I hear you loud and clear Cheryl. Smoking is very, very, very, very bad. I agree. Smoke for 20 years and stop. 20 years later you have the same risk for small cell lung cancer but your heart will be healthy within a month. Sometimes the stress of quitting can cause more stress than the damage caused by smoking. Some people can smoke for 50 years and never have a problem. It is dependent on the person/body.

As far as doctors, if I even heard one say this, I would first punch him in his face or throat and find another one. The doctors I know are nothing like what you say except ER triage when all cases come down to life-or-death decisions first. That's completely understandable. I had to lay on the ER floor waiting for a stall for 5 hrs and was run out when a Mexican auto painter came in with a bad reaction between his meth and the pain he was huffing all day. He had no insurance either but he got my bed.

The best doctor I ever had, Gabriel, was Canadian and has returned to the motherland by the way. His delivery was above and beyond anything I had ever experienced.