My Grandfather
It happened long ago, before I was even two years old. My grandfather on my fathers side had been diagnosed with lung and throat cancer. He had been a smoker since "the age before rocks began to form" (or that is what my father tells me he use to say). He would sit and smoke from sun up to sun down, and his taste buds were so distorted from all the smoking that he would put mountains of salt on his food which caused his blood pressure to raise. On top of all that, he had type II diabetes which didn't help his cancer and the progression at the rapid rates. He was the most influential man in my father's life, that it helped him form his nonsmoking ways because my father wanted to be around when his girls started to have the grandchildren. The only memory that I can recall of my grandfather is going in to a hospital room and seeing all the IV's hooked up to all these big machines.
It has been almost a quarter of a century since my grandfather's death. It pains me to see my Uncle Butch going through the same self destructive patterns that his father had went through. He has been smoking, chewing tobacco, and drinking brandy for much of his life. My uncles and my father all received the gene of type II diabetes. Butch doesn't take care of the diabetes part of his health -- he takes his medication when he "remembers" and that doesn't seem like it happens very often. On top of it all his doctor has him on some medications that my family agrees he doesn't need to be on because he has never had any of the drug addictions that are associated with that drug he is prescribed. I think that the doctor that is treating him is killing him faster. No matter how much we beg him to go see another doctor because the one he has is quack he doesn't listen. He just doesn't listen, he has suffered more heart attacks and been in and out of the hospitals more times then I care to count. It pains me that he is just slowing killing himself willingly and not putting up a fight. I know that I don't want to go down that road and do it to my family. This story I will pass down to my children and grandchildren, and teach them the benefits of not smoking.
It has been almost a quarter of a century since my grandfather's death. It pains me to see my Uncle Butch going through the same self destructive patterns that his father had went through. He has been smoking, chewing tobacco, and drinking brandy for much of his life. My uncles and my father all received the gene of type II diabetes. Butch doesn't take care of the diabetes part of his health -- he takes his medication when he "remembers" and that doesn't seem like it happens very often. On top of it all his doctor has him on some medications that my family agrees he doesn't need to be on because he has never had any of the drug addictions that are associated with that drug he is prescribed. I think that the doctor that is treating him is killing him faster. No matter how much we beg him to go see another doctor because the one he has is quack he doesn't listen. He just doesn't listen, he has suffered more heart attacks and been in and out of the hospitals more times then I care to count. It pains me that he is just slowing killing himself willingly and not putting up a fight. I know that I don't want to go down that road and do it to my family. This story I will pass down to my children and grandchildren, and teach them the benefits of not smoking.
