Quit Smoking for Life. Suzanne Schlosberg

recommends lung-cancer screening, using low-dose CT scans, for smokers and former smokers ages 55 to 79 with at least 30 “pack years” of smoking — in other words, smoking one pack a day for 30 years or two packs a day for fifteen years. Some organizations, including the Lung Cancer Alliance⁶, and physicians also recommend low-dose CT scans for smokers age 50 and up — and in some cases younger — with a twenty-year pack history (a pack a day for twenty years or two packs a day for ten years) and at least one other risk factor, such as exposure to secondhand smoke.

      In the weeks before her surgery, Barth quit smoking. “I was so upset, so nervous, and so sure I was going to die and leave my children without a mother that quitting wasn’t hard.”

      After surgery and chemotherapy, Barth’s lung capacity was so compromised that she couldn’t have blown up a balloon. Her doctor warned her she’d have trouble breathing in Telluride, Colorado, a town at an 8,700-foot elevation, where her family spent summers. Barth wasn’t deterred.

      “I didn’t want to give up Colorado. It was so beautiful, and I had so many friends there, and my children loved it.” Barth wanted more than Telluride, though; she wanted to pick up her life where she’d left off. “I didn’t want people asking, ‘Do you need to sit down?’ And I reasoned if athletes came to high altitudes to train, maybe I could make the thin air work for me, too.”

      Little by little, Barth strengthened her lungs with easy ambles in the mountains. Back in New York, instead of hailing a cab, she walked blocks and blocks or tackled long flights of stairs to take the subway. Three years after her surgery, Barth’s stamina was better than it had been before her diagnosis. She was on skis again and playing tennis, albeit doubles.

      “I still think smoke smells delicious,” Barth says, “but when I see someone walking down the street smoking, I just don’t feel the need for it.”

      QUIT TIP

       “Before you smoke, ask yourself, What do I want from this cigarette? Then smoke it and notice whether it’s giving you what you wanted, whether that is time alone, relaxation, or something to do with your hands. Consider: Are there other ways to fill that need?”

       — Anne Herman, Quit Coach

      QUIT TIP

      “Your thoughts control your actions, so keep your thoughts positive. If you add the word but to any negative statement, you can change it to a thought that is more helpful. If you are thinking, I sure would like to have a cigarette, change it to I sure would like to have a cigarette, but instead I will go for a walk. Thoughts can be changed at the drop of a hat.”

       — Janet Wilson, Quit Coach

      QUIT TIP

       “To remind yourself why you want to quit, put a picture of your kids or grandkids in your car, or a sticky note on your bathroom mirror that reads, ‘I’m saving $2,000 a year,’ or post an empowering quote like, ‘I can choose to live my life however I want.’ ”

       — Bruce Fugett, Quit Coach and former smoker

      “Compared to giving up your life, giving up your cigarettes didn’t seem like such a big deal.”

      5 National Lung Screening Trial Research Team, Aberle DR, Adams AM, Berg CD, et al. Reduced lung cancer mortality with low-dose computed tomographic screening. New England Journal of Medicine; 365(5): 395-409. Epub 2011 June 29.

      6 http://screenforlungcancer.org/who-should-be-screened/

CHAPTER 4

       Shifting from I Have to Quit to I Get to Quit

      • How your body heals itself

      • A timeline for healing