I'm not sure what another man says can really influence a man's battle with nicotine but I'm obliged to tell my story.
I smoked from age 13 to 32. Like Eric, cigarettes were easy to get in those days. I had a little taste of money from working odd jobs and a bicycle, and had cigs on hand all time. By the time I was 15 I was working full time nights and weekends and up to a pack a day. I quit when my dotter was born. Watching, literally, my dad die of cancer when I was 21, he was 57, forced my hand. I knew if I smoked, I might as well put one in her mouth too.
So I taken up dipping Copenhagen. Well I got me a city job, office building and white starched shirts and all that, and I think spitting and spit cups are generally as nasty as a dirty ashtray, and you know them suit and tie types frown on that stuff anyway, so I just swallered that tobacca juice. 13 years of that, a can lasted me nearly a week but I pretty much had a dip most of the time, and you'd be hard pressed to know it by looking at me.
Well I was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 46, and I been up the crick and over the mountain with it the last 2 1/2 years. They say there's no tests to show correlation, but that's a bunch of crap imho. I swallered all that tar, I know know where it wound up, and then sat there doing it's nasty work 24/7.
Doctors won't say, can't say, how long I got to live othern he said I get to go fishing next June, when I asked him last Friday. My chest lights up like a Christmas tree on the PET scans. That's where colon cancer usually goes when it sets out for greener pastures. Started back on chemo on Monday. Honestly, I'll be happy if I see my kid graduate high school.
If you got a nicotine habit, and folks who care about you and or rely upon you, I hope my little saga makes the difference in your life. Because the reaper's got your name on his list, and it's not a matter of whether, only when. Trust me, unless you are a lot different than most, you are putting a debt on account you will not want to pay up when the time comes.
