Everyone has them.......PET PEEVES!

To be honest I do not really have that many but I do have one that has been more of a nuisance and something that really irritates me. Lets play a little game guess my pet peeve.  It has to do with the air that I breathe.  Well most importantly not just me but also my wife.  People are responsible for creating this in the air.  If you do contribute to this you have a habit/addiction.  Any guesses yet?

And the answer is.......Smoking of any kind is my pet peeve especially cigarettes. I am sure a lot of us in the CF community can relate to this pet peeve!!!  Over the last few months I have really noticed a lot of people smoking. Does anyone else notice this?  There have been many times that we have been driving around with the windows down sunroof open and then you stop at a stop light and BAM a nice whiff of cigarette smoke fills the air.  I hate this more than anything!!!  Maria will say to me “Hurry close the windows and sunroof and turn the A/C on with the recycled air filter!” I then let out my frustration about how people have to ruin it for others etc. etc.   

In the state that I live in you cannot smoke within so many feet of the door to any building. I am not sure exactly what the distance is though but it may be 10 feet.  Hmm Ok well for most of the smokers out there they do follow this rule. But there have been many times in the past few months we see a “nice” person standing right next to the entrance of a store getting that really last important breathe of smoke in. Really is it that necessary or important you need that last puff?  Of course we have had to walk through the door as these “nice” people are getting there last puff.  Can we say inconsiderate people. They made the 10 foot rule a law for a reason and yes it is a law. I have no idea how the law is enforced but there is a number you can call to report violations but what is the point!

When we are in this situation my wife will let her mind speak. She will say out loud “You are killing my baby or  that is just disgusting!”  The smokers never reply back ever. Maybe its because they know they are not suppose to be smoking that close to an entrance/exit of building or they have just accepted the fact that smoking is their habit and swallowed any of their pride.

As you can see smoking is my pet peeve and not just mine but Maria’s as well.  I think all of us with CF can understand this.  We have lungs that are already damaged just due to our illness.  We did not get to choose how healthy our lungs would be!!!  So who in the right mind with healthy lungs would want to smoke? Well you got me on this one. First off its so expensive and who would want to spend $5 on a pack of cigarettes a day? That is approximately $1800 a year if you smoke a pack a day!!!  So wait lets look at this you are paying money to destroy your lungs and shorten your life?!?!  Sounds like a truly NO BRAINER to me.

People give excuses for the habits they do everyday.  I have heard many excuses as to why an individual smokes but its just plain fact they are excuses.  Some of the excuses I have heard over the years for why people smoke….. “I smoke so I will not become fat, its just a habit I have, I started socially smoking so now I just continue to smoke, etc.” Ugh you people are killing me LITERALLY!  If for one day we CFers could choose to have healthy lungs we would all do it in a heartbeat. I just do not understand why smokers smoke in general.

I will leave you with this question and please tell me the answer to it is NO!!! At my clinic appointment I get asked this question once a year when we go over my airway clearance method and how often, which frequencies I use on the Vest, and how long I Vest for.   “ARE YOU A SMOKER OR IS ANYONE IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD A SMOKER?”  First off my answer to this question is “You got to be kidding me NO!!!!”  The respiratory therapist goes on to tell me “John, we do have patients that do smoke or they have a family member that lives with them who smokes!” WOW is all I can say! So  please tell me if you are a CFer and you answered yes to the previous question make sure you do yourself a favor and quit the smoking.  We already have damaged lungs!!!

Anyone else have any pet peeves they would like to share?