Well, thank goodness! My Mom's biopsy came back clear! No cancer...nothing out of the ordinary...apparently the spot was a piece of old tonsil left behind from the original operation. The sad part is this is going to be another excuse to keep on smoking--46 years and counting. You would think her son having cancer would be enough for her to quit.

Ray,

I am SO HAPPY for you and her. This must be an incredible weight off your mind. Merry Christmas after all! I can't think of a better gift.

Lani

Yes it is a great Christmas gift!

And a lot of weight off my shoulders...this good news was much needed...

HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!

Hey Ray - make her a personalized christmas card - share your heart and your worries and plead with her to consider stopping smoking.

Every little bit of pleading works a little to help them get closer to quitting - ragging on them won't work... so try it and see if she will take the challenge soon.

I was a smoker - i know how hard it is to quit (i quit before diagnosis) but i also know when my kids begged me to stop it made me want to - for them. then i had to get the want to for myself and then i did it.

took a while (25 yrs of it) but i did it and am SO glad i did. i would never ever go back to those stinky things and now my hubby has quit just this past month so i am SO thankful! my kids are 3-24 and none of them have become smokers (thank you Lord) and they say seeing how badly i battled it they would never ever want to start (along with thinking it is stinky LOL)

anyways i am SO happy to read of the good report! Thank you Lord for giving us good news for Rays mom! We ask for many many more good reports to follow, - amen!

That is terrific news Ray! Certainly an early Christmas present.

Both my parents were long time smokers. My dad quit when I was in high school, and my mother quit a number of times, but "needed" them and would start again. She had her wakeup call 10+ years ago after her second heart attack and hasn't smoked since. I know it is hard, but I hope your situation and her scare may make the difference.

Perhaps you can tell her that all you want for Christmas is for her to quit smoking!

As an ex-smoker, I can tell you the more you get harped at or asked to quit smoking. It just kicks something loose in the brain and makes them more enjoyable. Over 50 yrs of that garbage and when I was diagnosed with OC, it was the boost I needed to quit and never look back. I know what I thought when someone would tell me to quit. Maybe it was just showing someone that I couldn't be bullied into quitting. Good luck Ray and I hope she quits for her sake and your peace of mind.

Thanks Ray for sharing the great news.

I know quite a few cancer patients that wish they had quit smoking or never had started. It's a tough thing to do, but the damaging effects are impossible to undo.

I'm going through this right now with my dental assistant of 25 years who has lung cancer with nmets to the brain.

Jerry

Ray

Glad your mom is ok. Quitting smoking is something that only she can do. No matter how much everyone begs her to quit, she must make up her mind to do it. Maybe the scare will help her to quit. Maybe Chantix would help her to quit.

She wants to quit but makes excuses. It has to be a very hard habit to kick, especially when one is surrounded by smokers. It kills me to see my mom, step father, sister's and uncle smoke. It kills me to see my mom out of breath--she was Dx'd with emphysema about 4 or 5 years ago, she's 60 years old. It kills me to hear my mom, step-father and uncle doing the smoker's cough. It kills me seeing my sister's smoke and knowing what direction they're going in. It kills me that none of them will quit. My mom use to tell me, "Ray, I will smoke until the day I die." My stepfather says, "Ray, don't tell me what to do." My sister's laugh and tell me to grow up. My uncle is like, "Hey--FU!" Smoking has to be a nasty filthy hard habit to quit. At least my GF stopped--Thank God.

As a former smoker for 20+ years, I can attest to all the BS the mind puts you through as you march from one quit attempt to the next. Patches, gum, zyban . . . made no difference.

For me, the dx of cancer was the end. There was no wiggle room for the brain this time. Done. Put 'em down and haven't touched one since. No cravings, no weight gain (though probably invisible in light of weight loss during treatment), no nothing. My focus on my treatment was so intense that I really did not think about the smoking at all.

I probably think more about having a cigarette today than I did during treatment, simply because my mind is not as focused elsewhere. Still not an option to pick up the cigarette.

Motivation is the key. You have to snap that mindset that says you can't to the mindset that you have to. For me, unfortunately, it took a cancer diagnosis to get me to that point, but am glad I did. All part of maximizing my chances to beat this thing.