SEQUIM — Emphysema is draining the life from 69-year-old Karl Gahn, but the pain of his illness pales in comparison to the loneliness he feels.

A lifetime of smoking 2 to 3 packs of cigarettes daily has left Gahn hooked to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day.

“I”m shot,” Gahn says matter of factly. Although taller than 6 feet, Gahn is little more than skin and bone, his muscle tone eroded from prolonged inactivity.

The shades in his Prairie Street apartment were closed tightly Thursday in an effort to stay cool as the thermometer skyrocketed toward 80 degrees.

Gahn sat at a table between the kitchen and living room of his small apartment. The table is his nest and it’s filled with the items comprising his life. An envelope is his emergency phone book, with numbers for ambulances, hospitals, social services.

A pack of long Winston cigarettes and a lighter sits nearby.

“I smoke five or six a day, they are the last enjoyment I’ve got and I’m not going to give them up,” Gahn says without defiance.

The cigarettes are Gahn’s Catch-22.

He knows he shouldn’t smoke because he’s ill; he doesn’t think he has the willpower to quit on his own; he’s not sick enough to be placed in a nursing home where he wouldn’t be able to smoke; his illness has left him homebound; and he doesn’t want to give up the habit, which he feels is his last bit of independence.

Before his emphysema got so bad he had to be on oxygen all of the time, Gahn socialized at least a little bit with his neighbors. That took the edge off his lonliness, he said.

“It’s too much trouble to hook the (portable) tank, so I just stay here,” Gahn says.

The effort of speaking a full sentence leaves him fighting to regain his breath.

“I don’t have any stamina left,” Gahn says.

The eight-year Sequim resident thought he was on the way to a healthier lifestyle when he had to go to the hospital two weeks ago.

After a four-day stay, he was released to Olympic Care & Rehabilitation Center in Sequim, where he figured he’d be able to kick the cigarette habit.

Within days of his arrival he got a letter from Medicare officials congratulating him on his improved health and telling him his stay wouldn’t be covered by the federal health insurance program. He couldn’t afford the price on his own, so he left.

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The rest of this story appears in the Monday Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.