JANE SHORTHALL gave up smoking and recently developed asthma, which she argues is a minor inconvenience since she has kicked the habit
TO BEGIN with, life after quitting the cigarettes was tickety-boo, all roses. The first thing was the freedom, the not having to check, just in case the night went on, if the second pack was stashed away in the bag or pocket.
No longer a slave to the cigs, you find you have left behind the utterly awful smell of stale tobacco that always clung to hair and clothes, then, gradually, the odour that was forever in handbags and coat pockets goes too.
Skin improves no end, its healthier condition obvious, even to people who have only known me since coming to live in France. One woman put it like this, “it is as if the wrinkles which were about to form have stopped. You now look so good.” Very French.
The hygienist, at a dental visit, professed herself thrilled by the lack of brown stains on the back of my teeth. Having an eye test, the optician remarked that I must have had a good diet during my years of smoking, and he went on to tell me a frightening story of how each cigarette does a little damage to the eye.
I was pleased about the good diet, because while enjoying every cigarette over the years, I never gave my eyes a thought.
So, here I was, having kicked the habit, living life to the full, feeling good, believing I would carry on, not a care in the world, for the rest of my days.
Then one night, suddenly and for no reason, I experienced great difficulty breathing. I grew weaker, had a sensation of lightness, of almost falling. I staggered out onto our balcony overlooking the hills here in southern France, where the air is wonderful. I stood, holding onto the wooden rail, gasping, trying desperately to take in some of the warm night air.
I was more than frightened; I was utterly petrified, more terrified than I’ve ever been.
It seems crazy now, that at some point I just lay down on a sofa and eventually fell asleep, exhausted. The following morning a friend (a nurse), appalled at my reaction to what had happened, insisted on my seeing a doctor.
All the bloods were done, my heart was checked out and I was referred to a lung specialist. The results of his tests showed damage to some tubes. Asthma – not very serious – was diagnosed and I was prescribed an inhaler.
Life has changed a little. I get breathless walking up a hill, which never happened before. Sometimes by evening I feel a sort of heaviness in my chest. It is more annoying than anything else, the knowledge that I have probably done this to myself.
It doesn’t matter how we carelessly toss it off as not being dangerous; in most cases, the problems caused by smoking will make themselves known at some point.
One of the things which my generation, wrongly, thought was “look at Uncle Albert – he smoked since he was 10 and lived to be 90”.
Well, yes, maybe he did, but most of his friends were long dead, and good old uncle had looked and sounded a wheezy 90 since he was in his 50s. Those Uncle Alberts, who we used as the great excuse for smoking, were not really examples of great living, just long living.
Life is by no means all misery and, after such a long time smoking, it was silly of me to expect that my health would not be in any way impaired. I am still, according to the incredibly thorough French medical tests, in very good shape overall and the condition is manageable.
Okay, I am not great at running up hills but I have been horseriding again, my favourite sport.
I will continue to tell anyone who really wants to, especially younger people, that you should and you can quit smoking anytime, overnight, without help from any source, saving yourself money. That brings me to the financial good news.
Up to €200 extra in the purse each month is the gain. Is that not a nice round sum to play with, a pretty decent figure that could be either saved up for a week in Paris, or used every month to treat yourself and a loved one to something special?
Is there anyone out there who still really wants to continue smoking, who maybe sees it as cool, although that day has long gone? Can there be anyone left who still has difficulty understanding the health issues?
If that doesn’t get you, who could not be pleased, in these extraordinary recessionary times, to have a couple of hundred euro extra each month, as well as all the other benefits of stopping smoking?