Any smokers Out There?

meluhn · Feb 16, 2009

Like many of you, can relate to this feeling of not wanting to be controlled by something. Nurses are such control freaks we even have to control ourselves!

jstbreathe · Feb 16, 2009

Job Security!!

lemonade · Feb 16, 2009

I quit a couple years ago. It was a bit late as I already had renal cell carcinoma. Smoking is a cause of that cancer, and many others, not just lung cancer. I'm 34 years old, I smoked for 15 years and I am going to die young because of it.

I'm watching my parents, my in-laws, and many friends suffer from the consequences of smoking. No one wants to watch their family gasping for breath, yet I do on a daily basis.

jjensen · Feb 16, 2009

I smoke and love to smoke. I know it is bad for me. My Grandma died from lung cancer. I worked for Hospice and I have seen it all... But I am stupid and still smoke. I don't know what it will take for me to quit. I just am not ready now...;(

rustyshackleford · Feb 16, 2009

But smoking is an addiction....and this is the loopy logic of the addict. Doesn't matter what the addiction is for -- cigarettes, food, alcohol, whatever. This is the way addicts think. I thought that way when I smoked too.
We all know the truth -- just like we know that the earth is round and pi is infinite. Knowing doesn't take away the craving that messes with our thinking and makes us think we need that cigarette. We don't. We need air. But the loopy logic kicks in -- just like the hypoxic patient thinks the venti mask is smothering him and tries to pull it off. If you're the person trying to keep the venti on the patient, you can see how powerful that thinking can be.

hypoxic patient a little bit different me thinks,but thats not the point i was trying to make. i understand the concept of addiction and thats the how i've managed to stop, but it just really annoys me when people state that most folk dont get lung cancer etc because its SUCH a stupid statement... well this is certainly the most interesting and well responded poat i've ever started!! :lol2:

BradleyRN · Feb 16, 2009

I hope to god you don't work maternity if you think it's okay to make a joke like that about PPD...

Maybe that's also due to the fact that I suffered PPD.

Well, i found your little bouncy eyed smiley regarding PPD equally offensive!

Just kidding. I certainly didnt mean to offend anyone. I am just saying that i chose to smoke every single cigarette i ever put in my mouth. If there were more pressing matters, my prioritization wasnt skewed by the fact that i smoked. People seem to like to blame drugs for their actions. I guess it's better than accepting responsibility themselves, but leaves little room for growth IMHO.

Jaybird310 · Feb 17, 2009

I've been a smoker since I was 15, I managed to quit for a about a year but then I moved here to Kentucky and in the stress of moving and not knowing anyone I picked the habit back up. I like a couple of other posters actually enjoy smoking. Plus with the anti smoking laws around here, it gives me an excuse to go outside and get away from groups sometimes. Now I'm at a point in my life where I want to quit and have to quit. My lifelong non smoker fiancee has just moved in with me and she's pregnant so I'm quitting for my family.

Now does anyone here have advice on how to stay quit? Because through the year that I was quit the awful craving never went away.

meluhn · Feb 17, 2009

Use the patch, eat vegetables, drink h2o, do whatever you have to do. No one ever thinks that they will get old and sick. I could never imagine being middle aged when I was young or being an adult when I was a kid. But lo and behold, life went on and here I am a 37yr old lady. Don't turn around when it is already too late and wish you could undo it. Think of how bad it sucks when a person gets that dx of Ca. It is like a punch in the stomach--just knocks the wind right out of you. Or worse, do you want your baby growing up without his/her dad because you had a sudden MI and dropped dead at a young age. I know I sound melodramatic but everything I am saying is true. Life will just keep coming at you weather you make the right choices or not and you will have to deal with the outcome. I was a smoker too for 13 years. Quitting is very hard but do it anyway. Good luck

PS I loved to smoke too, I still like the smell in the air (not on people).

Old and New · Feb 17, 2009

I worked as an addictions counselor for a while. We always said, "If nagging worked, we'd be out of a job". Trust me, you can put as much heart and soul into your plea for all of us to quit as you can ooze out of a keyboard, but it will have the opposite effect on most dedicated smokers. Save your breath, and maybe some day we'll save ours. :smokin:

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Feb 17, 2009

I worked as an addictions counselor for a while. We always said, "If nagging worked, we'd be out of a job". Trust me, you can put as much heart and soul into your plea for all of us to quit as you can ooze out of a keyboard, but it will have the opposite effect on most dedicated smokers. Save your breath, and maybe some day we'll save ours.

Reminds me of the time that I pulled a cigarette out of the pack and found that each and every one had been defaced by a blue magic marker line exactly in the middle of the white paper.

Mom was at it again. Her reasoning was that if I smoked only to the blue line, I'd get less tar and nicotine. I smoked every cigarette in that pack down to the nub, just to tick her off.

HonestRN · Feb 17, 2009

Oh come on! saying that those statements are not ignorant.. well actually, your statements probably arent ignorant, just stupid when comparing those things. my brother has a severe nut allergy, but cause he knows this, he doesn't eat any fing nuts!!! people who smoke often say something like "you could get hit by a bus tomorrow" and this is true. the defining difference, though? you dont go walking out in front of buses, but smokers do continue to smoke despite being fully aware of what its doing to them.. and as for those folk with the "80% of smokers dont get lung cancer" speel, why is it only lung cancer that gets focus!!??? heart disease, ANY form of cancer, COPD, emphysema, impotence, sterility, and the 101 other problems associated with smoking are all just as real and impacting!

:smokin::smokin:

FloridaGirl23 · Feb 17, 2009

I'm a student nurse, about to graduate. I quit 3 years ago after smoking for almost 11. I feel so much better now, able to breath, taste food etc. After being in clinicals around so many "smoking" related illnesses I wonder why cigarettes are still legal? I see post partum moms run out to have a cigarette right when they are allowed out of the room and they always say "I've been waiting 9 months for this" Really? Waiting nine months for a cigarette and not the health of your baby. Being the mom to a 20 months old son who has "reactive airway disease" and has to have breathing treatments often, it REALLY upset me that when I took him to his last doctor's appointment that the nurse doing his vitals smelled like and ashtray and then proceded to pick him up. He had to have a breathing treatment in the offce before we left and I am CERTAIN it was from her. I know how hard it is to quit, but as healthcare workers we need to set the example (or not smoke on the days we work )