Submitted for your consideration, on the eve of my birthday...


What a great gift if even one person successfully begins the end of their habit starting tomorrow...
And if you can't, no problem, I still think you're all weird!

Happy birthday Arnie. Yes, smoking is a horrible addiction. I know from 1st hand experience. Abusive stress helped me avoid quitting for a very long time. I watched my father die a very slow death (years) from emphysema and, 7 months before he finally died, he had to witness me, his oldest child, have a heart attack. He was devestated! Watching him die was horrible for us.

My step-mother is still smoking, having buried TWO husbands from emphysema! Quitting is so hard! I hope that everyone of us who is struggling with wanting to quit will find some method that works. For me, it was 5 days in ICU (that wasn't bad, it was that I didn't have the nerve to ask a nurse to take me out for a cigarette!). By the time I was discharged from the hospital, my addiction was over. It really does only take THREE (3) days of totally not smoking, not being around smoke, removing the triggers. That's all, 3 days.

In the words Christopher Lowell, "You can do it!"

Happy Birthday to you, Arnie. Like Terrie I was a stress smoker, smoking uo to two to three packages a day. For me a very bad bronchitis for 2 weeks with high fever started me to stop. Not that I didn't try to smoke during the bronchitis, it just blew my lungs out with coughing attacks. I started to stop slowly, smoking nasty little cigars to prevent me from inhaling, limiting myself to 4 of them a day. And finally just before I got pregnant I was off smoke totally. The funny thing, after a few years and after gaining too much weight I wanted to start again so I could loose some weight (how stupid ), but I couldn't. My smoking years together with allergies left me with asthma. Another thing is that my parents used to smoke. Back then nobody knew that passive smoking is dangerous too, therefore children sat with their parents in smokey homes. So hopefully - to speak with Terrie - "You can do it" and if not for yourself then for your children and grandchildren.

Happy Birthday Arnie. I quit smoking some years ago, smoked like a little chimney. Watched my favorite aunt die of emphysema brought on by smoking and potters dust. I hope you get your wish.

...well i quit 3 years ago...was tapering and found out my birth mother died of lung cancer that's caused by smoking....it's not hereditary, but it just seemed damned disrespectful to smoke again...and that's all i could think about when i looked at one....

...so early happy birthday:).....

....great suggestion, Arnie...but with compassion...it is a challenging journey and you have to be ready....

Happy Birthday Arnie!

And boy, am I with you on this one!

Last year, as some of you may recall, my dad had surgery to remove one lobe of his lung due to lung cancer. He started smoking when he was... 12 I think? He had smoked most of his life, and smoked right up to the day of the surgery.

Fortunately, they caught the cancer EXTREMELY early... we were told that with what he had, if they hadn't caught it as early as they had, the prognosis usually wasn't very good.

A couple of weeks ago, my mom told me that he had a checkup with the lung doctor - everything looks very good, no signs of the cancer at all. He didn't have to have chemotherapy or anything, and it looks like we got very, very lucky.

And this was the wake-up call for him. He isn't smoking anymore. He admits that there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't want to smoke, but the doctor telling him that if he smoked again, it wasn't a question of IF the cancer would come back, but a question of WHEN the cancer would come back evidently got through.

And fortunately, my mom had quit smoking probably at least 15 years or more ago.

But this is a really rough way to get that 2x4 across the head to quit smoking. Why not stop BEFORE something like this happens? Like I said, we got lucky.... if the cancer hadn't been found for another 6 months, we might have lost him.

Happy birthday, Arnie!

I remember riding around in the car with my folks, both chain smoking with the windows closed. It was really good aversion therapy; I never had the desire or the interest to smoke ANYTHING. I hated how their cigarette smoke smell would cling to me and my clothes and hair. They quit smoking when they were around 50, which made me really happy. I didn't exactly make it easy for them when they visited and were still smoking; I made sure they had a crusty cat food can for an ashtray and sent 'em to the front porch no matter what the weather was.
My dear mother in law died from lung cancer this past January. She smoked for 27 years, and had quit thirty years ago; it still contributed to her death.

Hi, Kim. The simple answer is that no one really believes it will happen to "them" because it only happens to "other people."

Arnie, thanks for opening up this line of communication.

Arnie, I guess I've been giving you this present my whole life, and have been happy to! I've always had allergies, and as an adult I developed asthma. It's under control and I'm fine most of the time....as long as I stay away from cigarette smoke. A few relunctantly inhaled whiffs of that stuff in an enclosed space and my lungs start tightening right up and I start coughing. So thanks for your birthday request, and for starting this thread, and for hopefully giving even one person the inspiration they need to quit!

So sorry to heaar about those loved ones hwo had the lung cancer. I am glad I never smoked. I couldn't afford to smioke anyway. With my allergies I have trouble tolerating secondhand smoke. Somehow it it never enamored me even tho it was popular when I was in high school in the 70's.. I am so thankful I never smoked...

well thanks all for your thoughts and comments on this topic, and my best wishes and support for those in the throes...

and thanks too, cause I've never heard Cheryl H. use the word "enamored" before!

Rb's quit, for 2 mnths... FOR GOOD~~!!!!! I had 8 yrs. under my belt, and for reasons unknown, I started back about 3 yrs. ago, on and off....

Quitting smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I've quit 1000 times....

But I did quit over 2 mnts ago. I feel better allready. My sister had lung surgery, and luckily no cancer. But she is still in allot of pain. I will always remember my last ciggarette as it was the same time of her surgery..... I then quit...

Knock on wood

I never realized I'd never used that word before. LOL. Good luck to those who are quitting smokling...

RB, congratulations!

Congratulations rb, Hey, stop hitting me in the head o.k.?