Lung cancer is not fun

[Cami]

I've heard it said that radon gas is the leading cause of lung cancer after smoking, but I can't back that statement up.

 

[drgill]

Lung cancer is not the only disease you are more likely to get when you smoke. You are also much more susceptable to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Smoking damages the airways and makes it difficult to breath (I worked as a respiratory technician in a hospital for several years while in college and saw a lot of this). When I see a heavy smoker that is what I think of. If I know them well I might mention this to them though usually I do not.

Dennis

 

[dgl24087]

The father of one of my co-workers has just been placed into hospice care after being diagnosed with lung cancer in August. He has been given about 2-4 weeks to live, max. The cancer has spread from his lungs to his spleen, lymph glands and bone marrow. He has never smoked, 77 years of age.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I always asked my smoking aquaintences "I thought you were going to quit". Even if I knew they were or were not trying. 99% of smokers have tried to quit. Even if it were for but a few hours.

I watched my dad die a slow horrible death from lung cancer. Smoked all his life. At the end, the bag that was draining the pnuemonia from his lungs would fill up a quart or more every day.

 

[mscheer772]

My bestest buddy from 1st grade(we're now 50) is dying from non small cell lung cancer I think they call it the smokers disease. It sucks to watch. He is doing better, but now has drains in both lungs and a flap going from his heart sack into one of the drains so the fluid that builds around his heart sack will drain into his chest drain. he gets pumped out 1-3 times per week. So sad to watch.

We were always going to take that trip to the Masters, or St Andrews, but it is no longer possible. Like so many have said, don't put off today. Please pray for my friend, Gary

Thanks

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

A buddy at my previous job just lost his wife from NSCLC. Non small cell lung cancer. She had smoked all her adult life. Died at 48. Left behind 4 kids and a husband. Youngest kids are 16 and 18. Very sad.

 

[Chuck52]

Folks are right to say that smoking is not the only cause of lung cancer. They are also right to say that not all, even heavy, smokers will get lung cancer. However, if you've ever seen lung tissue, or even just thought about how lungs work, why on earth would you deliberately inhale smoke into your lungs. Sure, BBQ smoke smells great! But do you deliberately stick your face in the smoke and inhale the particles, several times a day, like smokers do with cigarettes?

I used to work as an orderly in a hospital in Appalachia. Worst way to die I can imagine is something like black lung disease, which is pretty much like lung cancer in the way it chokes you to death. Slow, slow drowning.

Chuck

 

[EddieWalker]

I just had a client pass away in September. She had smoked her entire life, then retired a couple years ago. She worked 40 years as a social worker in Austin, then lived less then four years of her retirement. She found a house she loved here in Tyler and spent all her time working on it, except when she was out antiquing and going to garage sales. Her passion was 1950's fruniture from certain people. She hired me to help her out, or do some projects that she just didn't know how to do. Before I went on vacation in July, she had me do a few things for her. I wasn't in a rush to get paid since I trusted her and knew she was good for it. I also had a job in her neighborhood later on in August, so I told her I'd settle up with her then. In the middle of August, she called and said that she really needed to see me right away. I went over there that evening and found out that she was given a week to live. She wanted to pay me what she owed me.

Three weeks later, she passed away.

Eddie

 

[Steve C]

I've seen some posts lately by people who've stopped smoking. God bless you and more power to you! My dad died a slow agonizing death from lung cancer and the treatments for it. He smoked off and on for 50 years, always joked about how he could quit whenever he wanted to -- he had done it lots of times. I just wish my last memory of him didn't have to be the one of him gasping for breath, grabbing at the oxygen mask in the hospital because he couldn't breathe with it or without it. My mom did most of the home care, cleaning him up when he soiled himself, etc., etc. I wish we could have spared her all of that. I quit smoking myself when I got married 32 years ago, and have never regretted it for a minute. How can anyone be so selfish as to believe that their habit only affects themself?

My mother-inlaw Died of a heart attack before the lung cancer had time to spread. She never smoked but lived with a smoker for 40 years. I have never smoked, but both my Mother and Father smoked. I have spent many hours , years actually as a child inhaleing thick second hand smoke, Lucky Strike and Cammel's unfiltered (along with the Menthol ciggs that my grandmother smoked when she lived with us) 24/7. I used to dread going anywhere in the car in the winter time because it became a smoke filled chamber.

As an adult I have worked in offices with poor and no ventilation and smokers everywhere. I have been exposed to a lot of second hand smoke, as have many other non smokers. I quit bowling because I couldn't stand the air quality in the bowling alleys. Just because a person doesn't smoke themselves doesn't mean they haven't been a smoker.
My grand daughter's mother and father both smoke, therefore she has been smoking for the last ten years, since she was a baby. Will she get lung cancer? I hope not, but she will probably be a smoker for 18 years before she has a chance to quit, all without ever lighting up.

I think that people who tell these these stories about older people, my generation and older who have died of lung cancer without ever smoking should consider the fact than many of us, myself included have smoked for 30years or so without ever lighting up.

If I should happen to die of lung cancer people will be saying..."see the doctors are full of chit, I have known that dumb SOB all my life and he never smoked".........WRONG, I smoked a lot for 18 years, and then cut back a little when I moved out of the house and was only exposed at the work place.

I had a heart attack and quadripple bypass surgery about ten years ago at 50. The doctors kept telling me I had to quit smoking. Every time I told them I didn't smoke they just rolled their eyes and said hmmmm

I have nothing against people smoking. It is a cruel and expensive addiction that they have allowed themselves to be caught up in and for many it is almost impossible to quit. I understand how addictions work and they are helpless to quit.

On the other hand I do believe that they have no right to poisen the air that other people are forced to breath any more than I have the right to take a dump in their drinking water supply. Neither action is acceptable.

I think the ultimate solution is to develop a filter that will electrically charge the smoke particals as they are inhaled at the same time placing a negative charge on the outside of the filter housing, causing 100% of the smoke particals to plate out and bond with the inside of the lungs, much like an electrostatic percipitator. This would result in zero emissions and the user would get 100% benefit of each cigarrette, they could probably then smoke only half as much and get the same satisfaction.....hmmm I see the problem with this already.......
Phillip Morris sales would drop in half, the inventer would probably wrap chains around his ankles and throw himself in a lake......before he ever gets a chance to get the product to market....

It is true that Radon, asbestess and other agents can cause cancer also and many people have been exposed to it without even knowing. People in my generation and older did not know of these dangers untill after we were exposed. Hopefully younger generations will be smart enough to reduce the risk by reducing the exposure to the things that we now know are bad for us. These risks seem to compound the chances of getting disease at an expotential rate as the exposure to multiple carcinigens is increased.

O.K. I am getting off my soap box now, there are a lot of things out there that can get you, try to avoid the ones you can.

I was almost killed by a flying snake once but that is another story, but at least I am not the one responsible for getting him airborne in the first place.

 

[Bird]

The doctors kept telling me I had to quit smoking. Every time I told them I didn't smoke they just rolled their eyes and said hmmmm

Yep, a lot of doctors figure if you smoke, that's the cause of ALL your health problems, and if you don't smoke, then it's because you've overweight, and if you aren't overweight, then they have no idea what could be wrong.

Second hand smoke? Yeah, terrible stuff. My mother grew up with a father who chain smoked roll your own Prince Albert cigarettes, then married my dad who smoked all his life. I guess it was conditioning because she said she liked the smell of the smoke, tried a cigarette once in her life and liked it, but decided it wouldn't be worth the cost, so she never smoked. And she died in 2006 at the age of 85. No one else on either side of my family ever lived to be that old. And she did not have lung cancer.