I’m a smoker (yeah, whatever), so I frequently cough up lung cookies. I have learned it’s best to always cover my mouth when I cough, but I sometimes find myself without a tissue or anything handy to dispose of the cookie. Like if you’re talking to someone and the cookie cough comes unexpectedly. So now you’ve got a little greenish yellow gook in your hand. What do you do with it? Do you casually wipe it on the bottom of the chair or do you nonchalantly eat it before lowering your hand?
There’s nothing dangerous about eating lung cookies, is there? It seems to be the most efficient way of dealing with them… It’s not like I eat snot or anything. Well, at least not the snot that comes outta my nose…anymore…
I’ve never heard the term “lung cookies” before. Is it just a big ol’ gob of flem from the back of your throat, or something else entirely?
I’m allergic to our cats, so if I forget to take my alavert or flonase, I frequently wake up with these big gobs of flem. How could you swallow them? I don’t think it’s especially gross, but it feels so right to get that stuff out of your system.
Find a sink, or a cup, or a wastebasket. Get rid of it.
Nice to meet you! I’m a smoker too and it seems like we’re a dying breed.
Although I had never before heard the term lung cookie before, I can appreciate what you mean.
Seeing as how a ‘lung cookie’ is nothing but a ball of phlegm, it’s of course safe to swallow, although I wouldn’t want to swallow anyone else’s. I prefer the ‘wash the hands’ method of removal or the good ol’ ‘wipe hands with tissue’ if I’m not near a sink. If neither is available, I of course surrender to the ‘wipe hands on nearest piece of cloth’ method. It doesn’t really matter who the cloth belongs to, either. Just get it done before you shake hands with somebody.
Geesh, I’ve been smoking for YEARS, we’re talking almost 25 now, and I’ve never hacked up a lung cookie. Maybe I’m hoarding them???
How long have you been smoking?
[Health Movie] Think smoking is cool? Guess again. More people die from smoking then breast cancer, murder, and illegal drugs combinded. [/Health Movie]
No wonder you are a dying breed.
Sorry, those health movies stick with you.
Note: That smoking thing about how it kills more then cancer and so on combined, might have been from another movie. Maybe drunk driving. Anyway, its like that so REMEMBER IT. Or watch the “Teen Files” movie about smoking.
Well, flamingbananas beat me to it, but this line is too good to pass up. Smokers are a dying breed two ways: One, people are wising up and not starting in the first place; Two, those who keep doing it most often shuffle off this mortal coil way too early.
I was very fortunate and I was able to quit after smoking for a long time and I regard it as one of the major blessings of my life. One of the reasons is that I found out you body’s cells renew and replace themselves constantly, with all of them being replaced at least once every seven years…so by quitting before serious damage is done, your lungs will eventually be all pink and healthy again and you’ll no longer have to worry about “lung cookies.”
I was wondering how long it would take until a healthy person came into this thread. There they are; **Starving Artist & flamingbananas **. Thanks for your wisdom. Eve & Cervaise Thanks for the guffaws.
Cinnamon Girl I don’t know if you’re into do-it-yourself’ing, but I bet they make a good wallpaper glue.
I’ve often heard smokers hacking and coughing, but until this post I had no idea they were actually tossing this insanely vile shit up out of their lungs. There are literally no words to describe how amazingly repellent this concept is.
[Squeezes eyes shut and shudders]Brrrrrrr… [/Squeezes eyes shut and shudders]
As a definite non-smoker (never smoked any tobacco products in my life), I will say that coughing up lung butter/cookies happens to me too. Not that often, but it definitely does. It’s bad when it gets on your hand; then you just hope that nobody’s looking or you wait for the other person to get distracted and wipe! Wipe I say! Wipe even if you’re not sure if there’s anything there, 'cause looking at your hand after you cough noisily is the best way to be detected. If you’re outside, then just wait a suitable interval, just long enough so nobody can link the cough to anything, and then spit it out.
Eating the cookie, while probably not unhealthy, seems to be doing exactly the opposite of what your body wants you to do.
I’m ashamed to say, since I was 14 (I’m 33), though I stopped twice for extended periods surrounding both of my pregnancies. Kicked myself for starting back up. I’m very close to stopping again though. Hopefully, for good this time. It should be interesting to see how long it takes before the cookies stop. They’ve been coming up for at least the past couple of years.
Lung butter. I like it even better. I got ‘lung cookies’ from my husband who got it from someone in the Navy. I always just called them ‘lung boogies’ or ‘loogies’ before but his term sounds so much more fun.
And thank you so much flamingbanana and Starving Artist. By golly, no one has ever told me this news before. You two really are committed to fighting ignorance, huh? Here’s a tip for you. Don’t waste your pristine breath preaching to an addict. Nobody quits without wanting to quit on their own terms. :rolleyes:
Eve, bwaaahaaaahaaaa! Shall I send them to flamingbanana, Starving Artist and SP2263 with a little card that reads, “EAT ME! EAT ME! You know you want to!”?
Gum, I’m a bit concerned about the efficacy of such a glue. How many years to you think it would last? Would I need some sort of special solvent if I wanted to change the paper later? And d’ya think I might get some kind of aneurism trying to cough up enough cookies to do a small bedroom? Maybe I should just have a big party and invite all my friends to cough all over the paper. Wanna come?
So sorry for giving a shit about you! From your original post, you sounded like a fairly sweet, naive girl who could use a little motivation and not the leathered up old trailer park maven that you now appear to be. I would believe it would go without saying that an addict would have to struggle to quit. I did, 3 or 4 times a year for all but the first few years of the 21 years I smoked. But I finally did quit, fortunately for me. As for you, hack till you cough up your lungs up. I couldn’t give less of a shit.
My allergies have been overpowering lately. Lots of kleenex, coughing and sneezing. At lunch the other day in the cafeteria at work, I sneezed, rather powerfully and unexpectedly, and launched a gob of phlegm a good 6 feet (I turned my head cause I was putting sandwich together, OK?). I never felt so embarassed and lucky at the same time. I didn’t hit anyone, but what if I had? I used a napkin to clean it up.
As to the OP, ick. Ick ick ick. Gross. Yech. And this from a guy who just spit phlegm 6 feet, at work, in front of people.
From my days when I used to smoke I’d recommend that you try taking some NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine). This will help loosen fleam and as I understand it, is commonly used for people who have cystic fibrosis (where the lungs accumulate excessive fleam). This supplement is available in most health food stores or on the net. Check around because prices vary a lot. My favorite source for mail order supplements is: Beyond-A-Century where you can get this as a powder (cheap!) or as capsules (more expensive).
You can also carry around a bottle of expectorant cough medicine, which again will help bring the fleam up, perhaps in a more controlled, less embarrassing place (like when you are alone).
Really though, if you have a regular smoker’s cough and are getting as much fleam as it sounds like, then you really should consider stopping sooner rather than later. Something ain’t right.
Lung butter. I like it even better. I got ‘lung cookies’ from my husband who got it from someone in the Navy. I always just called them ‘lung boogies’ or ‘loogies’ before but his term sounds so much more fun.