ago of lung cancer, with secondaries in the liver. He had smoked, but had given up a few months before being diagnosed. Of course he gave up too late , he died less than 2 months after the diagonosis. I was 34 at the time and my son was almost 2, it still makes me sad that my Dad is not around for my son and daughter (my daughter was born after his death).

I see more and more young people smoking, especially in my home country, Britain. It makes me sad that they don't value their life and their health. I especially hate to see people smoking around children. My Dad should not of smoked, but he didn't know the dangers at the time, it was the "in thing" I guess.

When I lived in Britain I was a nurse and spent some time on the Chest Ward and nursed a lot of people with lung cancer and emphesema (sp). I saw a lot of suffering by the patients and their families, who were loosing their loved too early.

Even after 13 years I miss my Dad and I wish he had made other choices. But we learn from everything in life, I will never smoke and hopefully neither will my children. They both know what my Dad died of and I have told them how he suffered. I pray they will make better choices.

Right on!

My father smoked 3 packs a day for most of his life. He has been fighting lung cancer since 1997 and the fight continues.

My 5 year old blocks her nose when people are smoking around her, she has seen the effects of smoking on her grandfather and is not shy to ask people why they smoke. She even goes as far as to say that smoking will give them holes in their heads like her grandfather (he had cancerous tumors removed from his brain).

Out of the mouths of babes.