Hi All
I was diagnosed with copd a couple of years ago and ignored it.Have recently been for a spirometry test and i am now at 36% lung function.has anyone given up smoking and felt better.i dont mean about improving lung function.just the feeling better in yourself.i know quite a few copd sufferers and they all still smoke as they felt worse when they gave up and just started again.
any advice would be helpful now it has sunk into my brain i actually have damaged myself with the fags
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I agree with Stitch a definite yes.
You will breathe easier and be able to achieve more, thus improving your quality of life. In the year's I've been diagnosed and in contact with others with COPD, those that continue to smoke after diagnosis always seem to deteriorate more quickly and have greater problems with breathing and their health generally.
Its empowering when you know you are no longer addicted or dependant on them. I've been clear coming up 8 years now.
Wishing you every success with becoming smoke free.
Hi ally,giving up smoking is the one single thing that will improve and lengthen your quality of life....I gave the old weed up 11 and a half years ago,and still was diagnosed with severe emphysema and bronchitis just 2 years ago.was told that as I had stopped smoking for so long before diagnosis my condition would not go downhill as fast as it would have if I still smoked...give it up....its not worth it.life is more important than a fag.
Hi ally explained as one of the three things that must happen 1) stop smoking 2)exercise 3) healthy diet if there was to be a future they gave my lung age as 92 that was a shock
Hi Ally.
Most definately Yes,giving up smoking is the best thing you can do. You will not notice the benefits at first, in fact you will probably feel worse until your lungs have cleared all the muck! After you have got over this stage your breathing will improve, your sense of smell will return, your food will taste so much better & you'll improve your quality of life.
I too was like you & ignored the signs carried on smoking untill I was really ill & my lung function had deteiorated to 28%. I have been smoke free for 3 years now.
As Dott says, the three most important thing you can do to improve your quality of life are, Stop Smoking, Exercise & Healthy Diet. If you have not already done so ask for a referal to Pulmonary Rehab course.
Good luck giving up smoking, it will be worth it!
Best wishes
Jo 
Hi All
If we are looking for improvement then it is possible that it will lead to disappointment what we are getting is less damage that is harder to see or feel
Best Wishes Robert
Thank you everyone for your answers.they have really helped me to decide to give up.It would be great not to be a slave to the cigarette... Just after 30 years of smoking i find it hard to quit.Stitch's comment about trying to get out for a cig in hospital is real "food for thought"
Thanks again Folks
hi allyj I am in exactly the same position as you, was diagnosed a couple of months ago, have smoked for 30yrs but cant quite get it in my head that it is actually the smoking that has caused my copd. Im still puffing and coughing read books easy way which have helped change my way of thinking a little but my husband smokes so im still so tempted to join him outside for a fag and a cuppa and so my last resort is ive booked myself in for hypnosis on monday as i no now that if i don't give up will just get worse, and i have to say being unable to breath scares me. This web site has helped me come to that conclusion, everyone is at different stages in their illness and some peoples comments and fears reduce me to tears. read peoples questions and blogs it will help you decide u want to give up and i think thats half the battle actually wanting to give up rather than being told u have to. Hardest thing i have ever had to do never realised just how addictive nicotine was almost as bad a a class a drug but at same time no i will feel so much better when done it. wishing u luck u can beat it its more mentally addictive than physically just need to convince ourselves we dont actually need or like it anymore. easier said than done.
Good luck ,im sure you can do it .Keep us updated
I guess a lot of things vary from patient to patient, but I am aware of people who smoke who are never free of chest infections.
I guess it boils down to how much damage has already been caused by the smoking and continual chest infections before the person stops and how long they continued to smoke after diagnosis, any of these things could well have a bearing on how well people do after stopping.
The main things we can all do to help ourselves as much as we can and try to protect our lungs as much as possible are, stopping smoking, attending pulmonary rehabilitation, continuing to exercise regularly, applying what we learn on the PR course to our everyday lives. Avoid contact with people who are infected with colds or flu, etc etc There is no doubt in my mind that If we want to help preserve our lungs and health we need to do certain things, if we don't do those things we increase the risk of our symptoms becoming more severe far more rapidly and bringing our use by date forward.
Congratulations again Ally on your decision to quit, we all know how difficult it is and how traumatic those early days are but every which way we help ourselves we increase the potential of a greater quality of life.
Good wishes to you and all who are going through the process of quitting at this time, take all the help you can get to achieve it, see the cessation nurse at the docs surgery etc. You can be proud to achieve it and look upon that achievement in a positive way to your confidence, strength and health.
Have a good day everyone, breathing easy.
Tru
Some people cannot answer this question for the benefit of others!
The ultimate decision is mine but its good and helpful to hear other peoples opinions and experiences
You are right the decision is yours, good luck with making your decision and acheiving your goals. I'm sure you will have the support of all on here.
Best wishes
Jo
Hi, I gave up two years ago in November and whilst I seem to have gone downhill since, I'm sure this would have happened anyway and I couldn't breathe so had no choice. I had tried to stop a few times and had given up smoking at work a couple of years before so this all helped break the 'cycle'.
I must admit that I found it relatively easy the last time and went cold turkey as I'd tried a e-cig but it made me feel sick.
I don't miss the money or smelling and for the first time in years, I feel FREE! Often get home without the provisions and have to go out again as this would be done when getting daliy fags.
My sis has been told she is also a candidate for COPD and has convinced herself she can't give up but I did remind her that as she had never tried, she can't say and I do believe it does a bit easier for a lot of people when you are older.
I honestly think each 'attempt' helps so if you don't succeed at first, try again later, don't give up 'giving up'.
Hello,.i had smoked an average of 20 a day, for 50 years.i have always been very glad i "finally made it", and .my coughing eventually stopped.
i truly believe it was worth stopping, yes occasionally,the "thought "i would love a smoke would come,but that,s all it was, a thought. "NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF", was firmly embedded into my thinking.
i am thankful now,that oxygen really does help my breathing,especially when walking.
best wishes,.maruth
I too went cold turkey after my first hospital admission - well when you are in there and attached to an oxygen tube it is difficult to get a crafty drag!! I also felt cross that my mum never gave up smoking but then she never had any problems and she had actually had a couple of them the day she died having almost reached 90! I suspect that if she had stopped, she would have become a bit like the descaled kettle - holes appearing that the limescale had been keeping stoppered!
No you wont feel immediately better when you give up, I am unaware of anyone has done, but hopefully your lungs will stop deteriorating quite so fast. A few years down the line, as has been mentioned above, you can actually get your sense of smell and taste back and your clothes no longer have that awful smell to them. (My car no longer has the yellow ceiling!) You really begin to wonder why on earth you ever started in the first place?
Good luck with giving up Ally
M
Keep trying Stitch,i lost count of the many failures.........i am wondering, have you tried patches or gum ?can your GP help in this way?
i used patches for the first few weeks,they did help me over the hardest time.
Never take another puff,came from an on line support group,i will have a look and see if its still in use....will let you know.....xx
Stitch i found both of these sites helped me.
whyquit.com
stayquit is a support group which was really good..for me at the time.
best wishes for your success.you will get there.xx
hey,thats fantastic Stitch. a great achievement...sorry, i think i misread your post too.
i think you are probably over the worst and are probably stronger than you realise....i am now 8 years off,...it took a long time for a newly lit fag not to appeal to me.
i feel that solitary unprotected ciggie is a safe one.......routing for you Stitch,..... its the one that got away. yeah.!!!!
I was smoking 60 a day by the time I gave up at the age of 22. I started when I was 16 and as my dad was in the forces I smoked duty frees and in those days you could smoke in the office. That's why I smoked so many. By the time I was taken to hospital with TB I was down to 3 a day (too long a story for here). I have no regrets whatsoever about giving up, I'm pretty sure I would have been dead quite a few years ago if I had continued to smoke and to me life was more important than a cigarette.
My dad died of lung cancer 3 years ago at the age of 78. He'd smoked since the age of 14 - never as many as I did - and he stopped in the early 1980's to set an example to his grandson. I can still see his face when the consultant told him there was nothing more could be done for him. He said to the consultant then that he wished he had never smoked!
Yes I now have COPD but how much worse would that have been if I hadn't had TB and continued to smoke for the last 38 years.
Count me as one who is very glad to have stopped.
Hello,
I'm certain that if you have been diagnosed with COPD, or any lung disease, the best thing you can do for yourself, is to quit smoking.
Hey, what's a reasonable length for posts, anyone?
hi mary i have copd.i stop the fag. it hard for me to breathe sum time well my breathing get beter.i am sard.
Hi sorry new on here and couldn't see we're to put q's. I've got copd 28%lung capacity.yes I smoke that's my q's is stoping really going to help steroids and antibiotics at moment 6 week of steroids 2 lots antibiotics got smoking mints of ssn.to start tomorrow but read lots comments saying no different any help I'm 59 live in cornwall
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