I Feel Lousy
 

Head feels like a water balloon, coughing, scratchy throat, chest congestion with nasties that are gray-green coming up. Sweats & chills.
Been like this for 2 or 3 days.
I'm ready to call the doc (or ask my pharmacist) to see what I can
take as a decongestant, anti-cough (or expectorant?), with all my meds.
I haven't felt this bad in a coupla years.
I've been cold and virus free (except for a GI tract thing from either
bad food, or a 24 hr stomach virus)
Just feel lousy and wish I could stay in bed, but work calls today,
and tomorrow I've got to stand 'jury duty'!

Have you tried mucinex??

My doctor swears by it. And by some saline nose spray thing. My doctor does not like decongestant nose sprays. Never understood completey why, something about rebound effect or something of that nature.

You need lots of chicken soup (with carrots and celery).

I don't need to tell you what you need, you know what you need.

I'm just acting all wifey, like I would do with my Alan.

Feel better.

Melody

Hello Bob, sorry to hear you are feeling under the weather. http://bestsmileys.com/sick/7.gif I was that way a couple of weeks ago - sore throat, sinus congestion, etc. I went to the doctor and I got an antibotic and decongestant. Cleared me right up within a couple of days. I have tried Mucinex before and it is good. There are a couple of different varities. www.mucinex.com/02_cause.asp

My sinusus really get going on these cool nights and warm days. We are heading into warm, warm weather through the weekend, so hopefully the nights won't be too cool.

Anyway, hope you feel better soon.http://bestsmileys.com/dancing/2.gif

Oh, Bob...
 

I think you should go to the doctor...that colored mucus in the chest is
not normal. The typical RX for this is Zithromax, (not the dreaded Levaquin)
and perhaps that would do it for you.

Mucinex is good, plain old Robitussin too. (they are the same). Walgreen's has a similar product to Mucinex, in generic form which is cheaper..
Humbid generic. You need to drink alot of water, also to keep that mucus liquid so you can cough it up. Mucinex comes in a DM which will help minimize too much coughing but still let you clear your lungs.

But any time there this thick green/brown, or bloody sputum, you need to
see a doctor ASAP.

So please consider an urgent care or your doctor.

I agree with Mrs D. See your doc. Mucinex/Guafenisine/humabid---are all the same expectorant. Sinus lavage with saline and a bit of Alkolol will also help break things up, if you decide to yourself another day or so.

But you might need the doc even if you want to tough it out to get out of jury duty.

Bob I agree it is far cheaper to see a doc
 

who shakes his head, swabs your throat, takes some blood and writes some script. Far better as well to not learn you've been in the hospital over the coming weekend because......
You've been under no small amount of stress lately, and YOU need to spoil yourself [even tho going to a doc - never really seems like 'spoiling'] regarding what good health you have.
I use my 'moist heat' heating pad on my head [rotating all over] and neck to keep things open and rolling. Plus expectorant and Chloraseptic spray for the throat [doesn't last long, but helps].
Please, even if it is just a cold, you can have small comfort that it's not pneumonia?
Take care please - j

What's that thing that Dr. Oz showed on Oprah.

It looks like a little pitcher, you fill with salt and warm water, and you bend your head and you put it in one nostril and it goes up and over your sinuses and out of the other nostril.

I can't remember what it's called.

Anybody know??

mel

Thingie for washing inside of nose
 

Hi Mel:

It's called a "neti pot". Looks like a little teapot.

Shirley H.

Correction?
 

Hi again Mel:

Checked on Google and neti pot is to wash the sinuses. Whatever. Sounds uncomfortable to me. I hate getting water up my nose. I won't be buying one.:eek:

Shirley H.

Hi Bob:

I vote with all above... Make it easy on yourself and just go see your doc...

Hope you get to feeling better.

Cathie

I agree that seeing the doc would be the best thing. You don't want mucus to make itself at home in your chest. Bronchitis can be very hard to get rid of if you don't treat it early.

But if it's any comfort at all, I know how you feel. I developed reactive bronchitis over the weekend. Had the doc check me out on Monday and she saw that I had a nasty bacterial infection going on, so I'm doing the Zithromax thing, which usually works for me.

My doc also suggested that I rinse my sinuses to keep them free of irritants. I purchased a neti pot and have been using it twice a day. Yeah, it sounds really gross to pour water up your nose, but I can't tolerate most decongestants, so this is the safest way for me to accomplish the same thing.

Hope you are better soon. I hate that awful wobbly feeling you get when your body is trying to fight off something.

fanfaire
:cool:

Well, I have a cold. I never get colds. I have no idea how I got this one. Haven't had one for years and years.

Drinking tea, doing what one does when they have a cold. But I take care because I have had pneumonia twice (or was it 3 times) in my life. Years ago, but you always remember. But since I've been taking care of myself, well, I never get colds.

Alan just told me "put the pillow between us tonight, and don't get offended".

Yeah, like he could offend me!!!!!!

lol

And boy, did I make a batch of brownies today!!! Alan called them "a little piece of heaven". Isn't it great, I get to eat a brownie once in a while and it doesn't impact my sugar or my weight. Life's good.

Mel

Well I went to 'Jury duty' yestiddy.Didn't get on a jury.
Wasted day and I was 'wasted' as well. Sat there coughing and sneezing,
there were empty chairs all around me in the 'waiting room'. No one wanted
to have to sit next to me. I also was woozy and unsteady from the flu meds
that I bought OTC. Zicam, Muciniex, Thera Flu, etc.
Today I feel a bit lousy, not lousier, or lousiest like on Mon.
I prolly won't go to the doc.
The gray-green phlegm is familiar every time I get a chest cold,
a usual for me, a smoker for over 35 yrs.
My wifes an RN (also a smoker) and suggested that we be on the lookout for pneumonia and see a doc at the first signs that I'm not responding to cold treatment. It seems that I am, at this point.
No pain in chest, just a bronchial type congestion and with a nasal and sinus blockage, breathing thru the mouth makes me short of breath after exertion.
A familiar symptom as long as I stay adamant with my cigarettes.
I know I should quit.
Feeling worse, when I'm ill, just exacerbates the situation, but then I get better and never seem to get motivated enough.
It'll be he11 to pay if I wind up old- and on a respirator, fighting for breath in my declining years, I know. Its an image that sometimes passes thru my head, altho very quickly. Mt wife's an RN manager of a geriatric vent unit. everybody there is on a respirator. She's aware of the symptoms of pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, etc.
We'll keep a watch out, but at this point I think I'm just looking at a bad cold.

Bob:

I know this is a stupid question, but why don't you quit?? Or use the patch, or whatever it would take.

just curious.

Melody

Bob!!
 

Hi Bob:

If you were my husband I would insist you see a doctor. Short of breath doesn't sound good to me. My late husband had pneumonia about 7 times during his three years in a nursing home. He had polio when 17 and his breathing muscles were compromised.

We would all rest easier if you went to the doctor. Stop smoking too!

Shirley H.

Felling better today. Head is not so much 'water baloony'.
No chills or sweats last nite. No fever.
Cough is looser - the Mucinex is working.
So's the other 'stuff' I'm taking.
The cough is always the last to clear up.

Mel & Shirl (and everyone else),
I'll quit smoking.....eventually.
Hard habit (addiction) to give up.

My doc is on my case alla time.
Its difficult when everyone else in the house is a smoker too.
We all gotta 'take the pledge' together. Its not easy to
get 3 people to agree to quit, & at the same time.

I have two things to offer to encourage you to
 

quit.

1) the new drug Chantix...I am reading glowing reports on how fast and easy it is to quit using it. It appears to be more efficient than Zyban. Some people use it less than a month! It affects the dopamine reward pathway in the brain.
Turns off the effect nicotine has to stimulate dopamine.

2) This brings me to the seminar I went to yesterday on Memory/Aging/Alzheimers. In the beginning we were shown the effects of various neurotransmitters. The lecturer was really good, very new data, up to date. She explained to us the dopamine reward system, which is very complex. But she made it easier to understand. For some reason, still not understood, people get fixated in a certain loop to get their dopamine hit. This neurotransmitter makes us feel better. It can be smoking, food, chocolate (she knew a woman who was mega addicted to chocolate) drugs, even behaviors (video games). She said it is possible to create a new thing to
take over the dopamine reward. It is up to you to do this...and she suggested some form of exercise or activity (the least likely to be damaging) to begin a new auto-reward cycle. This takes some effort, but is doable. I myself have thought about video games and might get one of those Wii things. A new study has shown that physical therapists are using Wii (bowling/tennis/ etc) to get very old nursing home patients into moving around and firming up their muscles. It has turned out to be VERY successful. Evidently this game is a lot of fun. (with my old arthritis/pain in the feet-- I can't do tennis or racket ball now). The Wii is non-violent, and doesn't have all those monsters and death and blood and guts in it.

I can feel your attachment to your cigarettes, in this post. And of course, you know it will cut your life expectance significantly to continue smoking, and subconsciously this creates more stress, which you then need to counter with your dopamine reward...it is like a negative loop.

If you knew, Bob, you could do it? With a minimum of discomfort, would you then try?

Bob: (Don't mean to gang up on you, and this is my very last post on this subject, but I have to tell you my story)

Here's my two cents. (and I love ya, remember that).
We start out with habits. We like our coffee a certain way, we like our eggs a certain way, we like to wear certain kinds of socks. We would never change the way we take our coffee, change the way we make our eggs and god forbid change the kind of socks we wear. Also, this can relate to brands of soap we use, the kind of drink we drink with our meals, etc.

It's all habitual.

People, as we get older, do not take change very well. We just don't. We get in a comfort zone, and we stay there. That's why older people don't like to move. They want their porches, they want their living rooms. They have gotten into the habit of living their lives a certain way. If they are removed from that lifestyle, all kinds of changes go on in their brains, and it's not for their good. They get anxious. It's all about seratonin levels, endorphins, etc.

I really believe this. We also don't think anything applies to ourselves. We think it will apply to other people but not to ourselves. It's just our brains being in denial big time. I am living proof of this.

I have been diabetic for over 20 years. All during this time, my sugar reading would be 250 or so and every single doctor told me "you must lose weight". Now, because I had a pretty face, I didn't look at my body. I really didn't. I would look in the mirror and only concentrate on my face. I also didn't listen to anybody when they said 'you will be sorry when you get older, your knees will suffer, your joints will suffer, you'll have a harder time giving birth, blah blah blah". My mind would tune everybody out and I said "This does not apply to me'.

Well, guess what happened??? It all applied to me. Now I was raised in a house of smokers. My mom and dad smoked, my mother's 5 brothers and 5 sisters all smoked. I never had a meal where there weren't 13 people in the house smoking. So I inhaled all that garbage. I should have moved out when I was 18 but thankfully my parents moved away when I was 24. I have never smoked. It wasn't my thing. Food was my thing. Smoking or drinking COULD HAVE BEEN MY THING. But it wasn't. It was food. AND BOY DID I MAKE IT MY THING.

We all have our THINGS. Yours is smoking. You know it's bad for you, but your brain hasn't kicked in yet. You keep telling yourself "well, it's not going to get that much worse.". I know this because all of us (with bad habits), well that's how we rationalize what we do.

For you to stop smoking in a house where everybody smokes, well,that's the same as a 500 lb person living in a house with other 500 lb people and one of you decides to eat salads from now on and everybody is bringing hot fudge sundaes to your dinner table.

This, of course, will never work.

All of you, in your household, well you all have to have a lightbulb moment, when you all say "Okay, let's do this as a family action". Let's get the patch, or take Chantix, etc. BUT WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!! because our lungs are being affected.

I have never allowed anyone to smoke in my home. My landlord once came in with a lit cigarette. I did not hesitate for one minute. I said "my home has been a smoke free zone since I'm living here, and I'd appreciate it if you would either put out that cigarette or go outside and smoke". He looked at me and he respected my wishes. Now my landlord is 80, has smoked 3 or more packs a day since I know him (15 years), has no health problems whatsoever. I believe this is pure genetics. His mother lived to 105 and his son is 53, looks 30, and just got married and had his first baby. This is a rarity. The 80 year old's wife is 70 and can't stand his smoking. She says he stinks, the house stinks and she yells at him all the time. I have never seen this man without a cigarette. He also has one leg (since he is 6 years old).
His health is mainly attributable to his genetic makeup. I mean who has a mother who lives to be 105. His dad lived to be 99. And they didn't smoke.

No, today's cigarettes have much higher nicotine then let's say 50 years ago. It's simply more addictive so it's much harder to give them up. I completely understand this.

So if you all can come up with a plan to let's say transfer this habit to another habit, for example, going for a nighttime walk for 30 minutes (which will give your lungs a nice breathing workout), I mean, I know I'm babbling here and you can say "what does she know? she never smoked". Well, here's my response.

I know, because for most of my life, I ATE. I ate all the crap, all the stuff that went into my body, numbed my soul, my brain and I got Type Two diabetes. I also know I changed my eating habits. I now eat good stuff. Fish, chicken veggies, and I happen to like them. Took some time.

So how did I accomplish this brain change of mine??? I simply look at food as fuel in my body. Not as a brain numbing experience.

When I put together my salad's of different colors, I imagine all the anti-oxidants going into my blood stream and fueling my cells with good things.

To sum it up, I will never forget sitting in my urologist office years ago (I thought I had a bladder infection), and my sugar reading was high.

He was telling me "there is nothing that tastes as good as the taste of good health". I simply said "but I can't even have a nice piece of chocolate cake, you mean I can't cheat??"

His response was "of course you can....BUT WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO"???

I didn't get his meaning until I had the lightbulb moment.

You will have your lightbulb moment eventually!!!!

It will come.

Melody

great post melody

Habits
 

Melody: I really applaud you for your sheer will power. You have such a positive outlook on life and are such an inspiration to all of us on this board.:hug:

Bob: I only smoked for 10 years (my excuse was to lose weight). I lost the weight, but was hooked. When my daughter because pregnant with my first of three granddaughters, I knew it was time to give them up, but oh how hard that was. My husband also smoked and we did it together. I did have a couple of relapses, but I have not had a cigarette in almost 10 years. :hug:

Mel is right, you just have to get your head in the right place. It can be done!!

Diana:

Good for you that you were able to give up the cigs. It's very hard, this I know.

When I go to Cornell for my diabetic protocol and I wait outside for the Access-a-ride, there are (I guess they are called smoking booths???). where a person can sit and have a smoke.

One day, one of these booths had no one in them, so I sat and waited for my ride.

In a short while, 4 nurses and one doctor came outside to light up. I had to ask them (I mean, they were DOCTORS & NURSES).

So I just said "I have to ask you a question?" Well, I never got the question out of my mouth. Everybody laughed and said "She wants to know why we are all smoking and we know it's bad for us". I laughed and said "well yeah". and one of the nurses said "It's very simple, I don't want to get fat and if I stop smoking, I'll gain 40 lbs, and I'd rather get cancer than be fat".

That is exactly what this medical person said to me. I said "do you realize what you just said?" and she laughed and said "yeah, it's a really bad addiction" I, of couse said nothing in return because what on earth could I have said??"

And you said I have will power. Let me tell you, in MY case, will power has very little to do with what I did. It was the going to a nutritionist, learning about what the food did to my body, to my diabetes, and visioning down the road, losing a limb to neuropathy. And I didn't even have neuropathy at that point. I was just a plain old diabetic. lol

But believe me when I say this. The day that I got the pins and needles, and burning, well, there didn't have to be any more light bulb moments for me. I actually got the light bulb moment years before that, but the day that the podiatrist touched me with the vibrating tool, and I got an example of what Alan has been going through for 18 years and I said out loud "So this is neuropathy, oh my god, I better never let my sugar get out of control". And this has been my mantra ever since that day. And I faithfully take my Methyl B-12 every morning.

See, in my case, I got smarter as I got older. I should have done this 25 years ago, but well, we can't turn back the clock. But we can look ahead. I just don't want any more complications or visits to hospitals, etc. so I will do whatever I have to do to prevent that. No guarantee, this I know, but I'm trying.

I once read where someone said that aging is not a definite thing, it's a disease, that if we do everything right, we don't have to age and die. Now that might seem like a stupid statement but that's what gets me through every day. And trying to keep the stress down is tough sometimes, but I try and do it as best as I can.

If aging is indeed a disease all to itself and we can do SOMETHING to retard this process, and, at the same time, keep ourselves as healthy as we possibly can, well I don't see any down side to this way of thinking.

Now I might not be 100 years old and going dancing, but I will try to hit that number and still be on this computer posting on the neuropathy forums.

That much I WILL BE DOING. ....hopefully!!!!

lol, Melody

P.S. I bet, with my luck, that I'll be 90 years old, look like I'm 65, be healthy as a horse, and I'll probably get hit by a bull dozer as I cross the street. lol

I guess everyone who has quit smoking has their own method that was successful. At 29, I was smoking 3 packs per day. I decided to start running as a way to help me quit. It helped me work off all the anxiety of going without nicotine. I was in terrible shape, so the first few months were not anything to be proud of, but I enjoyed seeing that I got a little better all the time and was able to run a little farther every week. I worked up to being able to respectably run a 5K race. I had to quit after that because it made my knee and low back hurt, but by then I was no longer smoking! I had occasional cravings for a long time, but these became farther and farther apart. Now, I gag at the thought of smoking. Now, Mel, I'm working on the food thing! You have really encouraged me!

Great thread, Mel. I read every word.
(While smoking a cigarette)
The 'lightbulb moment' is what I call the AH HA! realization.
I'll get there, eventually. I got there once - about 18 yrs ago,
and quit for 2 yrs, but started up again at my mom's funeral 'shivah house'.
She smoked all her life, (Pall Mall- unfiltered longs) but stopped after a triple bypass operation, and it gave her15 more years. My step-dad was an ex-smoker (the worst kind) and was a royal PITA about, it til she stopped - and he constantly berated me for it. (he constantly berated me, and everyone else.....for everything !)
It'll come, eventually, I'm sure.
But I have to pick the correct moment to 'lay the bomb'
on the rest of my house.
I've 'tested the water' before, but have come up with 'bupkis'.

Bob:

Your posting made me laugh out loud, especially when you said you read the posting while smoking a cigarette.

Brings me back in time to three years ago when the girl across the street (Marilyn) had not been feeling well. I've lived on my block for 15 years and have become very friendly with my neighbors. One has to do that when one's family ostrasizes you for having a mentally ill son, who's a gambler. When the family goes, all you really have are friends and neighbors and thank god, I'm a social butterfly.

So we all used to meet outside (for years) in the warm weather and shoot the breeze. About 40 of us. Marilyn had started to feel ill. Her doctor said it was an ocular migraine. She always smoked. She and my girlfriend's husband would walk to the corner (to get away from the non-smokers), and do their thing. Well, her skin began to turn yellow, (she would sit in the sun and we all thought it was a tan, we really did think this). She went to work every day. She ate well. She was a beautiful 53 year old blond single woman.

She once told me "melody, I think smoking is good for the body because I haven't had a cold in 20 years". I just laughed because I knew I couldn't talk her out of it. But I wouldn't go into her house because of the second hand smoke, and once, her tv set broke and since I'm the resident fixer on the block, she called me in. I immediately felt the smoke in the air and said something to the effect "Marilyn, you have to stop smoking" and she literally ran me out of her house. I never forgot that.

But we still sat outside. Then she began to get weak and went for medical tests but nothing came out of them.

Then one day, a neighbor called me up and said "Melody, you and my husband have to take Marily to the hospital, her doctor called, something about her white cell count and she has to go to the ER"

I dropped everything I was carrying, raced to her house and there she was, not even able to get up our of the chair, all yellow and her hair came out in my hands in fistfulls. My other friend's husband just looked at me.

We gently guided her into the car and took her to Maimonides Hospital telling the admitting people that she was expected. Well, they had no clue. So they put her in a little cubicle. The head nurse was throwing everybody out of the ER because you can only stay in the back in the cubicles for one hour. My friend was petrified and kept saying "don't leave me". I said "don't worry". I took my shoes off, sat in a chair, hung my tongue out of my mouth like I was dying, and waiting to see a physician and the head nurse just passed me by. I did this everytime she started to kick out the people. I was able to stay in the ER for 8 hours with Marilyn. During all that time, various interns and residents making rounds would stop by her and question her. After the second round of questions, she would point to me and say "Ask Melody, she knows what's wrong with me". I would then answer all questions because I knew her whole history and medical stuff.

They ran all kinds of tests. In a few hours, a female doctor comes over to us and looks at Marilyn and says: "There's a mass on your liver" She looks at me and says "what does that mean"? I asked the doctor to explain and she did. She told Marilyn, Your liver is supposed to be this size and then she stretched out her arms and said "this is how big your liver is". She then told Marilyn she would have to have surgery.

Marilyn, up to that point, was sitting up, drinking water and although weak, was perfectly lucid, and ambulatory.

Well, as the hours passed by, her other friends showed up and my friend's husband came to pick me up and take me home. I kissed her good bye and never saw her again. After that day, she refused to have any visitors. She knew.......

One of her friends called us up and said "come to my house, we are having a meeting about Marilyn, and I want to tell all of you at once".

We all showed up at Anna Lee's basement and sat around. About 13 of us. Marilyn had absolutely no family except for two distant cousins she hadn't seen in 20 years.

So Anna Lee blurts out "There's good news and Bad News". We just looked at her. The bad news was that Marilyn had Stage 4 Lung Cancer that had spread to the bone, brain, and whatever. I said "and What's the good news??" Anna Lee said "well the doctor told her that she can get chemo and be back to work in no time." I just looked at Anna Lee and said nothing.

With that, one of the men sitting at the table got up to outside and get a smoke. I did not know this man from a hole in the wall, but since he just got the news that Marilyn was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer, I could not for the life of me understand how this man could go outside and have a smoke. As he got up I said quietly said "didn't you hear what Anna Lee said?? " His reply, "oh, yes, and I had cancer a few years ago, and I had chemo". "But I still smoke and can't stop". His wife was sitting next to him and looked very sad and said "believe me I've tried".

That's when it hit me. This stuff in these cigarettes is more addictive, more deadly, than any hot fudge sundae I could ever stuff in my mouth.

If a man can sit at a table and hear that his friend has stage 4 lung cancer and he himself has had cancer, and then he has to go out and smoke, than all the talking in the world is not going to do any good. There will obviously be no lightbulb moment for this guy. (He has since passed away).

They gave Marilyn one chemo treatment and she died the next morning, at the age of 53. Her birthday was during the week. She died exactly 7 days from when we first took her to the hospital. No family whatsoever, so her two distant cousins were called and they had no choice but to come and make arrangements.

On my mom's death certificate, it said: "Contributory cause of death, cigarette smoking".

I know the government allows Big Tobacco to continue to sell these deadly things because it's all about MONEY!!!

I think it's dreadful that nothing is being done to take these things off the shelves. I see young people smoking all the time because a), they think it's cool, b), they have absolutely no clue what the ramifications are for their future c). They are idiot 16 year olds with no brains.

The government is supposed to look out for us, protect us from evil doers, etc. etc. I don't see that happening any time soon, as long as a person can go into a supermarket or any kind of convenience store and purchase a pack of butts that clearly say on the pack 'cigarettes are hazardous to your health, quitting smoking now, will greatly reduce your chances , blah blah blah".

Bob, I really know you want to quit. It's just very hard.

You have had the lightbulb moment. You just have to get up one day (and one day you will), and tell yourself "not another day, will I put something in my mouth that can give me cancer". not another day will I do this".

May not happen for a while. But it will. I think if you read and re-read this story and other stories, that maybe one day, you will try and quit. It's hard. We can only hope.

Here's hoping you live long and prosper, as my friend Mr. Spock used to say.

Take care,
Melody

hardest...
 

Smoking (nicotine) is the hardest addiction to break.

That is why I suggested Chantix. This can really help with a minimum of
suffering.

Hi Mrs D:

Want to hear something funny!!!! If you ask my friend what the hardest addiction is to get over, she will answer "Alcohol". because her son is 29, stays up in his room, has pancreatitis, possible chirosis of the liver, has been hospitalized numerous times for black outs, put on antibiotics. A pill to stop the cravings, but he just goes right back to it. So her answer would be alcohol".

My other friend's sister is a meth amphetamine addict. So if you ask her what the worst addiction is you will hear "oh, drugs, absolutely".

Then there's my son (Gambling, video came addiction) Addiction to playing Second Life online (do you know that in today's Daily News newspaper, there is an advertisement that says "are you addicted to online games, are you addicted to Second Life??" "If you are, please call this number".

So we now have new addictions to the already growing group of addictions on the roster.

So you have cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, video games, online games, sex, binging. etc.etc.

My goodness. Who's normal any more??

We are inundated with advertisements in the media to eat at Papa Johns, Dominos, and All you can eat Friendly's ..with portions that can choke a cow.

But oddly enough, they stopped advertising Cigarettes in the media and on TV, quite some time ago.

But that didn't do a darn thing. People still smoke.

I wonder why. I used to think it was the tv ads that made people do stuff.

But if there is no advertisement of the product, why do the kids start up in the first place. I understand peer pressure, but really, are kids really that ignorant of the facts???

Bob, I wanted to give you some more encouragement about quitting smoking.... (Are you getting just sick of this????) Anyway, I tried to quit and failed over and over again for several years. Then one time, seemingly no different that any other time, I was successful. But every time I tried and failed I would kick myself around and tell myself what a miserable, sorry, person I was. Then I wouldn't try again for a long time because I was afraid of failing and having to face what a wretch I was. But now I realize that I wasn't a sorry wretch at all! I was a wonderful person who just kept on trying, and eventually persistance paid off. So don't be too hard on yourself. Be proud of your efforts, and not afraid to persist. You are already a terrific guy for just wanting to quit! I will keep you in my thoughts.

Susan:

I love your little signature.

Mel

Yup !
Enough, already.
Feel 'ganged-up on'
Moving on,....and on,......and on, ......and.....
.......my cold is getting better. (Remember?)

Bob think of it this way....
 

There are folks with soap boxes and those with soap.
Glad your cold is receding! - j

Getting off the soap box.

My cold got better and I used the zycam nasal swabs (even though they are really not good and can make you lose your sense of smell, and if I had known that I wouldn't have bought them, but since I didn't know that, I bought them, and they helped my cold). Wow, that's a long sentence.

glad that's over!!! lol

Mel

Bob, I'm off the soap box, too. Feel free to chide me about being overweight. I'm hiding all my other shortcomings, though.

Thanks, Mel. I just learned how to do a signature! It's fun.