Bosheep

Chronic bronchitis very often indicates lung cancer. No kidding. I have had chronic bronchitis for around 3 years - each fall I'd catch a cold and it would go straight to my chest and stay there for weeks - this would usually happen a couple times each year. Last fall they found out that I have lung cancer. I had just turned 40. They did a chest xray - doctor didn't see anything on it, but radiologist saw a small shadow...so they did a cat scan which showed it up real well - then a biopsy - end result - my bronchitis was lung cancer.

I didn't FEEL or look like I had lung cancer. I just had the bronchitis...Normally the doctors just give me anitibiotics for that and send me on - this time I got a young, inexperienced doctor who consulted his book about my bronchitis, and sent me for an xray..

The doctors tell me that my cancer had been there for a year or two already - by the time it shows up on xray, that's how old it is, at the youngest. It had started inside of me around the age of 38.

The lung cancer was in the very early stage and is the slow growing type PRAISE THE LORD!- it may have just laid there for another ten years or more before starting to grow bigger - I might have lived until 50 something, as the case with my uncle who died of lung cancer. I started smoking at age 13, ...27 years of smoking.

Right before I was diagnosed with lung cancer, I quit smoking. I've been quit now for about 9 months and am loving it. I LOVED my cigarettes and didn't want to quit - but I also wanted to live to be 50 at least, and raise my children. I used the patch to quit - I was amazed at how much easier it was to quit than I thought it would be - I had tried cold turkey before, and always failed within 30 minutes. My co-worker was the same way - didn't want to quit but family nagged her to quit and bought her the patches - so she used them to get them off her back, and found she could go without smoking - and now she's been quit for 3 years.

It is nice not to smoke. I had gotten to the point where I was lighting up every 15 or 20 minutes. It ruled my life. I LIVED for the moment at work when break time arrived, - then I'd RUN out so I could have a smoke break. On the way to work, I'd smoke as many cigarettes as I could..as soon as I left work I'd light up...

I couldn't stand to be in the grocery store because they wouldn't allow smoking there . By the time I'd get halfway through the store, I was itching for a cigarette.

Anytime I'd go to a meeting, it was only a short time before I'd be uncomfortable and wanting a cigarette. Any time I had to go in to the hospital, all I could think of was getting outside to get a cigarette. When I had my babies, I'd haul myself downstairs and outside to smoke - within an hour or so of giving birth - and a couple of my births were c-section! When I had my gallbladder taken out, I could hardly stand up I was so groggy, but found my way downstairs and outside to have a couple cigarettes. When I had kidney stones and couldn't leave the room in the hospital, I smoked in the hospital room anyway. That wasn't permitted, so I got several visits from hospital administrators warning me to not smoke in the hospital - but I continued to smoke in the room anyway until they let me go home.

When I gave birth to one of my babies here at home, I smoked through labor and right up until just a few minutes before delivery. Is this pathetic or what?

It's addiction. Everywhere I went, I had my cigarettes and lighter with me. I didn't walk from one room to the next in our house without taking my cigarettes and lighter with me. It was the first thing I did each morning, and the very last thing at night.

The patches were a major help in quitting. Still required some effort on my part, but at least it was do-able. The first day was the hardest - but by the time a month had passed, I had the not smoking thing down pretty good.

One month after I had quit smoking, I went in for lung surgery - they removed part of my right lung.

Nevertheless! Things have improved so much for me since I quit smoking!!! I can smell things I haven't been able to smell in a couple decades. I didn't realize my sense of smell had deteriorated so much - I thought it was fine. It has improved tremendously since I quit.

My sense of taste - I haven't eaten food that tasted this good since 1976!!! Incidentally, that's when I took up the nasty habit of smoking I think..

Back in December ( I quit smoking in late November) my lung function was 67%. It is now 97%!!! (and that's with part of one lung missing even). My breathing has improved a LOT since I quit.

Since I quit, I find that cigarette smoke literally stinks to high heaven. I can smell a smoker clear across the room - they have an odor on them that is very ugly and very strong - but they cannot smell it themselves. It stinks - it really and truly stinks. I cannot believe I smelled like that all the years I smoked - but I did. It is repulsive to smell now.

I teach at an elementary school. I can pick out the children who have smoking parents just by standing next to them - the children STINK just like their parents stink - I am so ashamed that I caused my own children to stink like that.

When I was a smoker, I used breath mints and gums, and lots of perfume - I was fairly certain nobody could know I was a smoker unless I told them. Fact is, not all of the mouthwash, toothpaste, breath mints, gum, and perfume in the world can hide that smell on a smoker.

After I quit, I noticed that my car really smelled bad - EWWWW. (But I couldn't smell it when I smoked!)So did my house. My house and car smell nice now - and they are so much cleaner. The windows and mirrors stay lots cleaner and require cleaning so much less. There isn't a yellow yucky film collecting on the computer monitor or the windows.

Most amazing of all - I have more energy and have a much better mood. Before I was so irritable and cranky - I thought the cigarettes helped me with stress - they were in reality CAUSING me to be irritable. I am so much calmer now - I think the best word to describe this is SERENE.

I love not being chained to cigarettes any more. I love not HAVING to have a cigarette. My hair smells pretty now - not nasty. My fingers aren't yellow. My skin color has improved so much -

IT's ALL GOOD. Trying to convince a smoker they want or need to smoke is the hardest part of the journey however.

I suggest you buy Mom a box of Nicoderm CQ and set her up an appointment to have a cat scan done of her chest. Chronic bronchitis IS a warning sign of lung cancer. Cat scan will show cancer in early stage when nothing will show up on xray.

Lung cancer, if caught early, is curable. Only 15% of lung cancer patients are diagnosed in the early stage. 85% are later stage, which usually means survival of only a few months or a year or so.

My cancer was very small, very early, and hadn't yet spread. The surgery got rid of it - and I don't have to have chemo or radiation - I am cancer free now.

Had I not been diagnosed until NOW or something this fall, it is quite possible it would have been too late.

I really and truly enjoy not smoking. I like the money too - I didn't realize just how much I DID spend on smoking.

It's not your mom's fault she smokes and is addicted to cigarettes. They addicted several generations of us - while we were but CHILDREN. We chose to smoke - we didn't choose to become addicts - we didn't realize that would happen. Shoot - I grew up in foster care and cigarettes were provided for us if we were age 12 or above!

Getting Mom to understand she has been victimized by big tobacco is difficult. I strongly recommend giving her patches and getting her in for a cat scan - and letting her know that you really love her a lot. She may respond to you with anger - but that is the addiction talking- there is still HER underneath and she will hear you, even if she doesn' acknowledge it.