01-04-2017, 05:01 AM
$tevie wrote:
[quote=davester]
Every friend and relative that I've ever known who smoked regularly has died of lung cancer, some of them quite young (i.e. in their 40s). The luckiest quit in her 40s and then made it to her early 80s before succumbing.
You say this every time the subject of smoking comes up. Basically, you are saying that if you smoke, don't bother to quit. I find it a very discouraging message. BTW, my doctor and the doctor after her both say that the day you quit, your lungs begin to heal and eventually you have no more chance of lung cancer than anybody else. My 94-year-old mother smoked until she was 75. So please stop being the voice of Doom and Gloom saying Don't Bother To Quit.
I'm sorry that it bums you out, and it was not my intention to be discouraging or to say not to bother quitting. I understand that the smoking death rate is high but certainly not 100%, that there are in fact people who do make it through a smoking "career" without getting lung cancer, and that quitting definitely cuts the risk significantly. However, I'm just relaying my experience here. It has been heartbreaking and has had a huge impact on me to lose every single person (including my mother) to lung cancer that I have ever known to have been a smoker. I feel compelled to pass on my experience in the hope that it is significant enough that it might convince some who have started smoking and perhaps fool themselves into thinking that "it can't happen to me" or "I can beat the odds" to reconsider.