Vincente stated
"Don´t misunderstand me, I am not proud of my attitude. There are many smokers like me that can´t abide the idea of not smoking anymore without some sort of permanent hypnotical remedy that erases one´s entire life as a smoker. The solution would be something like waking up one morning as if one had never smoked in his whole life...
I did not wish for this to become an anti smoking campainge. I smoked for years and can not stand atop a soap box and preach against smoking[/-]. I always felt that If I quit at 40, 45, 50 I could have my cake and eat it too. I was in good shape. I ran marathons, literally 26.2 miles. I would walk up to the starting line and light a cigarette, joking that I needed a sponsor for my running shoes, a cigarette company. I toyed with the idea of writing them a letter but thought better because of my kids. People would dispearse and were appalled. I laughed as I beat them to the finish line. My Doctor asked me to sign my medical chart five years ago that I would promise to quit smoking as he wrote me a script for Zyban. He took my cigarettes in his office and threw them away. I signed the promise, went out to my car and openned up another pack. I was smarter than he was.
I merely want people to know that smoking and drinking combined can cause oral cancer. This isn't printed on the pack. It's a rare cancer and you will probably never get it. It affects 4% of the US population. Lung cancer we all know about already. Oral cancer is on the rise. If you have children that are not sexually active also be aware that HPV 16 and 18 can cause oral cancer as well as cervical cancer and there are vacinations available for them for both girls and boys. I asked my doctor what the downside of being vaccinated was for adults and he said "None" other than cost. You have nothing to lose.
You cannot erase past behavior. If you smoked it has harmed you. There is no magical vacine. I'll always wonder if I had listened to my doctor five years ago when I signed that chart if I would be in this predicament today? All I know is that having that option today I would have quit because of what I know now. It's an individual choice. I personally think that at most of our ages we benefit by quitting. We have enough years possibly left to diminish some of the damage. Between 85 and 100 all bets are off, I may start again along with boozing, carousing and whatever else my oxogen permits.
I really just came on to say that my pathology is back and it's all negative. This includes the initial primary site as well as the nine lymph nodes removed. It would appear that I may not have needed the surgery? I don't ever want to know the answer to that. One microscopic cell in those nodes undetectable by pathologhy would have been enough! Now we wait to February for the next scans and see if we missed anything?
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