My mom is sick
Very sick.
She's 60 but... In her big ol' hospital bed she looks like a shriveled 85 year old woman. Think... Gollum in the Tolkien books. That's what she looks like. A once beautiful woman. There's a laundry list of things that are wrong right now. One issue makes another worse which exacerbates another that ramps up a different problem... you get the picture. Every issue she's dealing with, however, boils down to ONE root problem... 45 years of smoking.
45 f'ng years. 2 years longer than I've been on earth.
Smoker ~ Dipper ~ Tobacco user in any form... if you are reading this and not quit?
Do. It. Now.
Don't put yourself through this hell. Don't put your family through this hell. Me? 269 days of taking my time on earth BACK!!!!!!
What about you?
Thoughts and prayers AJ. Glad as hell to be quit with you today.
X2
Prayers My Friend,Prayers....ODAAT
Praying for your mom and family AJ.
You tell them AJ!!. Our Thoughts and Prayers are with you and the family.
Prayers for your mom AJ.
I feel your pain. It is senseless and criminal really. Nicotine is a liar and a thief.
Tobacco has taken all of my grandparents and now both parents are living in very poor health because of it. Oxygen and the whole bit. Their lives will be most certainly be shortened.
This generational curse stops now. Quit with you AJ.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your mom! Thank you for the reminder again of why we are quit! This shit IS real! Hold your head up!
All the best AJ
We texted about this last night...when you step away, get your mind clear, and think about it....how can these products even be legal??
Praying for you and your family
PB
Thoughts and prayers AJ. Glad you are quit.
Wanted to take a sec and thank all that posted up with me, responded to my thread, or texted me over the weekend.
Thank you!
This brotherhood... SO damn cool!
Sorry to hear all of that AJ, but great point!
So sorry for your pain AJ.
I quit with you today. I am praying for you and your family.
Nictotine took my Mom and all of her family.
It's a lesson we don't get to "do over".
So glad you are here Today. Your mom must be proud of You.
Certainly have mad respect for you AJ. Sorry about your mother. 45 years ago, tobacco wasn't exposed as it is now. So sorry about what you have to experience. May you and your family have peace in your trials.
Man, I sat here reading this over and over, and I didn't know what to say.
I've been back in the fog the last few days, I think I've been a bit depressed since maybe day 5 or so. Then I quit caffeine, soda and junkfood/processed sugars last Thursday too, and I have been feeling extra depressed I guess. Since the cloud of unhappyfunk had no identifiable cause I don't know what else to call it but depression. I have been turning anything I can think of into another reason to be unhappy. And the whole time I know it's ludicrous and unreasonable and that just makes me unhappier. Haven't been in the mood to do much more than post roll, I haven't looked in the intro section for days. Feeling a little more upbeat this morning so I click on the intro's.
And I find out that one of my strongest supporters, who just texted me yesterday to check up on me, as suffering as he watches his Mom suffer the consequences of tobacco use. But Instead of letting it drag him down, he turns it into another reason to stay quit and uplift and motivate the rest of us.
The only job I could get as a new nurse was at gnarly old care and rehab center, a nursing home. Time after time I would tell people in their 40s and 50s how much better off they would be if they quit smoking. Time after time I would do the admission on a patient that had had a stroke and was going to be partially paralyzed for the rest of their lives, because of tobacco. Day after day I treating people suffering from diseases and illnesses directly related to tobacco use. Time after time I watched YOUNG people die of cancer, Diabetes, C.O.P.D. and emphysema and other terrible diseases directly related to their Tobacco use. Just like AJ says, they look like they are ancient, sick and dying, But they are in their only in their 40s 50s and 60s. I had a 19 year old kid with lung cancer, begging to go outside and smoke. I sat with a man on hospice, so frail, so thin, I could see every rib and the muscles inbetween them expand and contract as he fought to breath. I had to hold him so he could sit in a position that helped him breath as best he could, and he died in that position. I believe he was in his late 30s. I even once or twice said I could not believe any healthcare worker could possibly smoke, knowing how bad it was for them. And then I would go ninja dip in the bathroom every chance I could get...
Today is day 41 for me. I have a confession. I was going to cave on day 7. I really didn't want to, but I was going to cave. I had gone over and over every single reason why I hated dip and why I would never touch it again. Repeatedly. And the whole time, the craving was telling me exactly which 7-11 I was stopping at on my way home, and how great it was going to be. Man it was upsetting. Everything I could muster wanted to stay quit, but I knew that I was not stronger than the craving and I was going to fail. I got out to my car and was basically despairing inside. So I gave up. I grabbed my phone, opened my KTC badass quitters group and smashed my fat thumb into the first name on the list. "Applejack (Shane)"
He stayed on the phone with me till I was home. The craving was gone. I survived! *Note to others, never let calling or texting another quitter be your last resort :P*
Shane, Thank You. Because of you, my Family and I will be spared the hell your family and your mother are going through. Thank you for putting my pointless misery in perspective, and pulling me out of it. You have my deepest gratitude. All of my heart goes out to you and your family, and our prayers will definitely be with you and yours.
