Hi friends and family,
This one is a little difficult for me. I smoked for (I’m not going to do the math) years. When dad had surgery to remove a lung and then chemo which made him very sick, I still smoked . . . Stupid me! I still smoked for years after dad’s surgery, each time I lit up, remembering the horror of dad’s ordeals, both heart bypass and lung removal. Yes, I kept trying, sometimes making it for months, sometimes days. I totally believe what they say, that tobacco is harder to quit than heroin.
Well . . . I finally made it . . . I think! It’s been six or so years and I’m pretty sure I can resist the urges that still haunt me. That includes dreaming about smoking.
What helped me was a good memory. I would try to remember the sounds, odors and feelings of being a child, uncluttered by drugs, alcohol, tobacco, coffee and politics. Oh . . . ! I also used Chantix, which seemed to be the quit-smoking aid that was most effective for me.
Dad did survive his ordeals. He used to say, “I can do the same things I used to do. Only half as much.” He was talking about yard work. Dad was cancer free after ten years. What did him in was his heart. Having only one lung, dad had to be careful to not over-exert himself when exercising, which he did religiously and with purpose. Dad died while doing his manly duty . . . . . . . . . Not that! . . . . . . . . . He was saving his umbrella from flying away or crashing into the aluminum sided condo in a ridiculously strong wind that wreaked havoc all over Michigan that day. He walked into the condo and into the bathroom and collapsed and died from a massive heart attack. Mom said he was extremely winded. She couldn’t get into the bathroom to try to help him and paramedics were called.
In conclusion . . . Kids! Do not even start smoking! It’s highly addictive and will find ways to kill you long before your time should be up!
I know!!!!
David T
“Hazards of Smoking”
By Don Tschirhart
Excerpted from the unpublished book “It’s a Wonderful World: A Retired Reporter Looks At Life“
Hazards of Smoking
Several decades ago two buddies and I were walking on Quincy Avenue in mid-town Detroit. It was a pleasant summer evening and we all had long Wings-brand cigarettes dangling from our mouths.
“Big shots!” That’s what we were. Even though we were 15 years old we knew everything. Didn’t grown ups smoke cigarettes?
We dangled them from the side of our mouths the way they did in the movies.
Inhaling the smoke was marvelous. We had no idea what marijuana was all about then. Tobacco euphoria probably was something similar.
My friends and I parted and I walked home. My mom was sitting on the front-porch swing drinking a hot cup of tea.
“Where you been?” she asked. “Around,” I replied. “I see you’ve been smoking,” she said. “How’d you know that?” I asked.
“Because your dad and I were driving on Quincy and we saw you and your friends smoking. That’s how!”
And then came the lecture. For a half hour she described how cigarettes were dangerous to my health. It would stunt my growth. She didn’t want me to grow up like my father who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day.
I didn’t take my mom’s advice and for the next 50-odd years I smoked cigarettes, cigars and a pipe and only stopped the day my doctor told me I had heart disease.
That day I arrived home, lit up my pipe, inhaled, knocked out the burnt tobacco and threw the pipe into the woods. I haven’t smoked since.
Eighteen months later my doc announced my left lung was cancerous, also obviously caused by smoking. Within a few weeks the lung was removed.
How lucky can I get? Two fatal bullets from the heart and cancer gun missed me. A new lease on life. Yeah! And I hope I’m making the most of it.
I tell you my story as an example of why the U.S. Surgeon Generals’ warning should be taken seriously. The leading cause of heart and cancer diseases is tobacco. He has asked all adult smokers and non-smokers to be examples, to help stop young people from smoking.
When I see young men and women smoking outside their office or store doors in frigid temperatures I want to go up to them, slap the fag out of their mouths and dress them down.
I have talked to some. I pull my shirt down to show the zipper-scar below my neck. The scar from my lung operation is under my left arm. I tell them, “This is what you are headed for if you don’t stop smoking now!”
Experts on the subject say the anti-smoking message is getting across to Americans. There are fewer smokers today than 10 years ago. Tobacco companies are losing profits in the United States.
You would think the tobacco companies would turn to making other products. Not those cancer producers.
They have turned to the billions of Third World people who don’t know they are smoking poison. Tobacco executives say the market in China, India, Russia and Africa is where the profits are.
Chief among them are mega-companies that are spending millions on “mea culpa” television ads telling everyone how unhealthy it is for Americans to smoke and giving them advise on how to stop.
They turn around and target Third World people. Where are the anti-tobacco ads letting them know smoking is unhealthy.
Michigan won a large court award from tobacco companies. I think the brains of our state officials are in their feet. Only a small amount of the millions has gone to educate the public about smoking. Most has gone for college scholarships.
One good thing. The state has added taxes making tobacco very expensive. Can you imagine a carton of 10 packs or 200 cigarettes cost about $50? Simple arithmetic shows that each burned cigarette costs over 25 cents. A pack a day means smokers burn $150 in a 30-day month or $1,825 a year. Many people smoke two packs a day so just double that amount for them.
If smokers quit and put that money into mutual funds annually, what a nest egg they would have at retirement. Or a Hawaii vacation. They won’t huff and puff while walking Hawaii beaches.
I know how difficult it is to quit smoking.
After my heart operation my cardiologist asked if I still smoked, and I said, “No! But give me six months to live and my first stop will be the pipe shop.”
Breaking the dirty habit made me feel good about myself and has kept me healthy. * * *
