Mercy,
I understand where you are coming from and yes, reading stories like this always make me wonder if it's too late too. I'm only 30, but was diagnosed with COPD when I was 28 years old. That's when I quit. Even now, when I get a cold, I keep the cough for 4 or 5 months. I don't cough as much now as I did when I smoked, but I know that the cough I do have was caused, at least in part, by my 11 years of smoking.
The hardest thing for me to deal with was that my dad's boss died of lung cancer at 56 years of age... but he quit 30 years prior. He quit when he was younger than me!
So yes, I understand where you are coming from. But we have to believe that by quitting, we are extending our lives. We HAVE to believe that! Otherwise, it's too easy to go back to the addiction. This addiction is too strong for us to allow ourselves to think that we can still get sick and die from a smoking-related illness. Otherwise, we will just go back to smoking because quitting won't do any good anyway. But that's not true! There are SO many other benefits of quitting, even other health-related benefits of quitting, that exist. Try to focus on those benefits as well. And since we can't preidct what will happen to us later, we just have to hold on to the thought that we are increasing the amount of time that we have left on this earth. We HAVE to.
Crave the Quit!
Pam
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B] 6/17/2005
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 643
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 16,098
[B]Amount Saved:[/B] $2655.59
[B]Life Gained:[/B]
[B]Days:[/B] 45 [B]Hrs:[/B] 20 [B]Mins:[/B] 1 [B]Seconds:[/B] 53