I've met non-smokers who have actually said, "If I start smoking maybe I can lose weight," or "Maybe smoking will help me get through my stressful day." How sadly deceived are those who actually think this way. If you are a non-smoker reading this and maybe have had these thoughts, or similar ones, please read the rest of this story. For people who are on oxygen, and still smoking and think it's too late to quit... it's not! This story I'm about to tell you is a true one. It's my mother-in-law's story... but she's not here to tell it.

I had known my mother-in-law for five years before she went to be with the Lord. She was a chain-smoker and said that if she quit smoking she would have nothing else to do. This really saddened my wife, who had never smoked. During the last six months of her life (she was seventy-four at the time) she was suffering from advanced COPD. She ignored this and continued to smoke anyway. Weeks later it was so hard for her to breathe that she called me in the middle of the night to take her to the emergency. Of course I did. They sent her home with an inhaler, which allows the medicine to go directly to the lungs. They also sent her home with an oxygen machine and told her to quit smoking. She quit for about a week, then went back to it, even while using the oxygen machine. It's been said that smoking while on oxygen can cause an explosion so it's not something to mess around with. A couple weeks later she called me late at night again. I took her to the hospital and they admitted her right away. This time she was really scared. She was in the hospital for about two weeks. The day she was sent home the doctor had a serious conversation with her, in front of my wife and myself. He told her that if she stays away from smoking completely, it could add as much a five years to her life, and with the medication she could even be comfortable so as to have quality of life. He then told her that if she smoked as much as three or four cigarettes she probably would not survive more than a few weeks! she took heed and stuck to it... for a few weeks. The next time I got the call she was sent to hospice, where she spent the last two months of her life.

It's now five years later and my wife is still tying to deal with the loss. What smokers need to understand is that when they get sick, the whole family gets sick too. And when they die, a part of each family member dies as well. So if you're thinking about taking up the smoking habit... don't. If you have COPD stop smoking now. If you're a smoker and you have no medical problems that you know of, don't wait for trouble to ruin your life, and the lives of those who love you. Quit smoking now. If quitting cold turkey is too hard for you than go to the link below and get a copy of my quit-smoking plan that will help you to quit gradually, at your own pace.

God bless you.

http://www.quitsmokingwhilestillsmoking.org