Nicotine, a Death Warrant

Let me preface this post with an article my uncle had written about his daughter and it was ran in the Standard Examiner. I started this post a few weeks ago, but I never posted it, but tonight I am going to. Since I seem to be like so many that use their blogs as a way of journaling, I have decided to copy and paste this article onto my blog. This article, about his daughter, my cousin, was about a choice that she made in her life many many years ago.



Nicotine a death warrant for my daughter



Saturday, December 27, 2008 By KENNETH L. FARR Guest commentary



It was in April 2008, that Michele noticed quite a large lump forming in her neck by her collar bone. She went to her family doctor who ordered a biopsy taken and the results were not good. Michele was diagnosed has having small cell carcinoma (cancer) in her left lung. The cause? Smoking! The damnable addiction to nicotine -- the killer of men, women and children.
The day she was diagnosed with cancer, the received in the mail, a card from the Camel cigarette company, congratulating her on her use of their products and requesting she fill out a survey regarding the positive aspects of their products, and reward her with a free pack of smokes.
I took the survey card and wrote a very short message on it, and placed it in the mail box. I basically thanked them for giving my little girl a death warrant. There is nothing as cruel as learning your child has cancer.
The days and weeks following were occupied with tests, trips to the doctors, trips to the hospitals and a sense of complete despair. Though we dried to keep our spirits up, there is a constant sense of impending gloom, and urgency to try to get the answers we so hoped, and prayed for, that this too might pass.

She was administered too, following the religious rites and tenets of our religion. She was given Father's blessings and priesthood blessings. Her name is kept on the prayer roll at the temple.
Following the discovery of cancer, she was treated with chemo and radiation. This went on for some time. Then it went into remission, but the doctors told us it could travel into the brain, so they used radiation on her head.
The results of all the chemo and radiation caused her to be very ill; she suffers from bouts of vomiting and diarrhea, depression, many tears and anguish, and total feelings of malaise.
In November 2008, Michele's cancer had spread to her bones: spine, pelvis and hips. The pain is bad. Her doctor called in hospice to help with her care. They come to the home and deliver intravenous pain medication, set up scheduled care and relief for Michele. Her pain is uncontrollable and she, for the most part, is under the influence of strong pain control medication, including narcotics. When her medication is not able to control the pain she tries not to cry, but that is nearly impossible. On Dec. 21, we called Sandy, one of the hospice nurses and she came up to the house and increased the medication and slowly the pain became more manageable.
It is unbearable to see one of your children in so much pain and to realize that this was brought on because of the nasty addiction to nicotine. Surely there is a way to cause the cigarette people some semblance of pain their product has caused the "victims" and their families to suffer. This pain, created by the insidious, perverse control this drug has over the body, should be under the control of the FDA because of the deadly damage and harm that is implemented into the body and soul. There is no viable benefit that can excuse the damage done.
Michele has always had a desire to see her children grow into adulthood, to see her grandchildren -- she does not wish to leave her family. She is not ready to leave this life, but she cries out in pain that she can take no more and begs Heavenly Father to please release her from this cruelty.
It is so hard to see her in so much discomfort, yet it will be hard to lose her. She is part of our lives, she is our baby, she is part of our family and everything we have done or been involved in, has somehow centered around our family
When her time on earth is over and she returns to Father, she will be so missed. How do you say "good-bye?"
Kenneth L. Farr is a resident of Mountain Green.


My cousin passed away last night. I was there with her and saw the pain that she was in in that last and final hour. Cancer is a cruel way to die.
A few weeks ago we went to Body Worlds 3, and what an awesome experience that was to see inside the body. But what was really sad was to see the lungs of a smoker. If smokers could see what their lungs looked like would they continue to smoke? At Body Worlds, right next to the smokers lungs (and yes, they were real lungs of a smoker) they had a pledge box where you could make a pledge to quit smoking as well as placing your cigarettes into this same plexiglass container. I hope that those people who made pledges follow through with the pledge they made the day they signed a card to quit smoking. No family deserves to watch a loved one die from a cancer that could have been prevented.
I posed this question to Brent last night after I got home. Years ago, the tobacco industry glamorized the cigarette. Celebrities smoked, not only did you see pictures of them but they smoked publicly on television - talk shows, game shows... Well, fast foward to now and the tobacco industry is in trouble for knowing that cigarettes were harmful to your health and not doing anything about it to warn the public. Well, if we go back to that time when cigarettes were glamorized, if we were to go to, say Phillip Morris or any of the others who make or made cigarettes, and if we were to go to the Executive Officers of their companies, would we find that these Upper Level Management people smoked, or did they know the effects that cigarettes had on their health? Interesting question - if only one could be a fly on the wall to know the answer to that question.