Enphyseamia/Smoking

Vicky123

My husband gave up smoking 5 yrs ago, he was a very heavy smoker and had the hallmark cough.
Anyway smoking nurse said in the absence of cancer his lungs would improve and any other effects would not go away but would not get any worse.
Thing is his breathing is very much worse over the past 5 yrs, cough has gone completely and lung x-ray is normal.
Reading about COPD [I worry for Britain] it appears this is a condition that gets worse and wondering if chest X-RAY being clear means he doesn't have that and is perhaps just suffering from weight gain due to giving up smoking.
Why do the nurses at the smoking clinic say that lung conditions other than cancer will not get any worse when it seems COPD does get worse.
He isn't disabled and I'm hoping to keep him that way and have some peace of mind.

soolin

I've never understood that either. My darling MIL gave up smoking when she started to get breathless and her condition worsened to such an extent over a period of years that she was on the verge of needing oxygen in the house when she passed away (from a different problem)

She used to say to people who still smoked that it was not the lung cancer they needed to be afraid of it was emphysema as you had to live with that for years and years.

margaretclare

It is NOT foregone that a person inevitably puts on weight following smoking cessation. The two are not necessarily linked.

However, putting on weight can lead to breathlessness because with extra weight, everything is just so much more effort.

Maybe he needs to address the weight problem next?

Vicky123

In his case the weight gain is linked and he is now quite overweight.
Having said that Iv'e seen lots of bigger people than him who don't struggle with breathing.
I was wondering though if a clear X-Ray means no COPD in which case a diet will be very much in order, no point swapping one major health risk for another.

Oldernotwiser

COPD gets worst because every time you get a cold or flu that leads to a lung infection you are likely to lose more lung function. That's why people with COPD need to have flu and pneumonia vaccinations and be careful to avoid catching anything.

[Deleted User]

Vicky123 wrote: »

In his case the weight gain is linked and he is now quite overweight.
Having said that Iv'e seen lots of bigger people than him who don't struggle with breathing.
I was wondering though if a clear X-Ray means no COPD in which case a diet will be very much in order, no point swapping one major health risk for another.

Apart from xrays has he had his breathing function tested(where you blow into a machine contected to a computer)as i understand it this would identify copd and its severity.
does he use an inhaler that might improve his breathing?

krisskross

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

COPD gets worst because every time you get a cold or flu that leads to a lung infection you are likely to lose more lung function. That's why people with COPD need to have flu and pneumonia vaccinations and be careful to avoid catching anything.

Agree. I get really cross with the GPs when they don't treat his chest infections aggressively enough.

Vicky123

woodbine wrote: »

Apart from xrays has he had his breathing function tested(where you blow into a machine contected to a computer)as i understand it this would identify copd and its severity.
does he use an inhaler that might improve his breathing?

No, he was supposed to go to the G.P. for the blowing into the machine but decided as the X-Ray was normal then he must be fine, I'm not sure this is true but then again would an X-Ray not show any abnormalities?
I suppose my worry is that he isn't helping himself by just ignoring then again I may just be worrying needlessly because this has happened after giving up smoking and putting on weight.

Bryando

I smoke 60 a day and I'm 24, smoked since 16. I have a cough all the time, I have the 'smokers cough.. I'm fed up with doc saying chest infection. However advised to get looked at for COPD by the lung foundation. Yet nothing appears to happen

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

If the Smoking Cessation people said 'you've probably beggared up any chance of a normal healthy life now you've been doing this for so long', I would imagine that a heck of a lot more people would said 'oh well, if it's too late, I just won't bother then' and end up more seriously ill than they would have done if they had given up.

Sadly, for some people - I'm not saying this is the case with your OH! - by the time they get around to stopping smoking, they've already destroyed the alveoli essential for getting oxygen from the air into their blood, or the cellular changes have already started for cancer, and it is sadly too late for them. But because you just do not know whether the next cigarette is the one that is the tipping point, or the hundredth one after that, it is still always better to encourage everyone to give up.

FIL gave up smoking at the age of 58 after being diagnosed with emphysema. Had he continued to smoke, he would probably have died within the following 12 months. As it was, he was gone at 62, but at least there were four more years with the family before he just keeled over one day from heart failure and a chest infection, both of which had not been seen on x-ray 21 days previously.

He really needs to continue with the doctor's investigations, there could be any number of things causing his breathlessness which wouldn't show up on an x-ray - heart problems, kidney problems, allergies, anything. As smoking reduces the sensitivity of the lungs to pollutants or allergies, giving up can mean that they react for the first time ever, too.

Tell him you'll send me down to give him a boot up the bottom if he still refuses to see the doc!

Oldernotwiser

Vicky123 wrote: »

No, he was supposed to go to the G.P. for the blowing into the machine but decided as the X-Ray was normal then he must be fine, I'm not sure this is true but then again would an X-Ray not show any abnormalities?
I suppose my worry is that he isn't helping himself by just ignoring then again I may just be worrying needlessly because this has happened after giving up smoking and putting on weight.

X rays aren't the usual way of diagnosing COPD; he needs to go into his GP for a spirometry test.