I think my best friend is lying through her teeth. Do you agree?
We had an agreement last year that we�d both quit smoking on New Years Eve. I did it, she didn�t. She said she wanted to use the lozenges � even showed me the box of lozenges that she had purchased � but since she�s a diabetic and had been having crazy sugar readings (200+), she wanted to check with her doctor first. She went to the doctor in late January and her doctor told her:
�Now�s not a good time to quit smoking. Your sugar levels have been out of control so let�s deal with that first, and then after that, we�ll talk again about quitting smoking.�
I figured at the time, that she had told him she was so stressed about her sugar levels that she didn�t feel like she could add the stress of quitting smoking right then and basically talked him into agreeing that, yeah, okay, wait to quit. In other words, I didn�t think she technically lied, maybe just spun it a little.
Then�
She got her sugar mostly under control but then her situation at home got really crazy. When she went to the doctor she explained how hard life had become and he prescribed some Xanax for her anxiety. She said the doctor told her:
�Now�s not a good time to quit smoking. You are experiencing situational anxiety and depression and your chances of quitting successfully in the middle of such turmoil are so low that you should wait. When things calm down, we�ll talk again about quitting smoking.�
Again, I figured she had convinced the doctor that she would go off the deep end if she even attempted to quit, so the doctor said yeah, fine, go ahead and wait. I still didn�t think she technically lied, just that she�d exaggerated a bit.
Then�
She had severe pain in her side and was admitted to the hospital because they thought it might be appendicitis. It wasn�t appendicitis, in fact they never did (yet) determine the cause of the pain, but while she was there for three days, they did a chest x-ray and saw some small nodules on her lung. My friend was scared by this and when she came out of the hospital after three days of not smoking, she vowed to quit. Her resolve, however, lasted less than twenty-four hours, her quit lost in the face of a family crisis.
She was worried, though. She shared with me that, if it is inoperable cancer and she�s sentenced to die, then she wasn�t going to quit smoking. If it was anything less, she said she�d quit.
Yesterday she visited an oncologist. He will be doing a scan this Friday to determine whether these nodules on her lungs are cancerous. It was his opinion, he said, that they were not cancerous, but he wanted to confirm that. He asked her, �Are you going to see this for the wake-up call it is and quit smoking?� She said that yes she was.
To that, she said the doctor told her:
�Now is not a good time to quit smoking. The holiday season is so stressful that few people who try to quit during the holidays are successful. When you come back to see me in January, we�ll talk about helping you to quit smoking then.
I�m sorry, but I think this is bull$h*t!!!!! I don�t think there�s an oncologist in the world who would say such a thing to a patient, do you agree?
The thing is: If she's lying, this is SUCH junkie behavior!!! To lie to your friends (not just me, she told this to everyone, but I am her best friend), to tell such lies to protect your addiction � it�s just sad and � yeah it�s pathetic!
I am so glad to be free. FREE!!!! So very truly really glad!
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B]1/1/2007
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 295
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 8,850
[B]Amount Saved:[/B] $885.00
[B]Life Gained:[/B]
[B]Days:[/B] 30 [B]Hrs:[/B] 10 [B]Mins:[/B] 17 [B]Seconds:[/B] 38