I read this story about lung scans for former smokers with great interest. I quit more than three years ago, but sometimes still quietly worry that lung cancer is going to hunt me down and get me.
I had considered getting a lung scan on the advice of a friend, a former social smoker, after she was told she has a small spot on one lung. She gets it monitored regularly and seems pretty healthy. I hope to get a scan, too, but figure I'll wait until after baby girl is born.
The wonderful Northwestern Hospital nurse who helped me to quit in 2007, Carol Southard, keeps all of her clients on email lists. She recently emailed asking for volunteers for the Great American Smokeout on November 18. I have to admit, I always thought the "Smokeout" was a bunch of hooey. No one will just quit for one day -- I remember as a smoker seeing volunteers at various spots in downtown Chicago and making a verrrrrry wide path around them. Of course, the point of the Smokeout is to help smokers quit for good -- see, nicotine does more than addict you to cigarettes -- it makes you think weird, too, and rationalize in strange ways.
Anyway, I'm going to volunteer this year, inspired by my mother. I don't ever remember my mother as a non-smoker, but she is now 23 days, I believe, without a cigarette! Go Mom!
About Me
- Tammy
- After years of sloth, I am now a mama who runs and practices yoga. I write about exercise; parenting a grownup child as well as two little kids; and whatever is annoying me at the moment.
My mom quit smoking late in her life after more than 50 years of smoking. She was very very proud of herself. and we were very proud of her too. If my mom was able to quit smoking anybody is. I was an on-and-off smoker for years — smoked for 3 years, quite for 5 years. I finally quit for good in 1999. During those times when I was a smoker, The Great American Smokeout was an inspiration and a reminder that there is a better way to live than under the control of that nasty drug nicotine. Go Tammy and go Tammy's mom!
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