Have You Smoked/Used Tobacco?

[hardheadjarhead]

There are some really moving stories here. Were I to read them to a class of nine to twelve year olds, they'd probably never pick up a cigarette.

I won't do that, of course, out of respect for your privacy.

Thanks for sharing.


Regards,


Steve

 

[shesulsa]

Oh, you have permission to use mine, Steve. Perhaps we can exchange...would you mind having an exchange with me regarding teaching special needs kids - most specifically learning and developmentally delayed kids and kids in the ASD 4 ?

Share my story with as many kids/people you want and talk with me about special needs instruction (martial arts, that is). Deal?

 

[hardheadjarhead]

Oh, you have permission to use mine, Steve. Perhaps we can exchange...would you mind having an exchange with me regarding teaching special needs kids - most specifically learning and developmentally delayed kids and kids in the ASD 4 ?

Share my story with as many kids/people you want and talk with me about special needs instruction (martial arts, that is). Deal?

Deal.

I'll PM you....


But do you know something? I remember as a little girl, him coming home from the office in his suit, burying my face in his shoulder and breathing in deep the combined smell of dry cleaning fluid and menthol cigarette smoke (B&H). That along with a big hug is one of my most vivid - and favorite - memories.


I remember doing that with my dad when I was young. He'd come in on a winter day from a trip, and the snowflakes would still be fresh on his suit.

My sister sent me my Dad's "cover", his khaki garrison cap from his days in the Marine Corps. I noticed the odor of the Vitalis he'd use on his air, combined with his natural hair oil. She sent it two years ago. He died in 1986. He's been gone eighteen years and a something like this can conjure up a vivid memory of him, and I can hear his voice.

I miss him.



Regards,


Steve

 

[Jade Tigress]

I smoked for 10 years. Started at age 16 when we actually had a designated smoking area at my high school. People smoked in offices, restaurants, you name it. Just about everyone I knew smoked. I was up to two packs a day before quitting cold turkey. It's been 14 years since I've had a smoke. Now I hate the way it smells on people, in houses, or on clothes and I don't like being in smoke filled areas. But....sometimes on a warm night outside, especially after dinner, if I catch a faint wiff of cigarette smoke I just kinda go "mmmm".

 

[Lisa]

My dad, when I was about 5 years old, had his right lung removed. He had smoked from the time he was around 8 years old. At the time of his surgery, he was only 42. He has a scar from about two inches below his right armpit and it continues across his back and makes it almost all the way to the base of his neck. He told me that the day he entered the hospital for surgery he walked up to the ward (smoke in hand) and the nurse handed him an ashtray and told him to put that out and never, ever have another one again. The surgery saved his life. Unfortunately he never listened to that wise nurse and continued to smoke for many years switching from cigarettes to cigars and then later a pipe. Today his one lung works very hard. I almost lost him again a few years ago because his body was having trouble feeding itself oxygen and he was going into respiratory failure. I watch, this once vibrant man, labour to take a breath. He has a bi-pap machine because he suffers from sleep apnea. The doctor's have told him his lung is tired of working so hard for so long. I think things have clicked for him finally, he no longer smokes any kind of tobacco, and is attempting to lose weight - I think he is down about 25 pounds.

My only wish is that he would have listened many years before, or not started at all.

 

[Shodan]

I was scared out of it as a kid. My Dad's a dentist and when my brother and I were kids, Dad used to show us real pictures from his dental and health books of people with like half a lip or eroded gums that had used tobacco or smokers lungs with holes in them, pictures of throat cancer, etc. We were grossed out and neither of us in our adult lives have turned to that sort of thing. Thanks to my Dad, I think he did the right thing for us......even though it was pretty disgusting!!

Today, cigarette smoke makes me almost immediately sick if I am around it- immediate headache and/or nausea.

:asian: :karate:

 

[Cruentus]

P.S. Tulisan - how did you manage to evade the change of avatars when we were all constructing faces? Or are you posting yours after the Presas memorial season?

Sorry for the delayed reply, shesulsa...

After August (Presas Memorial season) I will try to do a little cartoon avatar of me-self... :ultracool

 

[REbhzd_Ninja]

I've never been able to run or even jog 1 whole lap around the track at any point during my life. I've also been forced to inhale my parents second hand smoke for the most part of my life. If anybody out there has any helpfull suggestions or can tell me anything about how to get myself to the point where I can actually run the mile, then that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

I've never been able to run or even jog 1 whole lap around the track at any point during my life. I've also been forced to inhale my parents second hand smoke for the most part of my life. If anybody out there has any helpfull suggestions or can tell me anything about how to get myself to the point where I can actually run the mile, then that would be greatly appreciated.

Is this a conditioning issue or asthma? If the latter, I can't tell you anything. If its the issue of conditioning, what else can you tell us? How much do you weigh? How old are you?

Assuming you're not extremely overweight or an old piece of dust like me, I'd suggest getting on an exercise machine such as a recumbent bike. Exercise within your target heart rate for fifteen to twenty minutes and work up from there as time goes on. You might try this with walking at a crisp rate as well. Eventually intersperse jogging for a few yards, walking fast...all the while monitoring your heart rate.

I'd get a complete physical before all of this so as to rule out anything wrong with your heart and lungs. Tell your doctor your goals and tell him what you've been experiencing.

Here is a table for computing your target heart rate:

http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/hr.shtml


Regards,


Steve

 

[shesulsa]

I've never been able to run or even jog 1 whole lap around the track at any point during my life. I've also been forced to inhale my parents second hand smoke for the most part of my life. If anybody out there has any helpfull suggestions or can tell me anything about how to get myself to the point where I can actually run the mile, then that would be greatly appreciated.

I can tell you something about that. I had the very same problem - I have reduced lung capacity from inhaling second-hand smoke and undiagnosed asthma. I didn't find out about asthma until earlier this year (I am now 38) when I got asthmatic bronchitis. It put me on my back for days - very high fever, hard to breathe, etcetera.

***WARNING - MIGHT GROSS YOU OUT***

Anyway, I was working towards increasing my cardio fitness and still was not making ANY progress after two or three years of attempted conditioning. The doctor gave me two inhalers - serevent and flovent. One is a bronchial dilator (not as strong as traditional medicines). And one is a steriodal anti-inflammatory. I began using them and began to cough up all kinds of gross-looking stuff - this was old phlegm and infection that had never cleared my lungs because of the narrow bronchial tubes. Once all of that cleared, I could breathe like I have never been able to breathe before. I actually stopped the medication after a while through a weaning-off process and did very well.

I need to go back on them now for a while after my illness earlier this year. So apparently, in my case, I can use the medications intermittently. I will probably continue usage of them through and past my black belt test until my lungs are clear and important events have passed.

You need to also know that you probably have allergies and should be tested. The cells that react in the lungs are the same kind of cells that react in the craniofacial region.

Ask your GP for a referral to an allergist and a respiratory / lung specialist and get evaluated. And please don't waste any more time - you will be SO glad you did!

 

[Rob Broad]

I smoke a pack of wine tipped colts every year when I am at the cottage. Usually I end up with 3 of the 5 in the pack during the annual family reunion. That little amount of smoking doesn't do much if any harm. 3 wine tipped colts is less than 1 cigar a year.

 

[Gin-Gin]

Although I grew up around smokers and my parents discouraged me from doing it, I was a rebellious teenager and smoked from age 18-28. Fortunately for me, at 28 I decided to get off my butt and enrolled in a Kenpo school to learn self-defense & get some exercise (I was a size 24 at the time & smoked a pack a day). About a month and 1/2 after I enrolled, I attended my first "Kenpo Camp" as a White belt. No one told me that smoking wasn't allowed, so I had to quit "cold turkey" (Oy!) It was the longest weekend of my life, but it turned out to be one of the best, because: 1) Someone finally forced me to quit, and 2) I fell in love with Kenpo and knew that the Art would always be a part of my life. I am four sizes smaller than I was back then, and have been nicotine-free for 6 years this past May.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

Although I grew up around smokers and my parents discouraged me from doing it, I was a rebellious teenager and smoked from age 18-28. Fortunately for me, at 28 I decided to get off my butt and enrolled in a Kenpo school to learn self-defense & get some exercise (I was a size 24 at the time & smoked a pack a day). About a month and 1/2 after I enrolled, I attended my first "Kenpo Camp" as a White belt. No one told me that smoking wasn't allowed, so I had to quit "cold turkey" (Oy!) It was the longest weekend of my life, but it turned out to be one of the best, because: 1) Someone finally forced me to quit, and 2) I fell in love with Kenpo and knew that the Art would always be a part of my life. I am four sizes smaller than I was back then, and have been nicotine-free for 6 years this past May.

Good for you!

Shesulsa, I didn't find your story all that gross. Phlegm doesn't bother me that much. In fact, I always thought that would be a good name for a boy. "Hey, Phlegm! Go get yer pappy a Dr. Pepper!"

These stories would scare kids away from the dangers of smoking and/or second hand smoke. They say scare tactics don't work with kids. If you start telling them when they're younger, I believe it will have an effect.

I recall my Dad's smoker's hack in the morning. It used to terrify me. It was so bad I never thought he'd survive it. After three minutes it'd be over, and he'd light up. This went on for years. Decades.

He had a stroke at seventy. He kept smoking. He died seven months later.

Regards,


Steve

 

[nlmantis]

My wife has been smoking for 15 years, she read a book by Allen Carr and quit cold turkey. It didn't seem to cause any problems for her during that time. 6 months later she started again due to work-related stress, unreasonable deadlines and bad management. Now she quits a lot, and starts a lot, too. I still think Carr's book is good as nothing else has helped before. It is rated 5-stars on Amazon (73 reviews (paperback)..)

Love, Peace, Harmony.

 

[shesulsa]

Although I grew up around smokers and my parents discouraged me from doing it, I was a rebellious teenager and smoked from age 18-28. Fortunately for me, at 28 I decided to get off my butt and enrolled in a Kenpo school to learn self-defense & get some exercise (I was a size 24 at the time & smoked a pack a day). About a month and 1/2 after I enrolled, I attended my first "Kenpo Camp" as a White belt. No one told me that smoking wasn't allowed, so I had to quit "cold turkey" (Oy!) It was the longest weekend of my life, but it turned out to be one of the best, because: 1) Someone finally forced me to quit, and 2) I fell in love with Kenpo and knew that the Art would always be a part of my life. I am four sizes smaller than I was back then, and have been nicotine-free for 6 years this past May.

Congratulations, Gin-Gin!

 

[Gin-Gin]

Congratulations, Gin-Gin!

Thank you, Shesulsa & HardHeadJarHead. (And thanks to Sibok Tom Kelly for holding that camp.....Oss!)

 

[Cryozombie]

There is not option for my smoking habit in the poll.

I only smoke once every couple months or so, when we go to somplace like Tizi Melloul in Chicago... I smoke flavored Shisha from the hookas.

Other than that, I wont touch the stuff.

 

[Taimishu]

There are some really moving stories here. Were I to read them to a class of nine to twelve year olds, they'd probably never pick up a cigarette.

I won't do that, of course, out of respect for your privacy.

Thanks for sharing.


Regards,


Steve

Steve use this if you wish.

I smoked 40 -50 a day for 37 years.
Ended up in hospital with an acute anterior myocardial infarction, runs of ventricular tachycardia. Nearly died. 8 days in CCU a further 10 weeks in ICU/MAU.

Now waiting for a transplant and betting on which comes first, transplant or funeral.
No longer smoke and dont miss it.

Regards

David

 

[hardheadjarhead]

David,

Thanks. My thoughts are with you. Good luck on getting a donor.


Regards,


Steve

 

[AaronLucia]

Fresh air good, smoke air bad.

Too easy people!