What will it take for you to quit smoking? A lesson in tough love? We all read the warnings about smoking. Everyone knows that smoking is not good for us. I can tell you all of the facts that you may or may not already know:
Tobacco use leads to disease and disability.
· Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lung diseases (including emphysema, bronchitis, and chronic airway obstruction).
· For every person who dies from a smoking-related disease, 20 more people suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking.
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death.
· Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.
· In the United States, tobacco use is responsible for about one in five deaths annually (i.e., about 443,000 deaths per year, and an estimated 49,000 of these tobacco-related deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure).
· On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers
- Source: CDC website http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm
But what about the facts that you don’t hear about, or that you don’t want to hear about? If all of the facts and warnings don’t get you to change your behaviors, maybe a trip into reality will. I’m a registered nurse, and I tell you this because I want you to hear the reality of what your future could hold if you keep smoking. If you’re one of the fortunate ones to dodge cancer, your respiratory health will be poor. If you become ill and go into respiratory distress or failure, you’ll probably end up on a ventilator (a.k.a. breathing machine) in a critical care unit. You’ve all seen the pictures, but let me give you a vivid reality of what will happen. You’ll have difficulty breathing, you’ll be anxious, you’ll feel like your drowning, unable to breath. The hospital staff will sedate you, physician will tilt your head back and shove a large metal object to open your airway ((laryngoscope). A tube will be placed between your vocal cords and into your airway/trachea. You’ll then be hooked up to a breathing machine (ventilator). Another tube will then be placed down your throat and into your stomach (oral gastric tube-OGT). Your first reaction may be to pull that tube out, so your hands may end up restrained/tied down. You’ll have to have secretions suctioned out of your lungs and mouth. You’ll probably get another tube, a catheter placed to collect your urine. You’ll most likely be sedated, so you’ll be incontinent of your bowel movements, having to be cleaned around the clock. If you don’t improve, you could end up with either a tracheostomy (breathing tube in your neck), along with a feeding tube placed into your stomach, or your distraught loved ones may be sitting in the family room with a doctor discussing end of life options for you.
Picture yourself in the above scenario. Don’t say it won’t happen to you, because this happens to people every single day.
So if the warnings and facts you’ve seen about smoking so far don’t bother you, maybe these facts will.
For information on how to quit smoking, follow this link below:
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