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My name is Sara Quaintance and I grew up in a smoking environment. I was
sick all of my life with colds and flu and even Pneumonia. I was put under
an Oxygen tent at the age of five, for breathing problems but back then they had
no idea that smoking caused lung problems. My parents smoked the kind of
cigarettes that were Prince Albert in a can. Remember the kind that you had
to roll yourself? My dad even bought a machine that would roll the
cigarettes but you still had to lick them for them to stay together. Of
course guess who was put to rolling the cigarettes? Well of coarse I did not
smoke back then. The house did not have air-conditioning so my lungs did
better in he summer than in the winter. The windows were always open and then
we moved back to East Texas. While South Texas was a dry climate, East Texas was a damp one. It was then that I also started having Sinus Problems. I was only 9 at this time but by the time I was 15 a Lime company had moved onto what had been our Garden. There was supposed to be a house when Dad sold the place but it was not and since we were past the city limits there was no restrictions on what could move there. Well, my dogs looked like they had the mange after a short while and our chickens lost their feathers and Dad and I got sick. He got Pneumonia and I got Double Pneumonia. They put us in the same room in the Hospital and of course, my Dad smoked there as well. Dad never seem to get well and they finally found he had to have his lung removed because there was a hole in one of the lungs. They ran test on top of test and found no Cancer or Tuberculosis. The test were ran at Zeigler Hospital in Galveston, Texas and I was 20 and then 21 before he finally was released. Dad filed a suit against the lime company but they had money and backing and nothing ever happened. It never even made it to court. My lungs were never good after that. I was sick all winter and would cough and cough and sound like I was coughing up my insides. When I was about 27 the Doctor told me I was going to have Emphysema if I did not quit smoking. He said he could already hear the sounds and see it on X-rays. Now back to how I started. I started smoking when I was 17 years old. I hated the smell that was always in my life and my parents breath always stunk. I left home and thought I would get away from it and I went to Beauty School. Well I went to a boarding home and had a room mate and she smoked and finally I thought if I smoked I would get use to the smell and it would not bother me like it did. So I started smoking. No problem with it when I went home. My father even bought the cigarettes for me. Of course by then he was sick a lot. I smoked and for the first time in my life, I got smaller. Now I have never in my life been a little person. Always been large and always wanted to be pretty and petite and dainty. Not me, not in my life time. But the smoking did help my weight and I was really afraid to quit. My goodness, my Mom was 98 lbs soaking wet and my Dad was 140 when he was fat. How in the world they got a 185 lb girl was something I could not understand. They both could out eat me any day of the week and fussed when I did not clean my plate. Of course I was never allowed to put what I wanted on my plate as my Father always gave me my portion and I had to eat it. I was sure I was someone else's child but no even my sister said my Mom had carried me in her tummy and I was sure they must have switched me at the Hospital but then when Dad went into the Hospital they did a test to see if I could give blood and our blood matched. So I guess I was just a fatty or as Dad said an elephant. So my feelings were always being hurt and so I know that if I could be smaller by smoking I would and you know that smell didn't bother me any more. In 1971 they told me to stop smoking and I didn't so I continued to get sick every winter. But with the death of Mom and Dad and two husbands and also the death of my beloved sister I didn't want to stop. I was too nervous. I was too sad. I held Mom and Dad and my sister as they lay dying and I hurt like nothing I can ever explain and I continued to smoke. In 1999 I moved to Slidell, Louisiana, after living in Shreveport, and taking care of my sister. I was having a problem eating. Now imagine me having trouble eating. Haha, I would choke on mashed potatoes or rice and I felt a lump in my throat and I knew I must be dying like my Mom and Sister. I must have Cancer too. I was scared to death but I went back and forth to the doctor and they said I had reflux and treated me and one Doctor said it was my Tonsils. I didn't have any. They were taken when I was five. Well, My granddaughter was sucking her thumb and I made a deal with her. If she quit sucking her thumb I would give up my smoking. Now it was hard for both of us and I backed myself off and we sat a date and we both quit on May 27,2001 and I stayed quit for two years and everyone around me kept smoking. I became disabled on December 15,2001. Funny how my lungs seem to get worse after I quit smoking. They did surgery on me on Jan 18,2002, for Hiatial Hernia and gastric reflux sprincter repair and I came out of the hospital pulling a tank of Oxygen. I was 58 years old and my Mom and Sister both had died at 59 and 60 of Cancer so I knew I would not survive for long but I was going to be giving it a fight. Well I started smoking again in 2004 and smoked till 2005 because of stress and not being able to get my medicine. It was far cheaper to smoke. One day my Granddaughter Anna, said "Granny you broke your promise to me." It hurt. It hurt bad and I quit. She was right. I had given my word and I had went back to smoking so on Feb.7, 2005 I quit again and this time I will not break my word to her. So there you have it. That's my story and I am sticking to it. Hope you learn from my mistakes and do a better job than I did. You know Life is what you put into it and even though I have COPD and am in a wheel chair it still is a wonderful life! Hugs, Sara |
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