Smoking advice "Help Needed"

[Glenn Baker]

I gave up smoking a few years ago, but on the 17 December 2011 I had a massive heart attack, and was put on the Flying Doctor Plane and flown to Box Hill Hospital near Melbourne.

It was blockages of the Arteries from years of Smoking, I now have stents in my heart , Im very grateful to be alive, and everytime i go through the K Mart thief alarm tester I manage to set it off with the stents in my heart.

Give it away shipmate and live your senior years in better Health, and dont be Dictated too by a packet of Smokes. all the best Glenn Australia

[Graham Payne]

All that are posting advice on the subject are so correct that it is bad for your health but like everything else there are exceptions to the rule..............

Sorry to reply with a quote,

But what Les say's is quite true about some of us older people (stress) etc, I need to work on the Grandchildren when they reach the grand age of 14+ thats when the benifits will kick in for their later life.

[John Pruden]

i was looking at some old pathe newsreels on WW2 lads laying on stretchers shot to bits the first thing the medic did PUT A FAG IN HIS MOUTH!!!!!!.JP

[Potterer]

Like your other respondents I too was a heavy smoker, probably started as young as 11 or 12 (like many silly youngsters) and gradually progressed to at least 40 cigarettes a day. Over a period of nearly 40 years I tried to quit a couple of times and had minor successes of a few months and one period of 14 months without the evil weed before stupidly thinking "well just one cigarette won't hurt" - how wrong can you get, this led to full time smoking within two days! In truth I liked smoking most of the time (as with any addiction it became totally a routine habit) but I became aware of the occasions when I had not really enjoyed the cigarette and started to recognise the truth that my wife's remarks on smokers cough, the constant stink of my breath/clothes/house due to smoking and the need to re-decorate much more frequently due to my habit needed to be resolved.

I quit not by any big determination that I could actually win, but simply kept my target small - "I won't keep any cigarettes in the house or car and will try not to smoke today". After succeeding one day I tried the next (ably assisted by frequent wine gums or polo mints). This led to a week, then a month etc etc. I'm now nearly 17 years without a cigarette - and in my head I'm still a smoker - but just one who has chosen not to today! Is it easy to do - NO IT'S BLOODY DIFFICULT - but the rewards are many if you decide to give it a go - to become a smoker who doesn't smoke today (just one day at a time). Food and wine become increasingly pleasurable ( but like smoking resist the temptation to over indulge by substituting one addiction with another!), breathing and exercise become easier, you will regain a sense of smell and taste you had forgotten you used to have, you will smell better to others, stained fingers and teeth will disappear to be replaced with clean digits and ivories. And hey you may become attractive to your partner again and your sex life be re-ignited (ok it's a long shot but you never know!). Work out the real financial saving of not smoking. Work out the life you will be saving will be your own.

A final thought - I watched a friend die with lung cancer ( he never lived long enough to get his pension) and the most horrific memory was holding his hand whilst he actually coughed up pieces of his lungs like little pieces of bloody chopped liver. My own brother also died of the same disease aged 57, my father at 72. Despite these events I quit not because anyone told me, nagging probably had little or no effect either - I stopped because my intelligence finally kicked in that I should at least try. I kept my expectations within reason (just one day at a time) and recognised the danger of having just the one cigarette!

I hope you try and even more I hope you succeed.

Best wishes
Neil Bond (potterer)

[Red Lead Ted]

My misses is addicted to CORONATION ST/ EASTENDER,S/ HOLYHOKES/EMERDALE FARM/JEREMY KYLE/COME DANCING/ X FACTOR/BRITAINS GOT TALENT/ She would never get the time to run out for a pack of ciggy,s if she smoked so there you go Graham get addicted to that load of crap and you cracked it. This post although light hearted is also a serious one people are addicted to mars bars, jelly babies, and of course tv, which is also bad for your health. {SEX} if you like that sort of thing ............Me i am sticking to my 3 pans of scouse a week and hopefully some nice weather and walks to enjoy not that i will get very far after my 3 pans of scouse ????? i will give you all a tip for a long and healthy life............... NEVER WORRY. what will be will be. There are beutiful young kids that die of cancer every day they wouldn,t know what a ciggy tasted like. Live each day as if it was your last, one day you will be right Regards all Terry.

---------- Post added at 02:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 AM ----------

The chart reflects averages and norms....

You forgot 21 m8, You could step into the path of a taxi tomorrow instant curtains{ Study anytime} Not knocking your post m8 very interesting i just genuinely think, The more you worry about something the worse it gets Regards Charl.. Terry.

[Charlie Hannah]

Terry to step in front of a taxi here were i live you would have to stand still and wait for hours for one.Only one in town.fall asleep waiting.

[Glenn Baker]

Does anyone remember those terrible films about some one waiting to executed for some vile crime, whether it was the Electric chair or the Hangmans rope, they always offered that last Cigarette, its a wonder the Ciggie factories didnt advertise the Brand the poor sod smoked just before he left the Planet.

Even the Military fire-ing squads there was the last Ciggy before the Blindfold was pulled over the head, i dot think it ever achieved anything cos the poor so &so was still shot by the hail of Bullets.

Cancer is similar in many ways Ive seen nurses outside the Peter McCallum Cancer Clinic in Melbourne have a smoke before returning to the workplace, its a confusing life, my mate died riddled with it and in terrible pain. He even had to sort his own funeral out before he died a few weeks later. Stop Smoking , quit finish, dont stick one in your mouth. all the best Glenn

[John Pruden]

i live close to a gym and see the people jogging along the road now i can't get my head around someone running along a busy main road heart beating at full capacity lungs filling to the max and what are they breathing in CARBON MONOXIDE i have pointed this out to a few of them and they have stopped jogging along the high street? remember the American lad who started the craze of jogging dropped dead at 42????? anything and everything is good and bad for you moderation is the key slow and easy with every thing{you never see a tortoise dieing young}.JP

[happy daze john in oz]

Now we have the do good brigade wanting to have smoking in outside cafse made illegal. But you see them sitting there smoking away with all the fumes from the passing traffic getting mixed with the smoke, so what is the point of banning it at outside venues?

[Les Woodard]

Potterer that sounds something along the lines that happened to me. Was a dismal failure at giving it until one day I had a brain snap and decided to see how long I could go before the next one. For those that want to do away with them there is only one person that can help you. No matter what others say or what tricks or gadgets you try if you have not got your head around it then it is not going to happen. What about that poor sucker lying in bed gasping for a smoke before he karks it and his relatives telling him that it is no good for him. Of course it will kill you but then so will life it is not rocket science and so bloody obvious that we are getting old and of course things will go wrong so I intend to make the most of it before I to die as we all will. Be it from overindulgance or having a heart attack running away from an irate husband (which would be a good way to go)