To my smoking friends...
I bring you an entry from hilltop's journal:

A good reason to stop

Smoking is responsible for 90% of COPD in the United States. Although not all cigarette smokers will develop COPD, it is estimated that 15% will. Smokers with COPD have higher death rates than nonsmokers with COPD. They also have more frequent respiratory symptoms (coughing, shortness of breath, etc.) and more deterioration in lung function than non-smokers.

I've been wheezy and out of breath for over two years. I chalked it up to allergies, as it started shortly after a weekend of leaf blowing. With the pollens and mold around here, I figured that was the cause. It just never went away.

What I didn't know is that the longer you ignore being congested like this, the lungs start trapping air, which reduces the amount of air being exchanged. It increases mucous, which after a while, causes scarring of the lungs. The scarring decreases capacity. Then you're fucked, no two ways about it.

I quit smoking a few years ago, after a lifetime of smoking. My grandfather died of COPD. My father is now dying from COPD. I'm going in for testing this week, to see what the deal is.

This is truly one fucked up way to die, being strangled, unable to catch your breath, your diaphragm straining and struggling to take in more air, but there's no more available, you can huff and puff all you want, but your lungs are fried, and you can't take in enough to stop the feeling of suffocating. You are forced to keep an oxygen bottle nearby, as you have to make every effort to take in as much oxygen with each breath as possible, to remain alive. And after a while, it only gets you so far. Your lungs can't bring in enough oxygen to support life.

I've never feared anything greater than the prospect of being diagnosed with this. Medication can help a little, but it won't cure you, it'll just give you the opportunity to strangle yourself a little longer. If you get pneumonia, and it's advanced far enough, your days are numbered.

This is one of those stupid things that I figured the odds of me living long enough for this to ever arise were slim. I was sure I'd have been taken out early by one stupid thing or another, and never, ever expected to hit 50. It can't happen to me I thought. Not cancer, not emphysema, nope, it wouldn't hit me.

There's no going back, there's no turning back the clock, there's no way to unring the bell. I ignored the advice of many before me, I ignored the warnings. And let me tell you, this is not the way you want to die..

By the numbers- I quit 170 weeks ago, which is around 3 1/4 years ago. By quitting, I didn't smoke 35,858 cigarettes. I saved $3,047.00

Imagine smoking 35 thousand cigarettes. You'd think it'd certainly kill you, right? I started when I was 15. I was up to 2 cartons a week for a while. I have no idea how many cigarettes that amounts to, but it should have killed me. Maybe it still can.

Go do some reading if you need more of a push to stop a habit you've repeatedly told yourself you really need to quit.

Give yourself the most amazing gift you can give yourself- the gift of life, the gift of time with those you love, the gift of dying of old age.

Be smarter than me, it's not hard.

More information on the disease.