Living with Cerebral Palsy

Okay, the title warned you! But, seriously, while I am on my soapbox, I want to tell you about a comment I received on one of the posts last month.

For some reason, this gentleman found us on the Web. Although he had nothing to contribute to the conversation, he was selling smokeless cigarettes or something, and wanted to know if I would tell my readers about his site.

NO!!!

Actually, yes. But, not in the way he’d hoped. I am a strong advocate of STOP SMOKING, NOW!!!

Of course, I know that people living with cerebral palsy smoke-well, at least some of us.

But, if you do, let me give you even ONE MORE REASON to quit now.

A Perfect Example

As you know, I sometimes make an effort to search out other people that are living with cerebral palsy, and I ask them to write a guest blog or give me permission to talk about them on Living with Cerebral Palsy. I will provide a link to their site on my blogroll, in exchange for sharing with us.

Phil Stephens is one such person, and he is having a really tough time right now. Because he is in a chair and has health problems related to/complicated by CP, he frequently gets pneumonia or lung infections. In fact, he has a standing prescription for antibiotics, so he can take care of it, before he has to go to the doctor or it gets out of control.

Can you imagine if Phil smoked?

Personally, I have asthma and low immunity. I can’t even stand to be around cigarettes for more than a minute, before I am totally miserable. Plus, I watched my beloved grandfather die, because he couldn’t quit before it was too late.

So . . .

If you are living with cerebral palsy, I am begging you to please quit. I know it is harder than losing a bunch of extra pounds; I know they are addictive. But, there are medications and other treatments that can help you.

Do what I did about my weight. Go to your doctor. Tell him/her the time is now! Enroll in smoking cessation classes at your local hospital, or wherever they might be.

You may not care if you live to be 100; but, surely you want to have a full and happy life, and living with cerebral palsy in the best health possible.

Tomorrow . . .

Okay, I will get off of my health box for now. Let me know, if you have any ideas regarding what I should write about tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 11:01 am and is filed under living with Cerebral Palsy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.