I quit smoking in 1985 and I’d smoked for 19 years. I’d been told that my lungs would restore themselves. At age 71, 38 years since I’d smoked my last cigarette, I was diagnosed with lung cancer – an incidental catch on a CT for a malfunctioning gallbladder.

My surgical oncologist, who removed the entire upper lobe of my left lung, informed me that the damage to my lungs had been repaired, BUT although my lungs were fully functional, they had been left weakened and vulnerable, which is why when I get so much as a chest cold, it turns into a bronchitis, pneumonia or a severe inflammation. Normal people get over a chest cold in a week to 10 days. It takes me weeks or even months, and each bout with pneumonia leaves my lungs with permanent residual scarring. And that was before the cancer and before the surgery that took 20% of my lung capacity and before I underwent radiation for a 2nd tumor that appeared only 4 months later and resulted in new scar tissue where the tumor had been.

I smoked from 17 to 65. Two packs a day until around 45 when I went to a pack a day. I also smoked weed the entire time. At 65, the VA diagnosed me with stage 4 COPD. After three years of not smoking, my cough is gone. So is the mucus, and wheezing. I feel much better. However, I still can’t climb two flights of stairs without being out of breath. That has not changed one bit. So it seems that my lung capacity will never recover. My FEV1 is still below 39. I try to address the gunk in my lungs with nebulized DMSO/Ethanol. I have no symptoms of COPD except for breathlessness with exertion. I have never had an exacerbation that required a hospital stay. To the younger peeps … IF you quit your bad habits at 45, you’re prolly fine for the duration. Don’t push your luck like I did.

My Father’s life story as told through cigarette smoking.

• Dad started smoking at age 17 in Italy.
• At Age 47 in the U.S., Dad woke up in the middle of the night unable to breath.
• He had to rush outside to get as much fresh air as possible.
• Dad immediately quit smoking.
• A few months prior to Dad’s first breathing attack, I had noticed at the dinner table Dad was unable to clear his throat, it was as if he had perpetual mucous he could not clear very easily.
• After the first breathing attack, Dad instantly quit smoking,
• About a week to 10 days later, Dad had another breathing attack, but it was much more mild.
• Dad still had to get up in the middle of the night again, go outside to breathe fresh air, but overall it was a much milder attack.
• Just quitting one week earlier had probably saved Dad from a second, much worse breathing attack.
• Dad never smoked again, and lived another 35 plus years!
• I recall a couple years later, Dad “raced” me around the block, it was about 8 tenths of a mile, he ran the whole way, that was so cool.
• Apparently Dad had avoided Emphysema, or something like emphysema, so his lungs must have started reversing the 30 years of smoking for him to be able to jog around the block with me.
• Back in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s cigarettes were super cheap so Dad was smoking 2 packs a day. Dad didn’t buy by the pack, he would buy a carton of cigarettes.
• I don’t recall if he dropped from 2 packs a day to instantly quitting, or if he had leveled off to one pack at the time of his first breathing attack, but he had stop smoking around us kids and around Mom.
• Several years earlier, when Dad was smoking, I have a memory of Dad driving me to downtown in a Corvair, during our trip, there were several smokestacks billowing out black smoke, and Dad was smoking in the car.
• I was in the back seat trying to get as low as I could to the floor of the corvair trying to escape the stereo smoking going on.
• It was a lose lose situation, open the window, get the smoke stack variety pollution, close the window, get Dad’s cigarette smoke.
• Thankfully, Dad heard my 6 year old voice wailing for clean air and stopped smoking and kept the windows up.
• From then on, Dad would compromise and only smoke in the car if the car was moving and the windows were fully open. In a way it was a blessing because it made me loathe smoking for the rest of my life.
• It is very important to remember, just because the body can most times reverse most of the ill effects of smoking; does not mean one should “kick the can down the road” and put off quitting smoking because one believes they can reverse effects of smoking at a time of their choosing.
• Each person’s genetic lung tolerance to smoking is different, so why risk crossing past an unknown timeline threshold in which quitting may not reverse the effects as much, as if one had quit smoking earlier.