Funnily enough, I'm just back from the hospital. I had pneumonia in December, then it recurred just after Christmas. I had pain in my side, fever, was coughing blood. The second chest x-ray, the doc said he might send me for a cat scan, just to rule out anything "sinister". The shadow on my lung apparently could be interpreted as something "sinister", and it needed ruling out. Cue two week wait. Saw the doc today, gave me another chest x-ray, and told me it was clear, no shadow.
He still might send me for a catscan just to check there's no scarring to my lungs from the pneumonia, but I tell you, it scared the bejesus out of me.
I'm 44 and smoked from age 18 to 34. Used to smoke about 10 a day. I was constantly quitting, but when I finally did for good, cycling was one of the ways I could keep myself straight. I knew that I couldn;t really square the two.
I had always cycled as a kid and a teenager, but at 17 I went to college and got into music and partying and girls and all that, and dropped cycling for a few years (about 84 to 90), then the mountainbike boom happened, and I got back into bikes. I was an on/off smoker after that, but it kind of suited mountainbiking (mostly downhill - lots of beer and parties).
But then I was in Spain one summer, the hills around the Costa Brava, and I saw the road bikes out there, and the cyclists, and when I got home, I quit smoking for good and bought an expensive road bike (and a few other bikes beside that in the years that followed)
I was back on the road.
I still miss smoking sometimes (mainly if I'm drinking), but I'll not smoke again, esp after this spell with chest problems. It;s not worth it. I also miss my old man, who died of lung cancer a few years ago. Unfortunately, even though he'd quit for 4 years, he couldn't escape it. That's another reason I won't give the cigarette companies any more money.
Last edited by Gotte; 01-21-09 at 01:53 PM.