As a social smoker for over 35 years, I always assumed quitting was something I could do any time I wanted.
I knew I could quit for weeks at a time while traveling, and while I was pregnant I quit for 2 years, however I always ended up being drawn back to smoking.
That all changed when my dad had a heart attack. Following the heart attack, a series of tests where performed eventually leading to open heart surgery. On July 17, 2014, I went to see him in the ICU where he lay unconscious and incubated. Being a nurse I knew what to expect, but it still cut me to the core to see him like that.
My dad, like many others in his generation had been a smoker. However, he quit when he was in his 30’s.
On that day in the ICU I swore that if my dad had a full recovery from his open heart surgery, I would never smoke again. I wanted to spend many more years with my dad, and I wanted to make sure my kids never saw me in a similar state due to smoking.
A year and a half later and I’m happy to say my dad is completely recovered.
I have not had a cigarette since that day. Was it hard? Yes, it was the hardest thing I have ever done. But seeing the health issues that my dad faced and recovered from has helped keep me strong, and for that I am thankful.
Good luck to all – if I can do it, so can you!
The BC Lung Association & QuitNow
QuitNow is a province-wide quit smoking support resource managed by the BC Lung Association and funded by the BC Ministry of Health. QuitNow offers free phone, text and online quit coaching and a range of personal quit tracking and planning tools. QuitNow also manages the most active online quit smoking Facebook community in Canada – where more than 15,000 users can go any time of day or night to share and support one another through the quit process.
