Smoking for decades and lung cancer can bring a lot of laughs, especially after a surgeon cuts into your chest to remove a good part of your left lung. During a teleconference yesterday I got a full report of what happened to me after my surgery.

After my lobectomy what was left of my left lung collapsed in the ICU. Some great medical help got me back into the pink and I was eating OK out of the ICU to regain strength. Medication caused both sets of intestines to shut down. I was puking and gasping for breath at the same time. I was loaded up with oxygen while the gastro specialists came on the run to save my old ass.

A tube was run through my nose to get into my guts and suction out everything that was in my upper and lower intestines. That trick worked and as I lay in a hospital bed I watched my shit flow through a clear tube out of my nose into a "disposal unit". It took a day and a half with no breaks for a cigarette.

My insides started to function again and great nursing care around the clock got me into a favorable prognosis. I was pulling two to six litres of oxygen per minute to stay alive. I am grateful for the care I received.

You do not want lung cancer and you certainly don't want to smoke. I was lucky in that my cancer had not spread beyond one lung and the surrounding lymph nodes but I am on notice that the C-devil will always be lurking within me from all the years of smoking.

I paid a terrible price to buy some more time above ground and I'm OK with that deal. If not for superb free health care as a veteran from the VA I could be dead now with my wife buried in medical bills. I was lucky in that regard.

The message here is to take care of yourself as you age and by golly you can shit through your nose.

Your message is well received. Out of all the vices I believe cigarettes to be the worst. The addiction is so hard to kick, the damage to the health so insidious, yet it was presented as some sort of positive thing to generations. Really a dirty game but the marketeers of the 20th century - top blame to Edward Berneys who really engineered much of the original cigarette marketing.

Larry, i'm so glad that your feeling better. and hope that you continue to do so. I know that it's you're, but I just wanted to keep you on your toes.