Deadly Addiction

Perhaps one of the saddest stories I've heard the first few days of this New Year is about someone who recently underwent extensive surgery to repair damage from a 40 year smoking habit.

The story is that doctors had to saw his chest open to replace arteries and do other repairs. After a few weeks in the hospital - and a longer stay in a rehabilitation facility where he learned to walk again - he returned home.  He had over a month smoke-free.

Before his discharge doctors cautioned him against smoking again - and because he’d been smoke-free for nearly a month -everyone was optimistic that he wouldn't.  Especially in light of his recent life-threatening surgery.

However, when I inquired as his welfare from a close relative, she said that he’d tried “a couple.”   And when I heard that I knew it wouldn't be long before he’d be smoking as he did before.

As a former smoker who’s lost seven family members to smoking related emphysema and COPD I know how devastating smoking addiction is - and how difficult it is to quit.  As someone who's kicked heroin a dozen times, I can attest that quitting cigarettes is equally difficult and painful.

I underwent the pain of quitting nicotine 28 years ago, the best decision I ever made.  And I only pray that this person can summon the strength to quit this deadly addiction before  he slowly suffocates from emphysema or COPD.