A warning for smokers

I started smoking cigarettes when I was a teenager. I'm 36 years old and recently I developed a dark spot on my lip. I went to the doctors and they removed a chuck skin out of my lip to get it biopsied for cancer. I'm freaking out right now. I have to wait 10 more days for the result. I'm done with smoking. My doctor is going to prescribe me some stuff to help me quit.

I knew the risks of smoking and I always thought I'd deal with them when the time had come but I never thought it would be at this age. My grandparents are in their late 70's and they still smoke. I'm just hoping it's nothing but a scar from biting my lip as a nervous habit.

best of luck to you. hope everything works out.

my quitting method has been my grandmother. 69 yrs old and she looks like a zombie.

Good for you dude:-) Hope everything works out. I don't smoke btw

Most people already know the risk of smoking don't know why we need another warning...

I'mma go for a smoke right now.

All the same, wish ya luck buddy.

The warning is on the box.

You know... I'm really curious to know how I would react to the news having lung cancer. Would I stop smoking? Would I do do the treatment? Would I freak out? Maybe one day I'll find out, though I hope I never do get the chance to... if you know what I mean.

The best thing about smoking is how disrespectful it is to other people. I put it up there with pissing on someone else's shoes.

I appreciate you sharing your story. First hand account means more than a warning label. Stay strong bro

How is it disrespectful to other people?

I hope everything goes well for you. Sometimes we all need a slap in the face here and there.

In context.

For the most part smoking in public for no reason other than to satisfy an addiction is not only very uncool, but also annoying to every non smoker around.

I'm 36 as well. Been 2 pack a day Marlboro smoker since I was 14. And had to quit in 2008 due to high cigarette taxes and I have no regrets at all. Been jogging and eating healthier, and living a healthier lifestyle since and been taking up surfing again ever since I stopped the hobby during high school when I gained some extra weight.

Cigarettes here in NYC are currently $11-$12 a pack and are worthless. I can buy a healthy lunch far less than that.

You need to quit NOW.

I'm an occasional smoker, only rarely when I drink. Typically less than 10 cigs per year if that. Usually I do it just to start talking to girls that smokes, because if she smokes she pokes!

Smells terrible and stinks up everything it touches, even if it only makes contact for literally one second. Smoking (tobacco) anywhere but outside, and far away from anyone who's not also smoking, is definitely disrespectful to other people.

That only works if you already look cool. Then smoking makes you look cooler.

But if you look totally f***ing lame, then smoking just makes you look more lame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djVjexRp-oQ

Good luck. Treatment for cancer seriously sucks (to put it lightly, and there's no guarantee it will even work), so pray you won't need it. I believe if most smokers knew what chemo is like they'd more than likely quit. Then again, my uncle continued to smoke even after a tumor ate through his spinal cord and left him paralyzed from the nipple down to his death, so who knows.

It's a seriously strong physical and psychological addiction. It's crazy how perpetuated the negatives of other, less legal, drugs are - yet nicotine continues to be widely available to anyone over 19.

It wouldn't seem so crazy if it was you on the receiving end of all that money from the tobacco companies.

i smoked casually a few years but once i realized how addictive it could be, i quit before i got fully addicted and havent smoked since.

even so every now and then, a random craving comes out of nowhere

@jdc6305:

My best wishes go out to you man.

I really hope everything works out good for you.

That sucks, man. Best of luck in that it isn't cancer, and if it is, hope they caught it early enough to warrant treatment.

I'm not going to plug my beliefs on the matter because this isn't a time to be doing so.

At those prices, even if you only smoke one pack a day, you are spending over $4000 a year on cigarettes. I can think of other things to spend that kind of money on such as a vacation or a PC or camera equipment or better yet, food, especially if one is on food stamps.

A Seinfeld video? really? *puts out cigarette*

cos demanding those people do not come within a certain proximity of your presence isn't disrespectful

Meh, anyone who feels disrespected by my smoking can get the f*ck out of my yard.

Switch to dip.

Exactly.

Everyone knows 'cigarettes are bad for you', but it'll be someone else that happens to. Getting old, unhealthy? That day will never come.

Well that I can understand.

After something like that, **** it. What else do you have to live for at that stage. Why give up one of the few joys you have left.

Ever since I'm a diabetic I quit smoking, it's very bad for diabetics to smoke. You made a good decision man, good luck.

@jdc6305: I hope it isn't anything major and good for you for giving up smoking. I hope you stick with it. I haven't smoked in 14 years.

Other people smoking doesn't bother me as long as they understand they will not be smoking in my house or car. When I own my own home, I will put a fence up with a sign saying "No smoking beyond this point. If you have a problem with that, don't bother opening the gate".

Hope it all goes well for you. People who smoke know of the risks, they just do it anyway because they think they're invincible.

Ever kiss a girl that smokes? It's massively gross.

My Ma called me while I was on the way back home from a job. She said she had some bad news concerning my Pops. She hemmed and hawed a bit and I had to drag it out of her. She told me that my Pops had a spot on his lung and it was found to be cancerous. Worse yet, it was inoperable due to it's location. My heart sunk due to me once being a smoker and being the oldest and I knew pretty much that it was a death sentence unless something miraculous happened. He decided to try chemotherapy and was doing OK until one night when he went to his lodge meeting and sat under an air conditioning duct. A couple weeks later, he was in the hospital with pneumonia. I was on another job and in Texas (Pops was in VA) and had only been there a week when my Ma told me she had to call the ambulance due to my Pops being sick. That freaked me out, as well as him I think.

Still, he hoped that the chemo would help, but in the end, he still lived over a year from the first diagnosis. If it is operable, your life expectancy from lung cancer goes up. It really hits someone when they look at the doctor and tell him that there would be no more treatments of any kind. That is them accepting that time is short. It was just over 2 months from that time til my Pops died. Watching someone struggle to breath as they fight to live is really hard to watch.

@Jimn_tonic said:

@-Renegade said:

Most people already know the risk of smoking don't know why we need another warning...

They just put that there to scare you; it's not true.

I love smoking and sometimes these things make me real scared, but the addiction is always bigger. Maybe when I get a spot on the lip I'll get freaking scared aswell and quit as you did.

chantix is almost as dangerous as smoking.

pfizer is busting their asses to cover up what is going on with that stuff.

they are literally hiding the death count by misfiling the paperwork they are required to turn in.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43187290/ns/health-health_care/t/smoking-pill-suicides-overlooked-missing-reports/?ns=health-health_care&t=smoking-pill-suicides-overlooked-missing-reports

That's one nasty habbit i don't plan on picking up.

You're kind of leaving us in suspense here.

Not smoking is one of the best choices I've made in my life so far. It's easy to not smoke if you never started in the first place.

Yes I did. Felt like a normal kiss, probably because I smoke too.

Dang, that's.... sorry to hear that bro.

Now imagine you as my Pops.