A nursing student needing some help from families and people with lung cancer.

As far as I can recall I was told by a couple of doctors that I had a touch of Emphysema and yes I was a smoker. Infact one doctor in Colorado asked me what I smoked. I showed him a pack of nonfiltered camels. he pulled out a pack of filtered cigs :saying I should smoke a filtered cig if I was to keep smoking. Smoking to me I enjoyed I guess as some people like to chew gum I don't. I could stop smoking anytime I had the erge to & would for 30 days or so then back to smoking. I think today as I think about it,it was more less because, of the groups I was with smoked & it was the thing to do. I had a pain in my right shoulder & chest one day & thought it was due to my auto transporting of chaining down cars & the socket in my shoulder was getting wore out but after going to a clinic & a week later being asked what hosp would I like to go to for a check up on my chest. chest I asked. yes,I was told for he didn't like the spot he saw. I went into a hosp that was part cancer center to have a neddele stuck into my right lung & checked out but, the neddele collapsed right lung. one thing on top of another & after 10 days on a life support I was then told that I had 3rd stage lung cancer in my upper right lung & inoperable Plus two cancerious limp noids in the center of my chest. I was given 6 months to live. I was at wits end I didn't know what to say,I felt betrayed I was even mad at God. I was mad at everyone & everything and even throwen out of my home hospis people. Do I smoke today? No! do I miss it? yes & no. I haven't had a smoke in two years & a month but, in that time out of a clear blue sky I wanted a smoke so bad. I even watched some t.v. shows & some one would lite up a smoke in the picture & I all of a sudden wanted to have a smoke so bad. I sit in the smokeing sections of resturants yet don't want a smoke. I think it helps me to stay away from them yet, my wife is still smokeing. It dosn't bother me the smoke part I am talking about but, I wounder all I went through why she hasn't stoped. Oh she has tried maney things on the market to stop & can't. It is hard I think one has to have a very strong will to stop. I have gone through chemo & 37 shots of radiation yet seen people at a cancer center haveing a smoke before there treatments. It's like a must have to some. All this has showed me is that the cigarettes have ingredients that are as bad as some drugs yet even my two years 1 month in remission if I was told that it came back & this was the very end I do think I would go get a pack of camels again. ken b

I am also a smoker that deveolped lung cancer, I have been told that I am lucky, since mine was caught early. I had stage 1 non small cell lung cancer. It had not traveled to the lymph nodes. My cancer was deteched from a follow up xray after my second bout of pneumonia in 6 months. That was in January of 2002. On March 1st 2002 I had my upper lobe of my left lung removed. Good thing I had great health insurance, since my medical bills from all the tests, doctor and surgery ended up over $55,000.00. I was out of work for 7 weeks. Since I was in sales and the spring was the best time to sell our product, I lost lots of potential sales because of my absence. In October I was laid off because of lack of work and low sales volume, (I was the top sales person the year before). I am 50 years old, a lung cancer survior and good luck finding employment with that history. I did quit smoking and I too do crave cigarettes at different times. From what I understand, even after 20 years of not smoking people still crave them. I also sit in smoking sections when I go out to eat, for some reason it does help. What a horrible habit, and not one easy to break. Cancer does change your life!!! Good luck in getting across the message not to ever start smoking. I have also heard it is easier to quit using heroin than cigarettes.
Good luck with your project.

Nancy