Hi Chrissy:
I'm afraid the realities of the smoking controversy has been made abundantly clear to me in the past few weeks.
My favourite cuz, my buddy just found out her lungs has been destroyed from smoking. She is now using only 40% of her lung capacity, the doc told her, she will be very lucky not to end up carrying an oxygen bottle and mask around with her for the rest of her life. She is forty five years old and was up to smoking 3 packs a day, when she quit little over a year ago. By then it was too late, the damage was done.
She cannot even cry without losing her breath. She told me last week, breathing for her is like trying to fill a paper bag with a hole in the bottom. She never gets enough air in her lungs. She cannot walk with me anymore, or do her housework, sometimes she doesn't have enough breath to walk across the kitchen. She has to give away her birds and her cat, she has had for 15 years, because she has also developed allergic reactions and makes her breathing worse. Her husband and children are devastated and their whole lives will have to change to accomodate her illness.
The specialist told her, her condition may improve over time or get worse. He told her, she was very lucky she quit smoking when she did, because another year as a 3-packer and she would be dead.
She told me, sometimes she would prefer to be dead, than live this horror. This is not intended to scare anyone. This is a true story and one we will have to live with the rest of our lives.
She mentioned to me when we talked last week, how often I used to ask her to stop smoking and she tried many times. But it doesn't work unless you really are motivated deep inside to do so. Now, she doesn't understand why it was so important to her. All, she asks for now, is to breath deeply of the precious air around her and feel it filling her lungs to capacity. So little to ask and so impossible now...
Carol |
