Guys, smoking is bad.
I’m writing this article on a couch in Chulalongkorn Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. In front of me is my dad sleeping on a patient bed.
Even breath seemed to be difficult to him.
Dad smoked hard when he was young. He suddenly quit smoking at the age of 40, after doctor said that my sister was allergic. Quitting smoking brought better life to him and our family. It was definitely not easy—especially after twenty years of hard smoking.
“Don’t buy, don’t ask, don’t take,” he always says.
Motivation is important. The main reason that my dad decided to stop smoking so suddenly is my sister’s allergy, which was pretty severe when she was young. So if you smoke, or are going to smoke, I suggest that you think of people you love, maybe your children, your partner, your family, or all of them, and then stay away from those cigarettes. Don’t buy, don’t ask, and don’t take.
For those who don’t have to care about other people, maybe you live alone, or have a place to smoke without harming anyone else, or just don’t care, read on.
Dad had been in a very good health for his entire life; I hardly saw him in any kind of illness worse than fever. But, one day, he found a small lump on his shoulder—it was a swollen lymph node. For your information, swollen lymph nodes has three main causes: infection, inflammation, and cancer.
In my dad’s case, it was cancer.
After over twenty years without touching a cigarette, Dad had lung cancer. Doctor found tumors in his lungs, chest, and bones. The cancer was the consequence of smoking hard when he was young. It came back to him at the age of 63, just three years after he retired from his job and started to live peacefully with his dogs and family.
Somebody might say that quitting smoking is painful; I would say that cancer cure is much worse in many cases. My dad has gotten his lungs drained from fluid for almost ten times. The process hurts. He has taken radiation therapy and three lines of chemotherapy, which just help extend his time. He is now suffering from tiredness caused by low oxygen saturation in his circulation.
Advice to smokers: stop smoking before it’s too late.
But don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mean to hurt the feeling of people who has successfully stopped smoking after a long time of addiction. You have done the right thing. Take good care of your health. Have a check-up every year. Everything will be all right. Another reason why my dad’s cancer is this bad is that it is found too late.
I hope that this article will save some lives.
