I told my acupuncturist that my good friend, my brother's partner, and most recently my brother have all quit smoking since my diagnosis with breast cancer. This, without a single mention on my part. Her response was that she sees this over and over again, how one person's illness brings about healing in others close to her or him. That reminded me of a good friend who is struggling with depression, who, while living a ways away from me, has offered to give me rides when I need them. I've declined, not wanting to impose on someone not living near to me, but viewing this from my acupuncturist's perspective, it occurs to me that it may be good for my depressed friend to have a purpose to help me. And so it goes around.
I'm especially pleased to have just learned that my brother has quit, since our father, a 3-pack-a-day smoker until the later years of his life, in fact got and was cured from bladder cancer directly caused by smoking effects, at age 40, and later on died from complications of vascular disease caused by smoking. Furthermore, my father often studied or worked from home, increasing our exposure as children and teens. I, myself, smoked 1 1/2 packs a day for ten years until I quit at 25, and my brother has continued smoking into midlife, with efforts to quit in the past. I worry for my brother and his partner, jointly smoking, and couldn't be more pleased that they have quit! I'm so proud of you all!! It helps me feel like there is some more good to come out of what I'm going through.
Second-hand smoking has surprising repercussions, not all upon the lungs. I came across this powerful article Premenopausal Nonsmoking Women Face Increased Breast Cancer Risk that stopped me in my tracks. I'm so glad that my father isn't here to see what may have been the effects of his smoking upon me. The guilt would have killed him.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Others Around Me Heal Too
2 comments:
That's great news! You're right that often family illness can be a real motivator, although for some of us it takes an even bigger sledgehammer. My father had lung cancer nine years ago, and yet this was the first Christmas that there were no smokers in the family home. My oldest brother had quit before the lung cancer, then my dad quit when he was diagnosed, then I quit about 3.38 years ago, and finally my sister is in the slow on-again-off-again phase of quitting, and managed to be smoke-free over the holidays. Then there's that wierd brother who never smoked even though the rest of us did.
Glad to see you're still up and able to write! And let me also say that your writing is excellent, interesting, and easy to read, thus beating out 98% of the bloggers on the internet. Congrats!
I'm glad to hear that your family experienced the same thing. Many thanks for the kind words about my blog. Coming from you, it's great praise. I still intend to post more about reiki in response to your request. I'm hoping to have another treatment this week, and if so will post more about it then.
Yes, I seem to be doing better this round, after switching to different anti-nausea meds that don't put me to sleep. By Friday I'll know if I've escaped the worst.
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