Why the Recovering Community Deserves to be Tobacco Free

This was posted in May of 2006. You can read the entire post and the pros and cons of this post here

Following story as told to me in the first person.
With permission to post.

My name is Julius, I'm an alcoholic.
My first drink was at the age of 12 as was my first cigarette.
However, it all started in earnest when I entered the Navy at age 17.
From that point on I smoked and drank alcoholically for the next 40 years.
I continued to smoke for the next 15 years.

A pain in my right shoulder prompted an Orthopedic clinic to order an x-ray of the shoulder. The x-ray showed the problem as arthritis. The x-ray also showed a shadow in the right upper lobe of my right lung.

A CT (CAT Scan) was ordered.
It showed a mass a little smaller than a golf ball.
A needle biopsy showed small cell cancer.
Surgery is rarely used in small cell lung cancer.
Chemotherapy was ordered.
Chemotherapy is treatment with anticancer drugs given into a vein or by mouth. These drugs enter the bloodstream and reach throughout the body, making this treatment useful for cancer that has spread (metastasized) to organs beyond the lung. Chemotherapy is usually the main treatment for small cell lung cancer. Several drugs may be given at the same time.

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells but they also damage some normal cells, causing side effects. These side effects depend on the type of drugs used, the amount given, and the length of treatment.
You could have some of these short-term side effects:
nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, hair loss, body pain.
These are the side effects I now have after my first chemo infusion.
Chemo is not fun. I lost 30 lbs because I can't eat due to what is called taste blindness caused by Chemo. Stinking Thinking
To combat the pain Vicodin is prescribed.
My pain got so bad I succumbed to the Vicodin.
It worked, I was able to sleep. No more pain.
Then stinking thinking returns.
Maybe I should take another Vicodin just in case the pain returns. This is what chemo does.I know it's very difficult to stop smoking.
Do yourself a favor and get a chest x-ray. American Cancer Society

I know, this is A.A. I stopped drinking to save my life.
I stopped smoking only because I had too. I pray I wasn't too late.

F.Y.I. only. Nicotine Anonymous