If you smoke

[Stephanie]

Thank you Miss Stephanie!!!

You're welcome!

[DaylilyDawn]

I am one of 4 daughters of a smoker, our father. He smoke almost 2 packs a day when I was a child. When I was pregnant with my oldest son, I worked in an area with people who were chain smokers, the air in the room would be blue with all the smoke from their cigarettes . I had to breathe that toxic cloud of smoky air the entire 9 months I was pregnant. When my son was born, he weighed 3 lbs 7 1/2 ozs and was not a premature baby. He was a full term baby. He was born with his chest caved into so severely that his heart could not expand fully to oxygenate his blood. He was also born with abnormally small kidneys that worked at half the rate of a normal kidney. He also had a birth defect that included his pen *s where the opening that normally is on the tip, stopped at the half way point on the shaft. This required surgery to correct it so he could urinate correctly. His chest defect was repaired 2 days after he turned 3 years old.To correct it, he had to have his ribs cut away from the breast bone and a surgical brace was positioned behind the breast bone to push it into the proper position. The brace was removed after he turned 5. The doctor left it in for two years because my son grew very slowly. The damage to his kidneys from the 2nd hand smoke he was exposed to inutero damaged his kidney formation and he had end stage renal failure.
His kidneys worked until he was 23 and then one kidney quit working and shriveled up as it atrophied . His remaining kidney couldn't handle the overload of producing urine and cleaning the blood of toxins. He came so close to dying from the toxins building up in his body , he was literally rotting from the inside out. His breath had the odor of dead fish. The day he went to work and passed out at work was the day he found out he was in kidney failure. He spent a week in the
hospital getting hemodalysis each day to clean the toxins out of his blood. He was on dialysis for almost 2 years when he got the call to go to Life Link at Tamp a for a possible kidney transplant. The person who was supposed to be the person getting the kidney did not answer his pager and had gone out of town. The kidney was a match to my son so he got the kidney.That was on Sept 2, 2000.
No one can show me proof that second hand smoke isn't harmful. I have living proof that it will harm a child if the mother has to breath air that is full of cigarette smoke.

[Stephanie]

I'm sorry about your son, but I'm happy that he finally received that life saving kidney.

[DaylilyDawn]

Stephanie,
He is still alive. It has been 10 years from the date of transplant. The kidney belong to a 23 year old male who had been in an accident and was declared brain dead but was kept on ventilator so organs could be donated, he was a donor according to his license. At the time of the accident that killed him, my nephew was driving behind the donor when he ran off the overpass. My neighbor's daughter was the person at the hospital who checked the organs to see if they were in good condition to harvest. She told us later that she knew one of the kidney's was going to Tampa for a person who was on the transplant list. The other organs that were donated went to several different places. Before the transplant, my son would not eat greens like collards, turnip, and mustard greens. He just refused to eat them. After the transplant, he started eating them. We found out later in a letter my son received from the donor's sister, her brother love greens of every kind.

[Stephanie]

I'd like to think that a part of your son wanting to eat greens came from that kidney and the other from the donor's spirit. WOW!

[Pburgh]

I'm 65 and have smoked since I was 18 so let's see, that's 47 years. I've never smoked a cigarette more than 1/2 way. (With the price of cigarettes, I really waste a lot of money.) lol I smoke almost 1 pack per day. I quit once for 1 month. When I go to visit my kids and grandkids I usually smoke very little or not at all. I know, I know if I can smoke that little why not stop. Well, I enjoy it.

George, I'm so glad you're getting treatment and feeling better. And Dawn, you've gone thru so much because of smoking. ((HUGS))

[CajunMama]

Pburgh, i WAS a smoker for at least the past 30 years. I too enjoyed it. I've been smoke-free since 10/26 though as the chemo does a thing on your sense of taste. Plus i thought it'd be pretty hypocritical of me to smoke and be treated for cancer. But ya know, i really don't miss it. I miss the habit of reaching for one & lighting up but the actual smoking itself i don't enjoy right now. It takes 21 days to break a habit and i'm on my way.

[Tireman4]

Pburgh, i WAS a smoker for at least the past 30 years. I too enjoyed it. I've been smoke-free since 10/26 though as the chemo does a thing on your sense of taste. Plus i thought it'd be pretty hypocritical of me to smoke and be treated for cancer. But ya know, i really don't miss it. I miss the habit of reaching for one & lighting up but the actual smoking itself i don't enjoy right now. It takes 21 days to break a habit and i'm on my way.

GO MAMA GO!!!!

[Stephanie]

Pburgh, i WAS a smoker for at least the past 30 years. I too enjoyed it. I've been smoke-free since 10/26 though as the chemo does a thing on your sense of taste. Plus i thought it'd be pretty hypocritical of me to smoke and be treated for cancer. But ya know, i really don't miss it. I miss the habit of reaching for one & lighting up but the actual smoking itself i don't enjoy right now. It takes 21 days to break a habit and i'm on my way.

Great job!

[vbhoutex]

Pburgh, i WAS a smoker for at least the past 30 years. I too enjoyed it. I've been smoke-free since 10/26 though as the chemo does a thing on your sense of taste. Plus i thought it'd be pretty hypocritical of me to smoke and be treated for cancer. But ya know, i really don't miss it. I miss the habit of reaching for one & lighting up but the actual smoking itself i don't enjoy right now. It takes 21 days to break a habit and i'm on my way.

Way to go Mama!!! More power to you!!!

[RL3AO]

1. I've never smoked.
2. I'll never smoke.
3. I couldn't afford it if I wanted to smoke.