COPD...

COPD, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is killing someone
I love very, very much. COPD is caused by noxious particles or gases, most commonly from smoking, which trigger an abnormal inflammatory response in the lung. The primary risk factor for COPD is chronic tobacco smoking. In the US 80 to 90% of cases of COPD are due to smoking. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COPD
When I stopped smoking in 1984, I tried to get my dear cousin to
quit, too. She got angry at me. No way she would stop smoking.
Well, these past couple weeks she's quit. But it's too late. She's
dying. If you smoke, please stop.

I'm so sorry you're having to witness this. My FIL died of emphysema, undoubtedly brought on by his earlier smoking. It's a dreadful way to go and even worse, takes a long time of progressively worsening health. My deepest sympathies.

On the Writers Voice site our administrator is trying to quit smoking. Its her seventeenth day and she is staying strong but says it is soooooo hard to do.

Ellemm,
Thank you for your well wishes. It is an awful thing to witness.
It's heartbreaking and sad. And worse of all, it could have been
avoided!

Chats,
I've been off them 25 years. And some days I fight not to go back. It is a very difficult thing to do. But it is well worth
the rewards, to succeed! I'll pray for your administrator to overcome those darn things!

They passed a law in Germany, that all cigarette boxes must have detailed colored photographs of diseases caused by smoking.

Do they have that law in the States?

If those graphic photographs won't make people stop, then nothing will.

Thanks for the link Jabber. I'm sending it on to my son.

Cousin has oxygen tubes hanging from her nose. She's bloated.
And she has mentioned being visited by spirits of loved ones gone on before. She says incoherent things, sometimes. Some of her major organs have shutdown. I don't think cigarettes are worth all this misery.

I am a Registered Respiratory Therapist and I treat these folks every day. Most do regret not quitting but it is to late. It is a terrible death not to be able to catch your breath and to actually suffocate with each breath. I won't even discuss lung cancer here. So if you smoke, consider quitting. It is not easy but worth it. Like most things of value in life.

Love, tolerance and peace,
Harriette