My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

[deaduck]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

I had an uncle who smoked while on oxygen and he rationalized it so well he had you thinking you were just being stupid to think it was a bad thing.

Then you'd read the warning on the tank and snatch the cig out of his mouth.

[ODogg]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

deaduck, heh...well with my mom, when you bring up something she doesn't want to discuss she just goes silent. i really wish she'd try to rationalize it or argue or something but she won't, she just quits talking and gets this "who cares" look on her face. Makes me so angry. But as many have said here, until she wants to change there is not much anyone can do to help her.

[muggins]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

Unfortunately if she has smoked 2 packs a day for 40 years the damage is already done. It is all downhill from here. Quitting now will save those around her from the second hand smoke and maybe add a couple years on to her life, but her senior citizen life is not going to be a fun one and is going to cost taxpayers quite a lot.

I realize she's your mom and all, but I just don't have much compassion on this issue. Smoking is a dumb choice.

[Laffer]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

Unfortunately if she has smoked 2 packs a day for 40 years the damage is already done. It is all downhill from here. Quitting now will save those around her from the second hand smoke and maybe add a couple years on to her life, but her senior citizen life is not going to be a fun one and is going to cost taxpayers quite a lot.

A common misconception is that once diagnosed w/ COPD, the "damage is done". While this is somewhat true, the changes are irreversible, continuing to smoke will make her quality of life much worse. If she stops now, she will probably just need to be on oxygen the rest of her life, but if she continues to smoke, she'll very likely encounter heart failure, and need a lung transplant (which are incredibly high risk). So stopping now, would in fact, save her a ton of grief.

[ODogg]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

That's true, your quality of life can improve some if you cease to smoke and have physical therapy for lung excercises, my sister's grandmother had COPD and once she quit smoking and went to COPD therapy she got a bit better and was able to only use oxygen some of the time instead of all of the time. Anyways, here is what some woman on the internet wrote in response to how much worse your life can get if you keep smoking with COPD. I emailed this to my mom yesterday.

I will spell out to you what you have in your future.

For one, you will not be working very much longer and just using inhalers.

Next, You will need to add oxygen to that. Maybe that's when you will quit smoking.

If not you then can add a BIPAP machine to wear at night because your smoking now has destroyed enough of your lungs that they cannot now expel the CO2 build up in them.

This is probably about the same time you will have to quit working because you will not be able to carry enough oxygen to get you through a full day and I don't think they would like the noise of your concentrator you now have at your house running all the time in the library. You will not be able to walk around the library much as your lungs will not carry you far enough without stopping to rest many times. You also will not be able to lift or carry books. You will need to learn to walk carefully to avoid stepping on your oxygen that you must continuously wear.

This is probably close to the same time your doc is going to ask you to talk to a transplant doctor to see if you are going to qualify for a lung transplant and if you are still smoking then, you will not qualify because they don't give good lungs to someone who won't quit smoking. Wonder why??

This is probably the same time he will give you a guess of about how long you have to live without a lung transplant or a LVRS operation. If you don't know a LVRS is where they will go in and cut you open and remove part of your lungs that don't work to give the part that is left enough room to expand so you can breath. This is not a cure. There is no cure for emphysema! The LVRS operation is only a temporary fix, you will still need a lung transplant later on if you survive.

This is probably the same time your life has made a major change. You can no longer go out on hot days or very cold days because your lungs are not working. There isn't enough of them left from the smoking to keep you alive without oxygen support 24 hours a day. You can no longer wear perfume or be around any strong odors of any kind. You cannot eat large meals any more.
You have to eat 5 or 6 small meals because if you eat big meals your stomach puts pressure on your diaphragm and you can't breath. Also large meals take more oxygen to digest and you can start leaving out sweets and any kind of alcohol for the same reason. You need to stock up on some kind of moisturizer for your nasal passages because the constant flow of oxygen into them will dry them out and you will have daily nose bleeds even with the humidifier.

I do need to let you know of the benefits of continuing to smoke after you have already been diagnosed with COPD. You get to have a handicapped parking permit.
Oh sorry I said benefits...that was plural... as far as I know this is the only benefit.

This means you get to park close to the doors of some establishments IF and when you go out if you are able to do so. You will have your portable oxygen with you so it is going to be a lot of trouble to go anywhere. You will find out even with a handicapped parking sticker you will bypass some stores because the parking places are not close enough to the doors and it is just too hot to walk the 40 or 50 feet from your vehicle to the door.

Oh yea, you will probably want to get a van instead of a car because it is really hard to bend over. You get short of breath bending over. You will also want to get one of those handy grabber thingies so you don't have to bend over and be sure and get shoes you don't have to tie. Velcro is better. Not very stylish but who cares now. You can't breath and that's all that matters. You don't care about impressing anyone anymore. You just want to breath.

You can forget hot showers or hot baths, you can't breath where there is steam. You will have to be super careful and not get a cold because with your lung condition it will probably turn to pneumonia and you will end up in the hospital a lot.

By this time you may have decided it is time to quit smoking. TOO LATE!

You get listed and find out the wait is 2 years and you wonder if you can wait that long. You can't breath now.

You have to quit now because you need the operation or your prognosis is 5 years or less.

You just found out you are going to have a new grandchild or you have just found out your best friend is having a baby and you are the godparent and you realize you will more than likely not see that child graduate.

You are only 57 and you realize how young you really are and you have so much living to do.
I just pretty well explained to you my life. I am 52 and waiting for a double lung transplant. I cherish every minute of every day. I did not quit smoking in time.

You have a better chance than I did. Quit now and start exercising and get on the right track with your life. You have a good chance to not get much worse IF you quit smoking right away!!!! You can keep your job and continue with your way of life and will likely not reach the stages I have.

[muggins]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

A common misconception is that once diagnosed w/ COPD, the "damage is done". While this is somewhat true, the changes are irreversible, continuing to smoke will make her quality of life much worse. If she stops now, she will probably just need to be on oxygen the rest of her life, but if she continues to smoke, she'll very likely encounter heart failure, and need a lung transplant (which are incredibly high risk). So stopping now, would in fact, save her a ton of grief.

Possibly, but that doesn't take into account the onset of likely some kind of cancer and emphysema. You don't see many smokers past age 65 who aren't totally debilitated, even if they do quit. 40 years of inhaling 24? cigarettes worth of smoke and carcinogens every day is REALLY BAD.

You might also want to play up how bad cigarette smokers usually look and smell, too.

[ODogg]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

mugginns, i told her once i would like her to shower and change her clothes before we went somewhere in my car and she got all offended. i told her it wasn't her that smelled bad, it was the cigarettes that smelled bad on her. i mean dude, she reeks of it. she can not even smoke and you feel like you're getting a nicotine high. it's terrible.

[ODogg]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

as I said, i think she uses my personal disdain of the smell and disgustingness of the habit to justify that is the only reason i want her to quit, to make my life better, which of course it would make my life slightly better when i'm with her, but as i've told her 1,000 times it has very little to do with that.

but in her mind i think she can filter out my requests to stop and write it off as just shaun being selfish because of my personal preference in regards to being anti-smoking.

[muggins]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

mugginns, i told her once i would like her to shower and change her clothes before we went somewhere in my car and she got all offended. i told her it wasn't her that smelled bad, it was the cigarettes that smelled bad on her. i mean dude, she reeks of it. she can not even smoke and you feel like you're getting a nicotine high. it's terrible.

Yeah there is a dude I work with who walks in the room and it makes me cough just from the smell

[ODogg]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

sounds like the guy i was behind in the liquor store line last week...i swear to god it smelled like he was actively smoking a cigarette right then but he wasn't...

[Jonesy]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

Just a quick story to show the power of nicotine addiction. With my work i often work with the elderly and i have a client who is in his late 60's who has smoked heavily for most of his life (he tells me he started at 14). His body is basically a wreck and he has emphysema and he had to have a tracheotomy and the dude still smokes through the hole in his neck.

His appointment with me usually takes about half an hour and he is smoking outside on a bench when i take him in and rushes outside to smoke as soon as we are finished. The guy reeks of smoke, has skin like a crinkled leather boot and has about 5 yellow teeth left in his head. Despite all of this being caused by the cigarettes he still smokes at least 2 packs a day.

[ODogg]

Re: My mom is on oxygen and is still smoking - while wearing her oxygen tubes!

That's crazy Jonesy. Simply mad. But then I guess once you get that far gone you are simply saying "well what difference does it make now?"

As for my mom, I visited her for an overnight visit last week and she really didn't smoke that much, like twice each day I was there. And she did not use oxygen. Who knows how much worse it is though when I'm not there but I was honestly happy with her only going out a couple of times compared to how she used to spend practically 80% of her time outside smoking.

So maybe there is some small reason to be optimistic. She's on Chantix now to try to quit and I'll have to check in with her and see how she's doing with that.