HELP OTHERS QUIT MAY 28

May 29th is World No Tobacco Day. Did you know that already?  Congratulations if you quit already but I bet you have a Friend, Spouse, Nurse Doctor or another in your MS community affected by Tobacco addiction.  Like MS, Tobacco use affects a whole other micro community, almost larger then MS itself.   Let them know you care about their well being and the others in your community.  Like I just did actually.  This message brought to you by the Patient's Voices Network of Briitsh Columbia :) Check it out and help shape the future!  We are all patients,  even while some of us are professionals treating patients.  It is symbiotic.

Good that you did the quit already if that is the case.    Do you remember that?   That whiff of fresh tobacco in a new deck?  Ahhhhhh....That rush as we drew the first puff of a fresh pack first out of the pack in the am...  we exhaled and produced a cool smoke doughnut.  Cool.  Hey no one noticed, we notice all of our company was laying in the ashtray.  The moment was gone suddenly, like a stiff breeze that wipes this scene from your mind.  I bet life got better immediately after the last puff if you stop and see "silver linings", did it not?  Hate to tell you this but do not think we have escaped the changes that Tobacco has done to our very DNA; do not forget the community we belong to changed as well.  The people we poisoned every time we pulled off that tin foil freshness packing.

It did permanent damage to our very DNA with every puff.  Ever since the first time we caught the scent on another's clothing even before we were born.  We were destined to puff that first puff and a select portion of the population became addicted and affected the population of non-smokers.  .  It affected us for life even if we do not have Lung Cancer (yet?).  The chemical pathways in the brain, the reward paths needed by addiction stimulators get installed very early in life;  didn't you have that smoke wile the wife was pregnant?

Wait.  Did you smoke yourself while Pregnant?   Oh right- I saw you at the Bus stop one day, all cute and all; very pregnant.  I noticed you across the road as you crossed to go to the stop I was waiting at.  I saw traffic whizzing by and hoped silently for your safety.  As you got closer I noticed the the cigarette.  That was a WTF Moment.  I hoped it was just one and the unborn torture wold never happened again.  You finished that one and lit another.  Experience dictates that she had a pack; she was a regular smoker and the abuse continued for the whole gestation.  If she had a partner the same addiction was likely present.  I got sick at the thought and you went away on the other bus.  The urge to smoke had passed.

Everyone in the community was permanently altered by our habits., the smoke clung to our clothes and poisoned everyone we contacted.  When we washed that smoke we mixed it in the other clothes of our community and in the drain water poisoning the environment.  Some times we would wash them twice when we could.  That Stink we loved but could not stand...  oh yuck!  Sorry, I have been craving a cigarette.  It can happen.  On May 17th 2005 at Midnight, I crushed my very last full cigarette.  A full 5 years ago...  I just get these cravings from time to time.  Life goes on.  I will be free some day but I will make it to bed tonight.  I hope.

Addictions suck; but at least we are not furthering the destruction caused by our personal Tobacco use for our own reasons.  I had heard rumors online about how no one had ever died from secondhand or even direct Marijuana smoke, it was getting openly popular in Prince George MS Community as legit medicine back in the 1990s, early 2000's.  It had been in the medical books since 1975.  Another WTF moment when I realized that.  Sweet. I can be a discreet criminal and protected to an extent in that lifestyle as I progressed with MS :)

Perhaps envy will kill the neighbor though; as time passed I realized my MS was not worsened by it but some in my extended community.  I enjoyed life with a fine selection of weed.  I feel it was a good choice.  It kept me out of that part of the community I did not want to belong too, got me fired once for pictures and it has made me homeless at times.  It was the one thing in my environment that has never been proven to kill.  Life goes on I will be free from all of it at some unexpected time in the future happy with myself.   I am not doing so bad now :) on my way to my end at the most inappropriate time...

That was my final thought as I ground out my last generation butt smoke all those years ago and I made my choice between the 2.  They have only seriously studied ex smokers with Lung Cancer with this Reuters story  and they left out that Ex smokers who smoke pot with Lung cancer may reduce tumor size but enjoy this one! Having MS does not save you from having other medical conditions.

U.S. gene study reveals toll of heavy smoking | Reuters