Your first cigaretteTo be honest, inhaling the fumes from some burning leaves isn't the most natural thing in the world.
Tell us about the first time. Where, when, and who were you trying to show off to?
Or, if you've never tried a cigarette, tell us something interesting on the subject of smoking.
Personally, I've never ever smoked a cigarette. Lung damage from pneumonia put me off.
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chthonic, Wed 19 Mar 2008, 18:49)
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A non-smoker myself, when I did care work I looked after lots of smokers.Many were dying of tobacco-related conditions, in varying degrees of pain. Most accepted their fate and it was no business of mine.
Some had to be taken outside for a fag. Carers who smoked would volunteer for this job so they could have an extra break but I sometimes did it.
I didn't mind as it entailed sitting in a garden or on a patio, enjoying an extra brew and 'supervising' one-legged or stroke-paralysed smokers from a comfortable distance.
One time, though, it all went wrong. I was at a place I'd never worked at before and when I was asked to take Mr X for a smoke, I agreed as usual.
However, this time the 'smoking area' was a small windowless room with a noisy fan, two chairs and a table, and Mr X was about 28, wheelchair-bound with a wasting illness. And a nasty temper.
He couldn't use his hands, in fact he was completely paralysed except for his face.
I had to get the fag out of the box, put it in his mouth, light it, let him take a puff and then remove it, hold it, put it back in his mouth, take it out, put it back and relight it as it had gone out...
It took me two goes to light it properly, not being a smoker myself, and I was no good at the rhythym of it - when to put it in, take it out, put it in the ashtray, put it back in...
All the while he kept up a stream of abuse about how useless I was and how he'd report me for deliberately sbotaging his only remaining pleasure.
I eventually pointed out that I could have refused to take him, not being a smoker myself, and I could leave at any time. And that anyway, I didn't give a shit about his threats and quite pitied him, really, if that was how he treated people who were trying to help him.
So that's the only fag I've ever 'smoked', if it counts, and the only witness is probably long dead, God bless him.
(, Sun 23 Mar 2008, 9:42, 1 reply)
lovely...please can you give me a hug when I'm down..... thats so harsh!!!! Although I do know its true... seeing as family are both residential care worker, and pyshiartric (secure) workers....
(, Mon 24 Mar 2008, 2:44, closed)
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