# Though I Quit Smokes 30 Years Ago My Exam Shows Bad News



## fmdog44 (Jul 17, 2019)

I put the butts down 30 years ago but I had a complete physical and past smoking was listed as a factor in the moderate risk of an early death. I have read many times your lungs are clean after six years of no smokes but that ignores the impact on the heart. Actually I regret more the money I spent over those years.


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## Judycat (Jul 18, 2019)

The bad choices we made in our youth...I am paying for my own too. Really slowed me down over the past few years. Avoiding a complete physical. Don't want to hear the words "enlarged heart", "coronary artery disease" or  "heart failure" just yet. Ah it's the price we pay for having too much fun.


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## treeguy64 (Jul 18, 2019)

My dad was a 2-3 pack a day guy. He smoked from 17-62. At 75 he got emphysema, at 85, lung cancer took him out. I believe the whole trip about "If you quit, now, you will be fine, in time," is total nonsense, when it comes to those who pass some unidentified tipping point for indulgence in potentially fatal bad habits.


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## Aunt Bea (Jul 18, 2019)

I smoked for 40 years and quit about 10 years ago.

I have a similar notation in my medical file only because I told the PCP that I had been a smoker.

As far as the impact on my longevity smoking is just one of many factors that may have an impact on it.  

I'm more concerned with the quality of my life than I am about the length of it.  I've had some very close friends/family that lived fast and died young.  I've also had friends/family that lived long and died slowly over many, many years.  If I have a choice I'll opt for the express checkout.


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## treeguy64 (Jul 18, 2019)

Aunt Bea said:


> I smoked for 40 years and quit about 10 years ago.
> 
> I have a similar notation in my medical file only because I told the PCP that I had been a smoker.
> 
> ...


Definitely! I never understood those who greedily held onto life, through constant, great mental and physical pain, in their later years. My dad never let the emphysema get him down, staying very active, amazingly so, until he got the cancer diagnosis. Then, he was gone in a month. I miss my dad. I still talk with him, on occasion, as I do my (also late) mom and sister.


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## rgp (Jul 18, 2019)

Frankly, I think we are all pretty much in the same boat, unless we lived with a crystal ball. And of course we never know for sure what will take us out, or when. Do we want to know? I do not.


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## rgp (Jul 18, 2019)

treeguy64 said:


> Definitely! I never understood those who greedily held onto life, through constant, great mental and physical pain, in their later years. My dad never let the emphysema get him down, staying very active, amazingly so, until he got the cancer diagnosis. Then, he was gone in a month. I miss my dad. I still talk with him, on occasion, as I do my (also late) mom and sister.




 "Definitely! I never understood those who greedily held onto life, through constant, great mental and physical pain, in their later years. "

  So are you saying that we should pick a point, then end it at our own hand?


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## Judycat (Jul 18, 2019)

Maybe a nice arrhythmia during the night while asleep?


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## treeguy64 (Jul 18, 2019)

rgp said:


> "Definitely! I never understood those who greedily held onto life, through constant, great mental and physical pain, in their later years. "
> 
> So are you saying that we should pick a point, then end it at our own hand?


You bet! That being said, here is my disclaimer: My views are my own, and, in no way, am I an advocate of anyone following my advice. Each person must decide what is right for him/her.


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## rgp (Jul 18, 2019)

treeguy64 said:


> You bet! That being said, here is my disclaimer: My views are my own, and, in no way, am I an advocate of anyone following my advice. Each person must decide what is right for him/her.



Exactly !


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## rgp (Jul 18, 2019)

Judycat said:


> Maybe a nice arrhythmia during the night while asleep?



We should all be so lucky........


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## Don M. (Jul 18, 2019)

Judycat said:


> Maybe a nice arrhythmia during the night while asleep?



My old grandfather is my "hero".  He was a farmer, and worked hard all his life.  No one ever remembered him going to a doctor other than a couple of times that he hurt himself on the farm.  In his later years, he spent Summers with an uncle on the farm, and Winters with my folks in Denver.  Every day, he would go for a nice walk...weather permitting...then come back for an afternoon nap before Supper.  One day he took his nap, and never woke up for Supper....at age 96.


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## Judycat (Jul 18, 2019)

rgp said:


> We should all be so lucky........


The lucky part is, in bed, not on the toilet.


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## treeguy64 (Jul 18, 2019)

My gf's grandfather got up, at 5 AM, and plowed the lower acreage until noon. He came home, sat down on the front porch swing, and grandma went in to get him a lemonade. When she brought it out, he was "looking" straight ahead. He was gone, at 92.

My drummer's grandpa came into the house, after working on his tool shed, told grandma he was going up to take a nap. She went up to check on him, an hour later, and he was gone. 89.

I aspire to go the way the two, above, did. Sometimes, when hanging in the trees, gunning my chainsaw, pruning limbs, I wonder if I'm pushing things, too hard. I wonder the same thing when I'm loading heavy wood and brush, a few hours later, in 100°+ (F) temperatures. Then, I think to myself: I hope I can get home, get comfortable, grab a lemonade, and take a nap!


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## rgp (Jul 18, 2019)

Judycat said:


> The lucky part is, in bed, not on the toilet.




Why ? We'll never know.........


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## C'est Moi (Jul 18, 2019)

treeguy64 said:


> My dad was a 2-3 pack a day guy. He smoked from 17-62. At 75 he got emphysema, at 85, lung cancer took him out.* I believe the whole trip about "If you quit, now, you will be fine, in time," is total nonsense*, when it comes to those who pass some unidentified tipping point for indulgence in potentially fatal bad habits.


I agree with this.   My father was a tobacco farmer and smoked unfiltered cigarettes most of his life, even the day he died.   He had melanoma, likely from all the years working in the sun, which eventually metastasized in various organs.  He died of colon cancer shortly before his 80th birthday.


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## Trade (Jul 18, 2019)

Judycat said:


> The lucky part is, in bed, not on the toilet.



https://allthatsinteresting.com/nelson-rockefeller-death


> _On Jan. 26, 1979, at 12:20 a.m., former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller died from a heart attack while sitting at his desk at Rockefeller Center, working on a book about his personal art collection.
> 
> At least, that was what the papers said.
> 
> In reality, on Jan. 26, 1979, at 12:20 a.m., former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller died from a heart attack while flat on his back and shoeless, in a secret apartment with Megan Marshack, a woman almost 50 years his junior._


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## Giantsfan1954 (Jul 18, 2019)

I was a heavy smoker until 2010.
There is a scan now and most health insurers cover it, that if you've quit less than 15 years ago, it's covered.I had it done in December  of last year.


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## rgp (Jul 18, 2019)

C'est Moi said:


> I agree with this.   My father was a tobacco farmer and smoked unfiltered cigarettes most of his life, even the day he died.   He had melanoma, likely from all the years working in the sun, which eventually metastasized in various organs.  He died of colon cancer shortly before his 80th birthday.



A friend of mine that worked inside the tobacco industry maintained that _unfiltered_ cigarettes were not the real problem....it was/is the filter that caused the lung problem? He did however admit that nicotine was addictive, and that high tar levels created their own problems/concerns?

He btw, died of prostate cancer way to young, at 60!


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## Judycat (Jul 18, 2019)

rgp said:


> Why ? We'll never know.........


Thankfully.


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## fmdog44 (Jul 18, 2019)

Giantsfan1954 said:


> I was a heavy smoker until 2010.
> There is a scan now and most health insurers cover it, that if you've quit less than 15 years ago, it's covered.I had it done in December  of last year.


What is this scan looking for?


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## Judycat (Jul 18, 2019)

Trade said:


> https://allthatsinteresting.com/nelson-rockefeller-death


...dress him up and cram him behind his desk...for posterity!!!


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## hypochondriac (Jul 18, 2019)

im 61. i smoked from age 30 to 50.
i miss the fags because they take my mind off food.
but my mother died of lung cancer at 66. Poor gal. Had 7 boys and worked her butt off for us just to die young.
I cant get the image of my mum with a ciggie in her mouth ironing handkerchiefs out of my head.


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## Judycat (Jul 18, 2019)

My mom was the same, Hypo. Smoked since she was a teen. My dad too. Smoke hung in a layer throughout the house.


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## hypochondriac (Jul 18, 2019)

Judycat said:


> My mom was the same, Hypo. Smoked since she was a teen. My dad too. Smoke hung in a layer throughout the house.


thanks for calling me hypo judy. i honestly like to be called that now. ☺


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## hypochondriac (Jul 18, 2019)

Judycat said:


> My mom was the same, Hypo. Smoked since she was a teen. My dad too. Smoke hung in a layer throughout the house.


and yeah i can relate to the clouds of smoke inside. like gas chambers.
remember when we smoked on planes? crazy...


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## 911 (Jul 19, 2019)

I did not smoke as a teen until I went to Vietnam. Three months after I returned home, I quit cold turkey. It was easier to start than it was to quit.


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## Giantsfan1954 (Jul 19, 2019)

fmdog44 said:


> What is this scan looking for?


Abnormal masses in the lungs.


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## treeguy64 (Jul 19, 2019)

Regarding cigarette filters being the problem: I believe Kent's "micronite" filters actually contained asbestos! Yeah, get lung cancer from the tobacco tars while adding to the fun with asbestosis. Great.


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## 911 (Jul 20, 2019)

I remember reading somewhere that nicotine is our most addictive substance. 

I also recall when Ozzie Nelson reported that he had cancer. I saw him on a TV rerun years later talking about his cancer. He seemed very upset over the fact that he had cancer and never smoked. He said that he started in show business with his band and doing Vaudeville. He blamed it on second hand smoke that he was forced to inhale. This was in the mid ‘70’s. He claimed that his cancer began in his lung, but then metastasized to his liver, which was what did him in.


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## charry (Jul 20, 2019)

i smoked from the age of 13 to 30, and just gave it up.....
my dr went mad , and said , i could of caused more damage, just giving it up, i must admit it was hell, but so glad i did it............my mum also gave it up after i did, she was aged 60, and that was the worse thing she could ever do, as she went downhill after that..........before giving up ,she danced and had the perfect figure for a 60 yrs old, but she suddenly put on lots of weight, stopped dancing , stopped going away abroad for her holidays, and to this day, she said , she wished she never gave up...
im glad i gave up, and never looked back,    got no vices now .....


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## charry (Jul 20, 2019)

911 said:


> I remember reading somewhere that nicotine is our most addictive substance.
> 
> I also recall when Ozzie Nelson reported that he had cancer. I saw him on a TV rerun years later talking about his cancer. He seemed very upset over the fact that he had cancer and never smoked. He said that he started in show business with his band and doing Vaudeville. He blamed it on second hand smoke that he was forced to inhale. This was in the mid ‘70’s. He claimed that his cancer began in his lung, but then metastasized to his liver, which was what did him in.


i think a alcohol is the most additive 911.....


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## C'est Moi (Jul 20, 2019)

From the ACS website: _ As many as 20% of people who die from lung cancer in the United States every year have never smoked or used any other form of tobacco. This translates to about 30,000 Americans in 2018. In fact, if lung cancer in non-smokers had its own separate category, it would rank among the top 10 fatal cancers in the United States. _


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## AZ Jim (Jul 20, 2019)

I smoked for over 40 years.  I finally quit in '89.  I can't get the thought of my smoking all those years and my wife passed with stomach cancer.  My smoking may have been a factor due to second hand smoke.


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