Well i did it!!!

[Tiramisu]

You can do it, Haley! We'll be your support group. Get online at home and we'll be here for you!

OK - I haven't chimed in before, but I stopped smoking Memorial Day 2004, after smoking for 26 years. I somehow developed pleurisy and that caused my lung to collapse. I went to the doctor on Wednesday, the doctor on Friday, the ER on Sunday, and the doctor on Tuesday when she escorted me directly to Intensive Care, where they put huge tubes in my side to drain fluid, but it wouldn't drain because it had turned to gel. After two days at that hospital, they transported me to the Methodist Hospital where I had lung surgery. Yes, like open heart surgery, they pulled my ribs open on my back, took my lung out, scrapped it clean, and tacked it back inside.

I was in Pulmonary Intensive Care Unit for eight days and while I loved pushing the morphine button, I was aware of other patients in the unit with me. There was a woman who had a lung transplant and her body was rejecting it, so she was swollen hugh. There was a man who had emphezema so bad he was literally drowning, his lungs were so full of fluid and his extremeties were decaying from lack of oxygen. There was another man who coughed continuously, even on oxygen.

Haley, my condition was not related to smoking, but from Rheumatoid Arthritis. Everytime I think of a cigarette, I remember the smells and sounds and extreme pain and I know that I do not want to be back in that place. Most importantly, I know and commit that I will not put my loved ones in danger from my smoking.

Bless you for making this committment!