PLEASE SHARE all of your HORROR STORIES about the miseries of smoking with the visitors to this website.. Who knows, YOU might end up SAVING someone else's LIFE.. Wouldn't that feel GREAT?? Include your E-Mail address IF you'd like people to correspond with you.. The more POSITIVE PEER PRESSURE the BETTER!!
E-mail your HORROR stories to be SHARED to:
9-17-2002
I never really got to know my Grandfather. He died when I was quite young. I do remember a quiet, sweet kindly old man, one whom I loved very much. One of my few and fondest memories of him are of me sitting on his lap and slyly accepting a sip from his pint of beer. I find it hard to picture him without a cigarette between his fingers. He was always smoking, and then it caught up to him in the worst possible manner.
It took a while for him to mention to anyone that there was something wrong with his legs. When we finally got around to taking him to a doctor, it turned out that smoking had affected his blood circulation so much that he had contracted gangrene in his legs. My last memories of my grandpa were of him tied down to a chair because he was under such heavy medication and painkillers that his mind didn't know where it was. He didn't even recognize my father, his only son. His fingernails were long and stained yellow with nicotine. The painkillers were to help him cope with the recent loss of a leg, as it had to be amputated to prevent the spread of the gangrene.
I never saw him again after that... My father did. When my dad went to see him, my grandfather had had his second leg amputated. Somehow all of the pores in his skin had closed. Consequently his body had swelled up to nearly twice the size because of water retention. I guess all of this was just too much, since he then later died of heart failure. The last words he spoke were to my father, and they were to ask for cigarette.
My grandmother followed him not too long afterwards. She had acquired emphysema. Not only did it turn her into a wheezing cripple but it also affected the oxygen getting to her brain. The last memories I have of her are of a bitter, spiteful woman who really used to be quite pleasant.
This is my horror story and I do not particularly enjoy telling it but I do so in the hope that it will help at least one person to quit, if not for fear of your own health, then for the love of those close to you. It's just not worth it.
My father used to be a smoker himself, although I have never seen him with a cigarette in my lifetime. I can't tell how relieved I am that he no longer poisons himself daily. One day he decided to quit, and never had another. Proof that with enough determination and will power it can be done. So a smoker might get withdrawal symptoms. Anger, agitation... basically 2 weeks of living hell. But what's that compared to so many YEARS of not only putting yourself through hell, but those that care for you, and then having your light extinguished in the most undignified way imaginable. My girlfriend smokes. She knows I don't like it but doesn't quite know just how much it bothers me. I don't want to push her because at the end of the day it's her choice and she's big enough to make her own decisions. I just want to show her that those decisions have consequences. Maybe if she reads this it will help. Leanne means a lot to me, I don't want to see her slowly kill herself.
1-30-01
Hello everyone, my name is Travis. 27 days ago I watched my father die of emphysema. At the time of his death he was 6" 03" inches and weighed 120 lbs. much different than his normal 220lbs. My father endured fighting in the Navy during WW2, raising three seemingly insane children, and countless other tribulations, all of which he handled without ever showing an ounce of stress or regret. My father was the old world type of man that took care of his responsibilities without any complaints. Everything in his life he felt lucky and blessed to have. On my 22nd birthday, five years ago he was admitted to the emergency room because he was having trouble breathing. I truly believed this man was made of iron and nothing could really harm him. I saw it as something he would" just get over" When he came home and they began bringing the oxygen tanks and the breathing machines and the treatments into the house, I became worried. My dad told me not to be concerned, because he felt fine. The next five years I would watch my father slowly die. He was 74 years old. He went from riding his bike to the store to being bed ridden. He went from being a 30 year old trapped inside a 70 yr old body, to a 70 yr old trapped in his room. He began smoking when he was 12 when there was no anti smoking campaigns or groups. How anyone in today's world could begin smoking is beyond me. I am only 27 yrs old. I needed my dad here to answer all my questions. I needed him here to tell me how to get through the rough times as well as he did. I needed him here to explain why my car wont start, or why it starts in the first place. I just need him here. I'm sure he would have lived another 20 years if it wasn't for his smoking. Both his mom and dad lived into their late 90's Anyone out there smoking right now please take a look at your kids and remember that no matter how old you or they are anything you can do to stay around one more day is the greatest gift you could ever give them.
terranceparson@prodigy.net
In memory of Clarence" Bill" Parson
10-29-00
Hi,
I am not wanting to sensationalize this story, as it involves someone I loved very much. So, with that in mind, I prefer not to refer to this as a "horror story" yet the reality of this story was indeed horrible...
A few years ago, I watched my aunt die of Lung Cancer. I was there at her bedside when she gasped for her last breath of air. She was heavily medicated to help her pain, but to watch her, you'd think you were watching someone suffocating. Her eyes had a glassy stare as she fought to hang on to what little bit of life was left in her. But finally, the cancer that had overtaken her lungs, took her life completely, and her body lay silent and motionless. My Auntie Mary was gone.
Auntie Mary was the kind of Aunt who always looked the same practically, from the time I was a small child til up until she got sick. She was energetic and vivacious, but she nearly always had a cigarette in hand. To her, I suppose because she was such a go-getter, she must have figured it could never happen to her. But it did. And when it did, there was no turning back.
I think she'd still be here, were it not for those nasty cigarettes that had her in their grasp. She was a wonderful person, but now she is gone. As much as I loved her, I will say though that she made the choice to smoke. No one rammed those in her mouth.
If you are a smoker, ask yourself why. Is it because you want to lay in a nursing home awaiting a pre-mature death as you gasp for a few remaining breaths of air? Don't think it can't happen because it can. I watched Auntie Mary die. I watched as the nurses covered her over and packed up her things for all of us. That death could have been prevented. We could have had a few more cups of tea together...a few more walks down by the river...a few more good laughs about just about anything. But now we can't.
Cigarettes are not "cool"...she didn't smoke to be cool. She smoked out of habit. Maybe the first few were to be "cool" back in her youth. Beats me. She was a wonderful adult with a bad habit.
So, to the teens (and adults) or even little kids that are tempted to pick up a cigarette. Before you do, go look at your little brother or sister, or your best friend, or your mom, or you nephew, niece, daughter or son. Find someone you love and envision watching them die. You won't want to do that. It's too much like a horror story. Well, that is what you will put someone through if you start smoking. Auntie Mary loved me. She never intended for me to see her die of lung cancer. But I did. You can prevent another horror story. Don't ever even try one. It's one of the best decisions you can make for yourself and for those you love.
NewMillenniumP@aol.com
