I just found out yesterday that my Dad has COPD, he's 60. I don't think my Dad wants to stop smoking so I'm just wondering if there is anyone on here that can tell me how much worse their condition has gotten and how quickly for not giving up the fags?
I'm going to try my best to encourage him on to the e-cigs but don't know how keen he will be. At the moment, he said his lung function is 60% I have no idea how bad this is but it doesn't sound great.
If anyone has any info or advice id massively appreciate it.
Thanks in advance x
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Kadey82
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Hi, the very first thing he has to do is STOP smoking, he is where he is because of cigs. I smoked for 47 years before i was diagnosed, gave up 12 days later with the help of nicotine gum then ecigs. I now hate the smell of cigs.
I have now not smoked for 2 years, never ever thought i would give them up but so pleased i did. I now feel healthier than i did 2 years ago.
Once he gives up he will immediately slow the progression, because it is a progressive disease.
Once he has given up he needs to change his diet to a healthy one and exercise regularly, the recommendation is 30 minutes per day even if it is just walking.
Do a search on Google for COPD diets, exercises plus the gold standards. 60% is stage 2.
You must stop smoking I had a brian bleed so had no choice I gave up 17 years ago and can't stand the smell of them. I do have copd and have been on oxygenfor the last 7years.
Hello Kady, we are all different so it depends on the person, but smoking certainly won't help. It may mean more chest infections, and shortness of breath. It can also lead to other problems but saying all of this I am sure your dad will come to realise smoking is no good for him. Hope he stops soon please keep posting we can support you both and please let us know how he is doing. Take care 😊 xx Bernadette
Hi Kadey. You are doing all you can. Your dad is the only one who can make the decision, so gentle persuasion is probably the way to go together with providing him with as much information as possible. A few hard facts for him to read might drive the point home.
Good luck....it's not easy, for either of you. XXX
Smoking is a no go i was told if i had not given up smoking i would have died years earlier ye some wih COPD still smoke it is up to the individual but my breathlessnes has improved
Hello Kadey82 . I'm sorry about your dad's diagnosis. My lung disease is not caused by smoking and so I can't give practical advice about smoking. I have heard it is very difficult to stop. But like Swerv and others halve said , it is for his benefit.
We have other members here who are carers or who have family members who are ill. Please do come here often if you feel comfortable. You will get good support.
Hi, my partner and I both have copd. I gave up smoking before being diagnosed and he is still smoking. It was one of the hardest things I've done. I so wish my partner would stop, but, I can't make him. He knows how much I worry about him and that he needs to stop. I did it with an e cigarette and am still using it, but cutting the nicotine down slowly. Good luck. x
I was about your Dad's age when I stopped smoking. I suffered from bronchitis (I don't think COPD had been invented then) and it was during a bad spell with that, that I stopped. It was easy because coughing made smoking difficult anyway. I'm 85 now. I don't know whether I'd still be here had I continued smoking, probably not.
My advice would be not to pressure your Dad, just tell him the facts and leave him to make his own mind up. If you can bring yourself to do it, start planning his funeral arrangements with him, ask him what he wants, in a gentle way of course. Smoking is enjoyable, I enjoyed it, but you have to get him to see what the end result will be. In my case that would have been the probable loss of 25 years of enjoyable life.
Hi I am approaching 60 I have never smoked and after having tests several years ago was told I had COPD from passive smoking and nearly no medical care for allergy asthma and bronchial asthma from being really young. It will be difficult for your dad to totally give up smoking because of the addiction but hopefully with your help he might cut down the cigs there are lots of products out there. Good luck
Reading some of the replies, I think you have got the message about how important it is for your Dad to stop smoking. To be honest I am the same age as your dad I was diagnosed two months ago. I was a smoker 20 a day for 40 years. I researched COPD and came to this conclusion.Exercise and diet are important but if he does not give smoking his outlook is not good. I do not know how he got is diagnosis but there are a lot of people on this site that would be more than happy to be at 60%. I smoked and my Christmas consisted of sucking on a oxygen mask fighting for air due to pneumonia! I did not know I had COPD until then. Your father if he gets a chest infection may go though the same thing and reach the same conclusion as me Stop Smoking! Each infection can eat away at the lungs and damage them further. Your father needs education fast on how to preserve that 60% and slow its progress. I am sorry to be blunt but HE not you must make those decisions.
Hi Kadey82 your dad is 5 years older than me I was diagnosed at the age of 42.
I didn't want to give up smoking I was petrified of never being able to light up a cigarette ever again, my daughter dragged me to the quit clinic you can still see the skid marks on the path.
I chose to stop with the help of champix its a tablet taken at night within 11 days I had stopped I continued to take the medication for a few weeks after and I haven't had a cigarette since.
For the first 3 years after my lung function stayed the same but after that 3rd year I got the flu which turned in to a chest infection you never fully recover after a chest infection so its important to exercise and eat healthy .
Had my daughter not taken me to the quit clinic and thank God she did I most defiantly been on oxygen might even be house bound.
I have 2 beautiful granddaughters that I'm able to be part of there life and do things with sadly my mom never got to see my granddaughters she died a year before they were born of COPD she never gave up smoking
If I'd stopped smoking when first diagnosed with COPD I wouldn't have to be on oxygen now!! I know how really hard it is to stop any addiction. The crazy thoughts like 'well the damage is done now so might as well keep going'. Nope, nope, nope. It get's very painful and very scary. At least try and get him to switch to e-cigs. Good luck. x
I stoped smoking in 1979 being on 60 cigs a day being told I had C>O>P>D .I had a bout 12 cigs in my glove compartment of my car and left them there I,m stuck with this copd but I wont ever return to smoking .
I'm sorry to read about your Dad. I started smoking when I was 13 because my mates did. I packed up when I was 29 when my son was born. My ex continued to smoke. I was diagnosed with COPD about five years ago, I'm 67 now coughing and spluttering short of breath. I'm on three inhalers, they help but I'm told COPD can't be cured.
Your Dad really has a choice, quit smoking or die not much of a choice I know but that's what it boils down to.
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