Husband in hospital christmas day

Tropez

I see someone mentioned it earlier but I would suggest checking with the nurses about why he can't have nicotine patches or NRT, and perhaps asking whether an electronic cigarette would be a better option?

They're still not "healthy" but I have to say I started using them a while back and feel much better for it. They're not as satisfying as a real cigarette when you first start using them but after a couple of days you get used to it. There's quite a few different ones on the market and I seem to recall there's even a thread on MSE about them somewhere with people giving their experiences which might be worth a search?

rachelhen

A big thank you to just about everyone who replied. I take the criticism on the chin but none of it is new to me.
I will take up some of the ideas put forward and Merry Christmas to everyone especially to those who are facing adversity. xxx

gunsandbanjos

rachelhen wrote: »

A big thank you to just about everyone who replied. I take the criticism on the chin but none of it is new to me.
I will take up some of the ideas put forward and Merry Christmas to everyone especially to those who are facing adversity. xxx

That's a lovely post given the bashing you've had in the thread. Good luck to you and your husband.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Why not take him in a warm cardie, socks and wheel him outside for twenty fags, one after the other?


At least he would be happy.


And if he actually survived doing this, perhaps he would feel ill enough to not continue a long, smelly and boring suicide.



If you are the person who would sneak an alcoholic a bottle of scotch in hospital, or a heroin addict a few wraps in rehab, or a diabetes sufferer a Snickers Bar, three Crunchies, a full sugar Coke and a tin of Quality Street because they like them, then by all means go ahead and take someone with a heart condition some fags.

And if they're in there due to obesity/high blood pressure/complications of diabetes, why not wheel them outside to scarf down Burger King or MacDonalds?



He's going to be miserable - he's an addict who can't get his fix. You could show up wearing nothing but a pink satin ribbon and a smile and he'll grumble about how much better it would have been if you'd brought some fags with you.


It's not criticism, it's a fact. He is an addict. Addicts aren't the best company when they can't get their own way. His addiction is in all probability going to kill him. And you, OP, as well.

Pennylane

A woman I know was in hospital for tests and then kept in for an op. She thought she'd only be in a few hours and when her family came that night she was in tears and very distressed.

She told them she'd got to have an op and they assumed that was why she was bawling here eyes out. She admitted to me afterwards that she was crying for her fags and she would have been more pleased to have one than all her family visiting. I thought she was very honest to admit that. It is a terrible addiction.

Actually just this morning it came home to me how bad I used to be. I was in the supermarket and people were buying literally 100's and 100's of fags. I never bought those big packets of fags but I used to buy a few extra packets each week before Xmas and hide them away in case I ran out or we got snowed in!:o

GlasweJen

I've just had a heart transplant and I'm getting out from 11 til 5 on christmas day. The only people in the unit not getting out are smokers because of the risks of smoking and oxygen bottles.

I do hope it's not his smoking that's stopping hi, getting out. Our ward is quite festive, a tree in the TV room and presents on bedside tables. My mum brought me in a holly plant, people have handed in chocolate and biscuits for the nurses and auxiliarys and the atmosphere is very festive considering everyone is seriously ill.

I am happy to go spend the holiday with my family but christmas in hospital is not the end of the world, as long as you leave better than you went in!

mrcow

GlasweJen wrote: »

I've just had a heart transplant and I'm getting out from 11 til 5 on christmas day. The only people in the unit not getting out are smokers because of the risks of smoking and oxygen bottles.

Hey - well done. I hope you and rachelhen's husband make a full and steady recovery. My dad had the op last year. It's a long road, and having supportive and loving people around you is important.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas. Christmas in hospital isn't where anyone would want to be. Take it easy and take care of yourselves.

Pennylane

GlasweJen wrote: »

I've just had a heart transplant and I'm getting out from 11 til 5 on christmas day. The only people in the unit not getting out are smokers because of the risks of smoking and oxygen bottles.

I do hope it's not his smoking that's stopping hi, getting out. Our ward is quite festive, a tree in the TV room and presents on bedside tables. My mum brought me in a holly plant, people have handed in chocolate and biscuits for the nurses and auxiliarys and the atmosphere is very festive considering everyone is seriously ill.

I am happy to go spend the holiday with my family but christmas in hospital is not the end of the world, as long as you leave better than you went in!

Excellent. Hope you have a great Xmas and much improved health in 2012.

RacyRed

Seanymph wrote: »

I drive a car, and have solar power - but that's irrelevant really isn't it. I still think that someone who is suffering from heart failure should be supported and encouraged to stop smoking rather than encouraged to 'sneak out' and have one.

My driving or not, the source of my homes electricity, really has no bearing on someone terminally ill who continues in the behaviour that caused the problem in the first place.

No one is saying it's easy, no one has abused the OP (or they would be moderated) but people, including myself, have opinionated that just because someone 'likes' something doesn't mean doing it unhindered is right.

Many people 'like' things - I like high sugar high fat foods - but if I indulged as much as I wanted I'd end up with diabetes.......... so I don't. I limit myself, I defer gratification, I weigh off my wants against what my body can stand and my long term health. My responsibility to myself, to my family, and to our health service for keeping myself as well as I'm able with the information I have.

I don't drink wheatgrass smoothies or anything on the other end of the scale........... but I gave up smoking 15 years ago when I was pregnant and I didn't buy the cream cakes I eyed up this morning at the supermarket.

The OP sees giving 'pleasure' to her OH as enabling his self destructive habit ............ for others to suggest that giving him pleasure in another way and encouraging not to self destruct is not 'having a go'. It's trying to enlighten.

Give him an apple. Tell him that if he eats it now it will taste of nothing - if he waits a year and doesn't smoke and buys one he will be amaazed that apples taste so strongly! It takes months for that to happen but it's worth it.

I wish I could agree with you Seanymph, but while childhood asthma is on the increase in our cities I'm afraid I really can't.

Picture a smoker walking past a school at the same time as an old, high pollution vehicle drives past. I'm using vehicle pollution as an example of the many ways in which our actions as individuals and as a society harm ourselves and others. Everything we do has an impact on ourselves and/or those around us. Who are we to judge the actions of others without looking first at ourselves?

What annoys me is the hounding of small sections of our society so that we can feel better about ourselves. It is hypocritical and, to be very blunt about it, a form of bullying. Someone came on here asking for advice about cheering up a hospital patient, mentioning that nicotine withdrawal was complicating the problem and just look what this thread turned into.

Errata

Someone came on here asking for advice about cheering up a hospital patient, mentioning that nicotine withdrawal was complicating the problem and just look what this thread turned into.

The smoking police getting their rocks off, it seemed to me.