Why did I quit smoking????
Well, originally when I "started" to quit I was just tired of seeing the money go up in smoke... literally. That didn't really work...Oh, I cut down a lot from one pack to 4 smokes a day.....Yeah, I can live with this.

Then 4.5 years ago my husband got sick and went to the Doctor. Words I didn't like, couldn't pronounce, couldn't spell started to become part of our lives......EMPHYSEMA, PULMONOLOGY, PULMONOLOGIST. LUNG CAPACITY. PFT..( PULMONARY FUNCTION TEST). PROGNOSIS (5 years), LVRS (LUNG VOLUME REDUCTION SURGERY)...LUNG TRANSPLANT, BREATHING TREATMENT, NEBULIZER,....Yay!!! Are we having fun yet.....Let's add in MUSCLE WASTING and DEMENTIA. And there is more ...CANCER....Yep, the dreaded C-word. . Neck and throat. Now some new words. CHEMO-THERAPY, RADIATION THERAPHY, MASKS, MAPPING, PORTACATH, TRACHEOTOMY, STOMACH PEG (feeding tube). We can add TRACH CANULA, and TRACHEOTOMY SUCTION MACHINE AND KIT. PULMONARY HYPERTENSION (we don't have this one.......YET). I hate the fact that not only can I spell these words now I also know what they mean.

My house looks like a hospital store house and there is a hospital bed in my bedroom. For the first time in 36 years we are sleeping in separate beds. He gets the hospital bed.

I stayed so long at the hospital with him it was common place. The people who worked there knew me by name some even thought I worked there...The nurses, the doctors, the security guards, the people in café...the coffee shop... 3 weeks...it almost felt like a new home.

When I started writing this I was angry. Angry at some unknown person who thinks she/he will miss smoking. We all do. It was/is a major part of our existence. A huge part if our lives. If you smoke 40 cigs a day and each cig takes only 5 min.(how many of us only spent 5 min on a smoke my longs took 7 min if all I did was smoke it), and you smoked for 40 years that is 280,000 minutes smoking. Or 4,667 hours 194 days 6.5 months. 1 half of a year doing nothing but pulling garbage into our lungs non stop.

I am no longer angry...I am sorry...Sorry I didn't stay quit when I was in my early 20's. Sorry I subjected my friends and family to the second hand smoke...Sorry I set that example for my sons and Grandchildren. Sorry I have to watch a fantastic man deal daily with the pain and suffering of the vicious side effects from our addition.

I cannot say that the above disease will happen to any one person ever....But there are several sites on here alone fill with wonderful loving people who do have these dreaded diseases. And we and we alone can help to prevent ourselves from facing these. The younger we are when we realize this the less likely we will be to contract them.

Yes, it is a scary thought. And we ALL think it can't happen to us...My son's watch their dad go through this and smoke on. But what if, just what if there is a chance even a small chance that this is what we are headed for. Shouldn't we at least give our selves the large chance to try to avoid it. Quitting will not guarantee it won't happen but to continue to smoke is almost a sure bet that it will.