Quote:
Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm
How on earth did you deal with that? (I'm asking partly for selfish reasons, as I strongly suspect that's what awaits both my parents. Both have smoked all their lives, both have tried countless times and using countless methods to give up, & both have COPD (one has both chronic bronchitis & emphysema, the other chronic bronchitis and poss. emphysema))
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Not well. The last 2 months, she was home with me, and of course, there are other, related health issues....a home care nurse came in three times weekly to make sure she was "comfortable". Crap.
Its an ugly, slow, painful death, and the only positive thing to come out of it was a certainty my daughter, who was 13 at the time, would never go near a cigarette. I had already learned that growing up in a house reeking of stale smoke and overflowing ashtrays.
You deal with it one day at a time. Like everything else. Death was a welcome release, to her, and, to my shame, myself. She was a product of her generation.......born in 1923, by the 40's everyone was smoking......it was 'sexy', 'cool', all the movie stars did it in the movies....it was a social thing. Good grief. Look at this ad from Life Magazine, 1936. A cigarette after every frickin' course!! "Helps Digestion!!" Someone should be shot.
I know that smoking isn't responsible for every case of lung cancer, or emphysema. But it sure increases your chances.