Posted by Paul on 22/3/2012, 3:16 pm, in reply to "Re: IRL - 2-3 pack a day Hairdresser What brand?"
75.145.208.193
Thanks Alex,
Unfortunately, the chainsmoking hairdresser lady doesnt have any children yet, and actually may have some fertility problems which her doctors claim could be related to her heavy smoking.
On a seperate visit I had with her, she spoke rather candidly about how she had been very depressed because she had told by her doctor that she needed to cut back on her constant smoking but that she really didnt want to and was having a hard time even thinking about cutting back on smoking.
Although I was rather expecting her to tell me about some possible early onset emphesyma or some other lung damage related problem; she said that her doctor told her she may be at risk of cervical cancer if she doesnt quit smoking. Apparently she already has pre-cancerous lesions in her cervix, which they think may be caused by the intersection of the sexually transmitted disease HPV, which she said shes had since she was 15, and also her smoking is considered a big risk factor as well. I think the studies are not out yet to completely confirm the correlation from what she said, but apparently smoking increases a womans chance of cervical cancer by up to 300%; and can dramatically increase their chances if they started smoking at a very early age or if they are heavy smokers. In her case, since she said that she started smoking cigarettes every day by the time she turned 14, and that by the time she was 16 her mom was buying her packs of cigarettes and she was smoking about two packs a day; that seems to mean she'd fit that increased danger of cervical cancer risk profile fairly well.
Also, according to what she said the doctor told her, the earlier that girls have unprotected sex, the more likely they are to become exposed to a strain of HPV that can further increase their risk of cervical cancer. Since she told me that she has had the sexually transmitted disease HPV since she was 15, I suppose its safe to say that she was having unprotected sex early enough in her teenage years to further put her in that risk catagory.
She was very emotional while telling me some of this, and actually in part she may have only been telling me because Ive known her for a while, not only as a hairdresser but also because I had previously had a very long term relationship with her younger cousin who I dated for many years, and am still friends with today. But she went on to tell me that she has already had a cold-cone biopsy done to try and remove the pre-cancerous lesions from her cervix, and that in and of itself has a risk of making it harder for her to get pregnant, depending on how it heals. She also said that her doctor advised her that she needed to get off birth control pills to let her hormones stablize so they can get more accurate readings for verious tests they want to do. She said she felt weird not being on birth control after having been on it for twenty years. I had to admit, I was rather suprised when she said that, and I asked "wait you've been on birth control since you were 12?" and she said "yes, but not any more." She said that her doctor also told her that some medical researchers are also speculating that the younger that girls get on birth control hormones, particularly if they are on strong doses of birth control hormones, that they can have dramatically increased risk of cervical cancer in their 30s. Again, that seems like shes fit another risk factor for cervical cancer.
As I have worked in the medical field previously, I also asked her if she had any family history of cancer, and she replied that both of her grandmothers died from lung cancer, one of her grandmothers just died a few years ago was about 56 yrs old and the other grandmothers had died from lung cancer a long time ago at the age of 46. She then curiously added the comment that they of course were heavy smokers and knew the risks, but still choose to keep smokingsmoke anyways. She also said that her mother, who turns 48 years old later this year and smokes three packs a day, has been screened for lung cancer and is negative, but has been diagnosed with early stage emphesyma. She joked that her mother almost laughed when she heard she was diagnosed with emphesyma, and that she said she was suprised it had taken this long and that if the doctor was done she wanted to go outside for a cigarette break. I was utterly impressed at that ministory and even said her mom sounded like a cool lady and my kinda gal, and she somewhat playfully kidded back that I better not get too frisky with her mom or else thatd make me a motherFer, which we both laughed at.
But then the cute hairdresser lady turned her story back to a more serious note and said that she had planned on trying to quit smoking for a new years resolution to follow her doctors advice and had a big party where she and her friends and family would drink and smoke all they liked, like one last hurrah before she made an attempt at quitting, and said she never remembered smoking so much in her life and that it was quit possible that she smoked 4 packs of cigarettes on new years eve; which I commented was impressive in and of itself. She said thanks, but that the next day although her throat was sore, she didn't last more than 4 hours without breaking down and needing to have a cigarette. She said she kept trying to fight it for a few more days, and that she could barely get by smoking only 1 pack a day, because the nicotine withdrawals were so bad. She said she was almost embarassed by how badly she was addicted to cigarettes, because she said she didn't even last four days of smoking one pack a day before she gave in to her urges and got back to smoking at least two packs a day, maybe two and a half or three packs a day on the weekends or holidays. She had even commented that those four days when she was only smoking one pack a day was the least she remembered smoking since she started smoking two packs a day when she was 16.
She said that after her cervical biopsy the OBGYN doctors were going to go back in and take a look this summer to see if the lesions had returned, and if so, particularly if they were still looking like they may be precancerous she would have to either: have a hysterectomy and have her uterus and cervix surgically removed rendering her permanently incapable of having children at age 32, or just postpone having the hysterectomy until it potentially develops into full blown cervical cancer.
She said she was very worried about the fact that shes only 32 and may already have cervical cancer, and that shes been so stressed out about it lately that shes been chain smoking even more than usual, frequently having to open that third pack of cigarettes more often than not.
The sweet hairdresser girl said she was very upset about everything because she really did want to have kids someday, just that she had never met the right man worth marrying. She said she was afraid that if she had a hysterectomy at 32 that not only would she feel like a failure at life because she can't have kids anymore, but also that shes afraid no man would want to marry her if she cant have children. I told her that there would probably be plenty of guys out there who would love to marry a girl just like her, whether or not she could have children, but she seemed to have her doubts.
Seriously though, Ive never understood why no one ever married her. Shes very cute, and very short only about 5 ft tall, and very curvy with a suprisingly large breasts, and she has very fair skin, piercing light blue eyes and long blonde hair, that she often has a streak of dyed pink or blue, just for fun. Besides being a devoted chainsmoker, her personality is quirky to say the least. Shes like a little bit of country-girl hairdresser who apparently hid her nerdy tendancies in back in school by trying to be the badgirl, who was always dating much older guys, smoking cigarettes all the time, and generally being a party girl as a teenager, who spent some time dating and riding around with biker dudes and has since settled down into her job as a hairdresser living alone in a house she inherited from her grandmother who died from lung cancer a few years ago. She tends to dress very cute, with low-cut blouses or flattering tight fitting sweaters that show off her bust, almost always with jeans that look flatering for her curvy figure, and she usually wears some spunky type of ballet flats without socks almost year round. Ive seen her in high heels and jeans once or twice when she was planning on going out after work, but thats fairly uncommon since she does have to work on her feet all day.
One other comment of note, she has commented before that since she has to stand up cutting hair all day, that she still finds herself getting winded sometimes just standing for so long. She said outright that she thought she may have diminshed lung capacity from her constant smoking, because she can barely make it up a single flight of stairs without huffing and puffing and that one time she dated a guy who lived on the forth floor of of an apartment building and that shed usually be gasping for air by the time she got to third floor and would often times have to stop to catch her breath before finishing climbing the stairs. She said she knew it was awful to arrive at her boyfriends apartment wheezing and gasping for air only to then light up another cigarette without even thinking about it before she had even caught her breath; and that she was called out on that more than once. I asked if she'd ever been tested for early onset emphesyma and she said she hadn't but that since her mother has just recently been diagnosed, she had been thinking more about it since she finds herself getting winded almost as often as her mother. In fact, she said that about a month or so ago when she was recovering from her bad bronchitis/ walking pneumonia that she seems to get ever winter, that she had a long coughing fit around her mother, and that her mother commented that she sounded much worse than she (her mother) ever did at that age, and that she might want to get checked out to see if she doesn't in fact already have some kind of early onset emphesyema. Even after her mother told her that, she said that she didnt want to get tested for emphesyema, because she figured that they'd just tell her that she either had emphsyema in her early 30s or was going to have it soon if she didnt stop smoking, but that she didnt care and that she didnt want to stop smoking and was tired of people telling her she needed to. I told her I admired her "independant spirit" and that she should feel free to smoke as much as she wanted to without having to listen to other people tell her different.
I could only imagine how spoiled her exboyfriend was to have his cute chainsmoking hairdresser girlfriend arrive, no doubt smelling like an ashtray, while wheezing and gasping for air as her poor lungs gave out while she tried to climb three flights of stairs with a cigarette in hand.
How that guy didnt try to marry her is beyond me.
Id think shes be a great mother, if she were ever able to get pregnant before she has to have a hysterectomy. I also suspect that since her mother not only let her smoke when she was 16, but in fact bought her cigarettes, that shes more likely than not going to let her own daughters start smoking as soon as they are teenagers just like she did. I think she wants to have children bad enough to try to old off on the hysterectomy for at least a few more years if she can, even though it dramatically increases her risk of developing full blown cervical cancer.
Perhaps the only pity is that all of this is true, and there is in fact a very real possibility that this poor girl may never get the chance to be the kind of chainsmoking, loving mother that she herself had, and has no doubt long wanted to be.
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