Jeff and others I am happy that quitting worked for you and yes it has a lot to do with motivation and desire. Quite personally I don't know how I have done it so far I must have angels on my shoulders although I still have really bad bouts with it and the excuses and reasoning still come.

With me it is I live with a smoker and everyone else smokes. Second hand stuff is very effective as well. So I can't make everyone else quit I would but free will and all despite logic. I don't wanna hide out and away from every one. They are still very respectful of me and butt out when I am around or go in another room. It will not matter if I have quit or if I will have a reoccurance cause I am still around smoke. So what is the difference between inhaling myself and second hand professionals say no difference.

If that is the case, my health is not any better for not smoking. There are a few lucky ones that have no side effects from quitting but for me weight gain, high blood pressure and a few other pretty things are happening. Instead of huffing and puffing cause of smoking I am doing it cause of weight. I cannot walk much due to other issues (back, foot arthritis) and now more weight even harder to walk..but I am not smoking good for me right...I am not so sure but I am still perservering...Life is tricky...it kinda feels my life or my family is the next decision I must make this again is not fair. Nothing about this dam disease if fair. Hell life isn't fair. I am really trying to stay level headed here but my choices don't seem all that great...stay and possibly have reoccurance from second hand smoke or leave and lower chances by exposure to smoke but still possibly have a reoccurance, or just keep living my life as I was. I am just as unhealthy now as when I was smoking. Just more irritation. The way I look at it I might as well smoke if I am gonna stay in this family cause I don't wanna have to go through treatments again for something I have quit doing!!!

Dianne,

Please calm down and count to 10. Sure, second hand smoke is bad, but, is it really just as bad as puffing away on a cancer-stick? You're doing a good job and don't ever light up. Smoking now would just guarantee more problems. Life is tough...That's why we learn.

yeah sorry I went off it's just that I just seem backed into the corner. A lot of people have a lot of thoughts concerning cancer and smoking and I know it isn't good to smoke. But my health is going for a shit anyway. I seem to be having more troubles (other than cancer which is a big one) than when I smoked. It just seems like no matter how good you are trying to be. How you try to avoid contaminents you can't. I am just frustrated and very scared. When I go up to visit my kids and my friend walk into a fog of smoke. I can't even sit with them and visit. Weather it is good for them or not it is still their right. It isn't fair that I can't visit without infringing on their rights. It is their home. It is too dam cold outside to visit outside like we could in the summer. I am feeling a bit trapped with this and am not sure where to turn. I guess this ordeal and the fear of re-occurances have terrified me period. I am having a bit of a falling appart period but it doesn't last long for the most part. I KNOW it is for the best and it will help. I am just not seeing it right now. It is one of those beliefs that you just have to believe without seeing...Thanks for letting me vent Just having a bad go of things.

Well, if you were beating on your foot with a hammer and you stopped and the foot got infected, would you start beating on it again?

The corner is in your own mind of your own making -- Second hand smoke is not the same as first hand smoke!!

I always miss the good topics!! I quit before I was diagnosed - smoked for close to 30 years. Most of the time they smell horrible, but every now and then I get a wiff of one and it smells good. I would never start again and I'm glad that I quit. I wish that I had quit sooner or never started. The times that I tried before were unsuccessful because i wasn't strong enough when friends smoked or my ex smoked.

There are a lot of risk factors for cancer so I try not to beat myself up for having been a smoker. My mother did that for me when I was first diagnosed - her exact words "Well you did it to yourself." Pretty supportive huh?? She has not gotten any more supportive either, but that is a whole different story.

Good analagy Pete would never of thought of it that way and put that spin on it. But you ask most people and they will disagree with you saying it is as harmful as smoking. That's why all the laws about smoking in a car with a child in the car. Why we can't smoke in restaurants, bars, any public place.

To put things in perspective, I once read about a study that proved that nicotine addiction is stonger than heroine addiction.

So it is no wonder that stopping is so difficult.

I often wonder what goes through people's minds that develop lung cancer or oral cancer that was caused by smoking. I can't even begin to imagine what I would feel like.

I have heard smokers that don't even try to stop, or try and can't, either say to "it's not going to happen to me" or "I'm going to die from something, so if it's cancer, it's cancer". It's easy to say, but boy as we know, it's not easy to go through.

Any ex-smokers care to comment?

Maybe it will help Ray with his family situation.

Jerry

I disagree about the second-hand smoking being as harmful as first-hand smoking -- The second-hand smoke is less harmful (Still harmful but less!) because it has already been filtered by the lungs of the first-hand smoker.

However, addicts will take any excuse to continue their addiction...

Keep beating on that foot!

I was a pack a day smoker for about 25 years. I had quit only 3 times in about 25 years, twice I quit due to being pregnant and the third was due to being hospitalized for 2 weeks.

When I was diagnosed with OC, it was a very stressful time for me. I wasnt sure how I could possibly get thru it without a strong support group or a garegiver. I was worried to death. After things settled down and I had a treatment plan I began to consider quitting.

I tried and failed until one day I was on my way for an operation for the PEG tube and port placement. My son was with me and I had given it alot of thought on how I was going to quit. hen it just hit me, I told my son....watch this. I threw my cigs out the window and told him I quit and would never smoke another cigarette in my life.

I decided I wasnt going to let the cigs get the best of me. It almost felt like it was a battle of them or me and I wasnt about to lose this one. It was the one thing I had control over. Mind over matter.

That was July 27, 2007. I have not smoked since and will never smoke again.

Don't get me wrong or missunderstand I am not smoking and not really sure if I want to either. It's just so many people are making a big deal about second hand smoke and here they push that it is no different than smoking period. I am not beating my foot I am just curious how it actually compares. Cause even my doctor has said that if I have it around me I might as well just smoke. He even said that it raises my chances of reoccurance. I am not sure but maybe he was trying to scare me about smoke period. Or maybe trying to scare my husband into smoking. Whatever the case it scared me enough that I was frustrated about being around family and friends who smoke cause I didn't want to have a reoccurance due to other people's smoking. But that is fruitless cause unless I leave my home and my family I will never have it out of my life. I am not prepared to leave them so....It is still the weirdest feeling like something is missing. Especially when I go out or go somewhere. I always feel like I am forgetting something...