OT: I’ve spent the past couple of days having a serious battle with cigarette cravings. It seems the more I recover and the better I feel, the stronger the desire to smoke gets. It’s REALLY annoying.

As a matter of fact, yesterday I nearly caved: It was my first trip alone to the drug store, and all those cigarettes were just right there. Yeah, they’re stupid expensive (almost $9/pack in NJ), and I know starting to smoke again could seriously shorten my life or (worse) leave me disabled, but still the damned addiction is soooo strong (I smoked for 35+ years).

Anyway, I was feeling all twitchy & snarky over my deprivation, then I read the article below, which reminded me of the 19-year-old former cheerleader & friend/crush of A Mom Anon’s son who passed away just few days back from an aneurysm:

Arizona Twins Suffer Strokes at 26, Only Months Apart

Kathryn Tucker, a senior care coordinator for an Arizona insurance company, had just gone to bed when she felt a sharp pain the back of her head on the right side before her vision went out and she went numb.

Her brother was at her Chandler, Ariz., apartment and got her to the hospital where doctors at first dismissed her symptoms as a migraine with aura. But Tucker, only 26, was having a stroke.

“I was absolutely terrified,” said Tucker, who was sent home from the emergency room that day in July 2012 without medical intervention.

“I slept for three days straight,” she said. “Then, when I woke up, my vision was horrible. Everything was distorted and one-dimensional. I could barely get around.”

Her health deteriorated so she ended up going to an urgent care facility. From there, she was referred to a neurologist who diagnosed a stroke.

Nine months later to the day, her twin sister, Kimberly Tucker, suffered a stroke in exactly the same way, except on the left side. Kimberly Tucker had left school in Tucson to take care of her sister after her stroke. Then in April, their roles reversed. […]

Doctors say that lifestyle habits are linked to an increase in the incidence of strokes among young people. Kathryn Tucker was a smoker and had stopped using birth control just weeks before her stroke. She also was a migraine sufferer. […]

“Don’t think you are impervious to stroke,” said Kimberly Tucker, who is still undergoing therapy. “We think we are invincible until we are not. This taught us a huge lesson that we are not guaranteed great health and we need to take care of our bodies.” […]

That pretty much made the cravings evaporate.

Young lizards: Please, please, please mind your health—you may not feel the damage you’re doing to your body, but it’s there and will eventually bite you in the ass.

Older lizards: As long as you’re still kicking, it’s not too late to stop.

*climbs down from pulpit*

^{//Okay, okay, I’ll try not to get all preachy too often.}