I watched my brother-in-law die of emphysema. He was 25 years older than my late husband, so I think he was 78 then. He had quit smoking years before, but it was too late. It was a horrible death. It is awful to feel that you are suffocating.
My aunt is 84. She has been smoking since she was 25. She has emphysema. She coughs all of the time. She has to sleep with oxygen on. She still smokes. She has almost died of pneumonia. She has to use inhalers all day. Sometimes she has to use oxygen during the day. She has trouble breathing, but she can't quit smoking because she is so addicted. She has had breast cancer.
Not everyone who has smoked or who smokes will have emphysema or lung cancer. Some people are more predisposed to getting cancer than others. We just never know. That is the scary part.
That is just exactly right. All the more reason to live and let live.
My ex was having chest pains at 38 years old. In the ER they did all kinds of tests. They walked in saying, "well the good news is you are not a smoker." Little did they know he had been a smoker since he was 13 or so and was at that time up to 2-3 packs per day, and was quite of smoker of other things for 15 years as well. (before I ever met him)