Got Lung?

Smoking has many effects on the body. For instance, it may start out with minor chest pains, some coughing that is quite different from the common cold, and even trouble breathing when doing normal exercise or activity. Sore throats and even sometimes laryngitis can develop from continuous smoking.

For my mom, that is how it started out. Waking during the night coughing, breathing heavy after walking up a flight of steps, and sore ribs from coughing so frequently. Finally, she had decided to be checked by a doctor, thinking she had a lung infection or possibly bronchitis, which tends to be a common infection among smokers. The bad news came a few days after her checkup, she had Chronic Pulmonary Obstructive Disease. This is a disease that has a combination of different factors involved in it. The disease includes, asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema.

Shortly after being diagnosed, she had begun smoking again, She started using inhalers to help her breath, nebulizers also known as a breathing treatment, prednisone or commonly known as steroids, to help strengthen her badly damaged lungs, and various antibiotics to rid her bronchial airways of infection.

Her daily activities began to suffer. She was no longer able to do her normal routine around the house. Cleaning, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, and even walking up steps became to much for her to do. The only thing she wanted to do was lay in bed and that is about all she could do.

Two years later, she was admitted to the hospital. This time her condition was much worse due to her continued smoking. The doctor advised her that if she did not quit she could or would die within three years. On her arrival home, we soon found out that she would not be able to breathe without oxygen. Which meant no matter where she was, no matter what she was doing, she would have to carry an oxygen tank with her. She then stopped going outside, embarrassed and depressed, for fear that if she