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To Smokers Everywhere By Mary Turner, Guest columnist, Houston, TX This is a very emotional subject for me; it’s about my own personal holocaust. If it’s graphic, it’s supposed to be. It’s about what a lifetime of smoking can do to you. I know that it’s your right to choose to smoke, but I think you also have a right to know what you’re choosing. And I think that when you’ve read this, you’ll know why I implore you to quit. Consider it a health emergency and find the most effective means available to break yourself of the habit before you put your family and yourself through a nightmare like our family has suffered. You see, my mother smoked for 44 years starting at the age of 16 and smoked at least a pack a day. Always a stylish woman, my mother proved to be very avant-garde when she developed a perforated ulcer (a disease which was nearly unheard of in women at that time) at the age of 39. After that she frequently suffered from bleeding ulcers as well. Her ulcer problems dogged her until she was 61, when she went to the dentist who told her, “That spot on your tongue doesn’t look good!” She quit cold turkey, but she did indeed have tongue cancer. Mom reassured me saying, “The doctor promised me that I’d still have enough to wag!” (It was no coincidence that she hasn’t had ulcers again, cigarettes inhibit the stomach’s ability to maintain its lining, leaving it more vulnerable to its acids.) It took two surgeries to stamp out the tongue cancer, and then another to remove the five teeth from the right side of her lower jaw and part of her cancerous jaw as well. Count five teeth from the back of your mouth. You’ll find that without those, it’s rather hard to chew. I guess it didn’t matter much; food didn’t taste that great anyway. During these procedures she lost part of her sense of taste, and some nerves in her tongue and lips were damaged, making it difficult for her to speak or eat. But she was able to go back to work and to live her life, although she’s has never had the same gusto. I’m happy to report that she enjoyed another eight good years until at the age of 69 she developed lung cancer. The prognosis was that if she just had one lobe removed, she’d be just fine; but it was not so. Although she’d had chest x-rays every six months since first developing cancer, the tumor was already inoperable; the surgeon predicted that she’d die within two years. Endured three rounds of chemotherapy and several weeks’ worth of radiation treatments, but surprisingly, she beat it. I never knew before this that one of the possible side effects of chemotherapy is hearing loss. Mom lost about 50% of her hearing in just one day. Another side effect is kidney failure which she also suffered, but she recovered from that after about a month of hospitalization. My mom’s no sissy; she went back to work ten days after the lung surgery. “The chemo,” she said, “is what kills you.” But even that didn’t, and it didn’t destroy her sense of humor or her love of life. Mom trucked along for another six years still working everyday and traveling, but not eating much or enjoying conversations, since she can’t hear or speak well. Too bad, those were always her favorite things to do! Then two and a half years ago she developed congestive heart failure, and as a result of the earlier radiation, an inflexible esophagus, requiring the insertion of a feeding tube into her stomach. She’s taken no food or drink by mouth since. It works out okay though, another result of the radiation is that her teeth fall out very easily; one morning she woke up with three of them hanging loose. Gosh, I nearly forgot to mention the osteoporosis, a disease she might have developed anyway, but smoking is a contributing factor. Because of this she frequently suffers from fractured vertebrae, which are very painful. But now that she doesn’t do anything, she has a lot less trouble with that. However, that didn’t kill her either. Nope, none of these aliments could conquer my mom. She’s still alive, using oxygen all the time, and too fragile and ill to live at home with Dad. She misses their home, and Dad sure misses her, but she lives a few miles away in a nursing home, which costs them $4,500 per month, plus medicines and doctors fees. I think it’s the loneliness and isolation that’s the hardest for them both. Now my mom, the original superwoman, just lays in her bed in the nursing home, doesn’t watch TV, read, or go out and socialize with other residents, just lies there. She doesn’t need to go to the dining room to eat, meals of course are delivered in a bag with a tube at the end. She can’t hear the phone when I call, so we don’t get to talk much. I write her letters, but this woman who spent a lifetime writing for our family’s weekly newspaper doesn’t have strength to write back. I didn’t know a person could be so ill and still live. It’s been suggested, perhaps facetiously, that since the average smoker dies seven years sooner than the average nonsmoker, and since medical costs for the elderly are so high, if everyone quit smoking and lived longer it could actually mean increases in medical spending. Well, when she does die, there will be no savings, not in money, and not in sorrow and pain. You see, the scary thing is that you might not die from the effects of smoking; you might just have to live with them!
Epilogue I sure hope she’s in Heaven, ‘cause she’s already been through hell! Please, quit smoking. In Memory of my mother, Marie Creviere (June 21, 1924-May 13, 2002) Copyright 2002 by Mary Turner
How God Helped Me Kick the Habit By Michelle Bollom Guest writer, Tomball, TX Years ago I had a friend tell me she kicked the smoking habit with God. I thought that was a crazy thing to say and wondered how in the world God could do that. After all, I once saw a priest smoking and thought that he should be able to quit since he surely had a direct line to God. If God could help anyone stop smoking, wouldn’t he help out a priest? I learned this addiction did not discriminate and thought her comment must be wrong or a priest wouldn’t be smoking if God had a hand in it. I knew first hand how hard it was to fight this battle. It seemed more then just an addiction. It was a way to define who I was as a person – “The Smoker” vs. “Non Smoker” clubs. Only a smoker understands the need and desire to smoke, and the rituals of a smoker. Every minute of every day is planned around smoking. The smoking roller coaster ride began for me as a pre-teen. I can’t even count the failed attempts to quit in the last 25 years. The longest was when I started having children and I got on this health kick. I began conditioning my body to prepare for the pregnancy. When I was ready to try to get pregnant, it only took us all of one month. Eight weeks into my pregnancy we found out we were having twins. During the pregnancy, which was considered high risk, I was on bed rest most of the time and gained close to 100 pounds. After this high-risk pregnancy, the stress with two babies at home and working full time, I returned to smoking before my twins were even three years old. I had failed again. At first I hid my smoking and only smoked outside and definitely not around my children because after a while, the hurt in their eyes after each failed attempt to stop smoking crushed their hopes, and that was too much to bear. But, it still wasn’t enough to quit. At first. The guilt and shame kept building up inside me so I finally began to try everything under the sun to quit. I bought countless patches, gums, natural herbs, nicotine filters. I also had a gadget to cut the filters so you got less smoke per cigarette. Hundreds of dollars I spent. I did hypnosis with a therapist and even self hypnosis when that didn’t work. I could fill a CD case with my hypnosis CD collection. I had natural oils that you sniff to stop the cravings. I tried Welbutrin, Zyban, Zoloft, you name it! I decided to do acupuncture therapy. I did four sessions of acupuncture at $200 total; the first hour I left the doctors office it worked, but by the second hour I was lighting up again. Even tried the new prescription drug, Chantix that seemed promising with its 75% success rate. I filled that prescription and at first it did seem to help with the cravings. I would be smoke free for about four to six days, and then would break down and give in to smoking. I went through the entire four-month prescription of Chantix and was pretty devastated this the new miracle pill did not work for me. I even called the pharmaceutical company that makes it to see if I got a bad batch. No such luck! So, again the attempt to quit failed. This period of my life equaled to years of trying to kick the habit, but the old saying rings true – old habits die hard! So I wondered, what in the world was it going to take? What can I do that I haven’t already tried on my own or with doctors? How do I do this? I am killing myself with each cigarette I smoke…It is costing me hundreds of dollars each plus more as I try to quit! In a very dark hour one night at 3 a.m., I finally cried out in desperation to Jesus. This wasn’t my first “stop-smoking journey”, but it was the first time I turned to our maker and made a commitment for it to be my first “God Journey”. In fact, I was reborn! After switching churches and joining a Bible Study with five fabulous women reading “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren, my life began to change, and my relationship with Christ. The messages about God in the book and my “Fab 5” friends helped me to stay on track and go deeper into God’s plan and purpose for me. God did the heavy lifting – he did what I couldn’t do on my own. I finally realized that it wasn’t just his help I needed; but rather, I needed him to do it for me. I had to surrender and let him have the control, and move out of his way. After years of spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on ways to quit smoking, the best method that worked for me was the one that was free!!! I was finally rid of the smoking addiction through God’s help. My friend was right! God is all you need. There is power in His Words. Let God help you break your addictions. I can help show you how. Contact me at bollom@sbcglobal.net For more information:
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