Enphyseamia/Smoking

seven-day-weekend

merlin68 wrote: »

I am 41 and have just been diagnosed with copd and a lung function of 50%, and I am still smoking. Yes i know it's stoopid, but I can't give up. I have known people to get it years after they have given up. Seven day, get a test done if your breathless as you could still have it.

I'm not breathless in normal everyday activities. I live half the year in a mountain village in Spain and the hills are really steep (being on the side of a mountain) and it is going up these that I get puffed, although I can go up them without stopping.

I willl mention it tomy GP when I'm next in the UK, just to be on the safe side.:)

Trazy

I have a friend who smokes but not sure how many a day. She keeps getting chest infections and has recently had two seperate bouts of pneumonia, both of which put her in hospital for a week.
She tells me the doctor has told her that to stop smoking would be too much of a shock for her body and she would be worse. I find this hard to believe.
Wish I knew of a way to help her
Trace

Oldernotwiser

Trazy wrote: »

She tells me the doctor has told her that to stop smoking would be too much of a shock for her body and she would be worse. I find this hard to believe.

So do I - put simply,she's lying!

soolin

Mankysteve wrote: »

Yeah and you keep telling yourself that.

That is exactly what my MIL used to say, she even quoted her sister who smoked 20 a day and lived until she was 93.

Then she got COPD, gave up straight away as she had a GP who sat her down and explained that this was going to make her vulnerable to all sorts of things and she would be unlikely to see her grandchidren grow up. However her COPD got worse and worse and she became depressed as she realised she had done this to herself and had spoilt her life. It got to the stage where at first she would come on holiday with us, but the COPD got so bad she couldn't fly anymore, so we started taking her for long weekends to country hotels, but she got worse and couldn't even walk along the corridors with the grandchildren running about as she lost her breath and got dizzy. Then she couldn't babysit as she wasn't sure she could manage the stairs if they were restless.

She became the most rabid anti smoker in the world, she would tell everyone and anyone that she saw with a cigarette to see what she had done to herself and beg them to stop.

She lived for 20 year slike that, alone in a house knowing she couldn't come and vists on a whim as she couldn't manage the train. She had to wait for people to go and visit her, she even at one point stopped drinking during the day as she worried about managing the stairs to the loo and the dehydration made her worse. On a bad day she would say thtat she would rather have got lung cancer and died quickly than linger like this as an invalid watching the world go by and not being able to join in.

We loved her and the one thing the she was able to do for her grandchildren was to show them why smoking was a bad idea. Having seen her in a chair crying because she had to miss yet another family event as her COPD was bad has meant that none of my sons has ever smoked.

margaretclare

hermanmunster wrote: »

The only thing that ever really stops people smoking is the pain of their first heart attack.
they will keep smoking even with their legs dropping off and when they are blue without oxygen.


It is very easy to spot smokers - however the cracker is when you ask people how many they smoke and they say " oh I don't smoke doctor", - so when did you give up? "this morning".

No, in fact having his first heart attack at age 38 when he was a young dad with everything to live for did not stop my first husband smoking. As I wrote earlier, it did not scare him enough. I don't know what would have scared him enough. I don't think there was anything that could have done. Even after he started to have strokes he didn't stop entirely, although he didn't smoke in my presence - but I know darned well that he smoked the minute I'd gone to work.

margaretclare

Trazy wrote: »

I have a friend who smokes but not sure how many a day. She keeps getting chest infections and has recently had two separate bouts of pneumonia, both of which put her in hospital for a week.
She tells me the doctor has told her that to stop smoking would be too much of a shock for her body and she would be worse. I find this hard to believe.
Wish I knew of a way to help her
Trace

You're right to disbelieve. I've worked with a lot of doctors, met a lot of doctors over the years. I have never met one who would say such a thing. 'Too much of a shock for her body' - how would that work? I don't understand.

I've stood by a doctor who was talking to a woman in a maternity ward. She was complaining about her cough, he told her that treating her cough while she still smoked was like calling the fire brigade while she was still pouring petrol on the fire.

Vicky123

Smokers are the absolute masters of "It wont happen to me" there is always some person they can allude to who beats the odds and therefore re-enforces the idea that life and death is all about fate, nothing to do with personal choice or responsibility.
Even if they do concede the health risk it becomes something to do some time in the future.
I really do admire those who succesfully kick the habit, they have to change their entire mindset to do it.

Fire_Fox

There have been scientific studies carried out on smoking (and addiction generally) to find out what motivates people to quit and what does not. In general fear is a pretty rubbish motivator, you need positive personal motivators and you need a practical plan how you are going to handle your triggers. The technique used by stop smoking specialists is called motivational interviewing, there are several good textbooks on this - I have these two
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Motivational-Interviewing-Health-Care-Applications/dp/1593856121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270639486&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Health-Behavior-Change-Mason-MSocSc/dp/0702031534/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1270639571&sr=1-1-fkmr1

These techniques are almost always used in conjunction with two forms of nicotine replacement therapy OR a tablet which stops the cravings. Using one-to-one or group counselling with medication DOES work if you are motivated (not willpower): I have seen people so addicted they wake in the night to smoke (!) quit relatively easily with the right support package. A lot of people swear by Allan Carr
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/014103940X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270639629&sr=1-1
But the specialists I trained with recommended Gillian Riley
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stop-Smoking-Stay-Stopped-Good/dp/0091917034/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270639672&sr=1-1

Vicky123

Positive re-enforcement is the absolute best way to change any behaviour and slightly off topic but applied behaviour analysis is the only intervention for autism that has scientific proof behind it and believe me if it works with that particular group it should in theory work with anyone.
Getting my husband to quit was all about being there for his children, children being healthier also, [second hand smoke] and money, this also helps with the negative things a smoker goes through, weak moments etc.
Changing behaviour requires positive thinking rather than negative, so I would agree 100% with firefox on this.

jennihen

Just had the sad news that a dear family friend passed last night after a long battle with lung cancer.
For her it was the second time. She had half a lung removed over 10 years ago. She was anti - smoking since then but it was too late and her family have watched her become unable to leave the house due to breathlessness.
She fought an amazing battle but it was her family who cared for her and a re now left to pick up the pieces.
All for the love of a cigareete.