Take it from a quitter: You can, too
By Sherry Nelson / Community columnist

Nov. 15 is the day designated as the Great American Smoke Out. I wonder how many of you smokers and/or chewers participated.

I used to smoke. I quit five years ago before getting pregnant with my second child (I did quit before and through my first pregnancy, too). I just never picked another Marlboro up again. My lungs continue to thank me.
There are lots of smokers in my life, including my husband, my brother and my father-in-law. My dad quit smoking two years before he died, and I can’t help but think that contributed to his death in some way, though he died from liver cancer.

I watch Tony huff as he climbs the stairs. I hear him cough regularly in the morning. I can’t help but wonder what his lungs look like. Black as tar maybe.

I am too young to be a widow.

Worse yet is his father who has suffered a stroke and has undergone heart bypass surgery. He also has poor circulation. Still he continues to smoke.

My brother’s lungs are no healthier, but at least he manages to stay fit. Still, I don’t want to see him or the other men in my life sick.

I don’t mean to preach, and I do understand how hard it is to quit. To this day, I will certainly agree the best breakfast in the world is a cup of joe and a cigarette, preferably out on a deck.

I don’t necessarily agree with making every public building smoke-free. Bars and cigarette smoking go hand-in-hand, but that’s another column altogether. However, there has to be more incentive to quit.

Perhaps the doctors could come up with a way to simulate emphysema or lung cancer. It sounds cruel, but it might just work. Maybe doctors could come up with weighted suits that smokers must wear for a period of time. It does get difficult to move around as those lung cells get sicker and sicker.

Here are some statistics that you may have heard before, and I will spew them again. They come from the American Cancer Society Web site (www.cancer.org).

20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drops.

12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

Two weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.

1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.

One year after quitting: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s.

Five to 15 years after quitting: Your stroke risk lowers to that of a nonsmoker.

10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker’s. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decrease.

15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker’s.

It’s easier said than done to quit, I guess. I was a half-pack per day gal. I’m done lecturing. I hope that you smokers think of your families because when you die a preventable death, they are the ones who will be picking up the pieces.

Nelson is joyfully married and mother of two little girls. When it comes to spewing views, the former DFLer claims to be a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, and her husband Tony is just fine with that. Of course, Sherry is able to bite her tongue from time to time.

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