I had the easiest and best help a person could get.
First of all, my Mom and Dad didn’t smoke. Many of my friends figured they got started simply because they grew up breathing second hand smoke.
And secondly, my Mom was a Nurse and worked a wing that housed people either surviving on not quite surviving from problems directly related to smoking.
I would visit my Mom now and again just to hang out and keep her enthusiasm pointed in a positive direction. Nothing like working with a whole bunch of patients that might not even make it to her next shift.
One day I was walking down a hallway and as I passed this one room on the right, I could have shown I saw smoke coming out of a patients’ neck🙀
I instanced stopped and backed up to the open room. The guy was wearing a bandana kinda mask like the old Wild West bankrobbers.
He signaled me to come into the room. I walked over towards him and noticed his chin/lower jaw was missing.
He had smiling eyes(happy) but he sure wasn’t smiling.
He had one of those voice mic’s and he held it up to his throat and began telling me everything they had removed… ‘so far’ and they were running outta parts to remove without just removing his head🙄
He had this grommet in his neck(I think it is called a stoma?) He put the cigarette against the stoma and inhaled. Then when he exhaled, the smoke came right back out of the hole.
I said, ‘Hey man, you sure aren’t supposed to smoking in a Hospital. He said he would get in trouble once or twice a day. But the staff actually let him slide because he was Terminal.
I could tell you in detail, just how much face he didn’t have left. But trust me on this> you don’t want to know.
And then… one of my fellow Surfers, Mike was his name. He used to smoke all day, every day. He would light cigarettes with other cigarettes. He actually quit surfing because he had no endurance/stamina, etc… Just a few years out of High School, he had to have All his teeth extracted because the massive smoking destroyed his gums.
I knew guys with yellow fingers and nails on their smoking hand.
It almost seemed like everywhere I went. I would see the negative side of smoking.
Another one of my Surfing buddies(Vinny), his Dad was always smoking. At work, at home, wherever he was. Vinnys’ Father died of lung cancer. A few years later, his Mom died from breathing tons of Vinny Senoirs’ second hand smoke. And… when Vinnys’ Great Dane died. The Vet told Vince the dog died from complications from second hand smoke🙀
I was just lucky I guess to have parents that didn’t smoke.
Congratulations to anybody that quits smoking.
I guess smoking is a young mans sport.
But as you get older. It isn’t a sport at all. It is just a way to shorten the number of years you have to pay taxes.
Not fun