My mother have emphysema and she is only 48 yr old. Its very hard for me to talk about it and I always think about it everyday and don't want to lose her and dr told her that she have about 10 yrs to live. I sometimes wish that she could live more than 10 yrs to be around grandchildren, etc. I hope she could be able to live more than 10 yrs. I'm just too afraid to lose her. I'm very close with my mother than I do with my father. Her mother (my grandma) had emphysema as well and passed away in years ago.
I started smoking at age of 18. If I have known about emphysema history. I would have not started at the first place and I found out about emphysema right after I started smoking. I'm trying my BEST to quit and I want to live for long time as possible to see my children all grown up, see them get married, have children, etc. I don't want to miss anything, ya know?
Ok, when I was 12-13 yr old, my friend and I took some cigs from my dad and smoked in woods. My dad caught us smoking and told my friend to go home and I went home and he showed me new pack. He had this mean & mad face, said I want you smoke all of it
NOW! and I told him no I don't want to and kept saying no then he sent me to room as punishment. So since then I haven't touched cigarette til I was 18. Sure, that did helped to stop me from smoking when he tried to make me to smoke whole pack in same day. But, that didn't stop me to start smoking. I guess it depends on individuals. What made me start smoking -- well there was lot of going on, very personal and I was very depressed and stressed, I was senior in High School -- its long story and I rather not to say anything about it. So anyway, I regretted for start smoking and wish that I never did.
Edit:
What will I do if I catch my kids smoking? Well, I don't know how I will react to it but of course I'll be upset about that. But I will talk with my kids before they start like curious to smoke. I'll tell them about my grandma and their grandma (my mother) that they have emphysema and I'll show them pictures of lung cancers and I might take them to hospitals to see lung cancer patients. I'll explain to them about why I smoked and I will tell them I was STUPID for start smoking and its VERY hard to quit and don't be like me, you don't want to die like your great-grandma or grandma with emphysema and that you don't want to smell STINKY, all that. Hopefully I quit smoking soon so that I can show them good role model of me to stop smoking, to live longer to be around them, to see them all grown up, see grandchildren, and tell them about grandma, etc and hopefully my kids won't smoke. I try to be a BEST parent as I can.