Happy Friday everyone! This week in the People of HealthUnlocked series, we're sharing Lesley's rollercoaster health journey, made better with the Quit Support community. Can you relate? Let us know in the comments below.
"5th April 2012 it was my birthday, I was 63yrs old. The week before I got a terrible chest infection, which made me feel so horrid I didn't even want a cigarette. Don't get me wrong, as a true smoker does, I did persevere and try a couple, but didn't enjoy them. So that was the beginning of a very hard and gruelling next few months.
I went to see my doctor, with what I thought was arthritis pains in my legs. He referred me to the hospital. After being examined for about 2 hours from head to foot, I did think it was a bit strange for pains in my legs. So I had an x-ray of my chest before they let me go home. They said they would send another appointment through the post. Oh boy! 2 days later I received a letter saying go for a ct scan the following day due to an abnormality on the x-ray.
That was it I was taken into a room where an image of my lungs was on the screen. I knew deep down what was going to be said. The doctor explained I had a tumour on my lung, he was 99% certain it was cancer. He did try and reassure me that it was contained and should be able to be removed.
After that day my world and my family's was turned upside down.
Every day after that seemed to mingle in together. I had numerous x-rays, pet scans, and ct scans. Then one appointment was with the consultant, he explained in full what I had. Yes, I had 2 primary tumours. 1 on my windpipe which was pressing on to my main artery to my brain. He referred me for an exploratory operation to see how bad this was. As they couldn't operate if it was too dangerous. Then it would have been palliative care. (end of the road).
I had a 3-hour operation. When I came to, the surgeon said he had managed to separate the cancer from the windpipe and artery, so the big operation could now go ahead.
I then had my whole right lung removed 3 weeks later. I was taken into a high dependency ward for 3 days. I don't remember much as I was in morphine city then.
On my 7th day, I was discharged from hospital to go home. Very hard work, and I must admit I had quite a few panic attacks, with breathing and going upstairs.
Eventually, I was feeling a lot better and just getting my strength back, when I got an infection where I had had a chest drain. So antibiotics which upset me, nurses to put dressings on.
After 2 weeks I had to go see the consultant again, regarding chemotherapy. She looked at my infection and doubled the antibiotics which made me feel even worse. Told me to come back in 2 weeks to see if I wanted to go ahead with the chemotherapy.
After talking it over, I decided to give chemotherapy a go, It was offered to me as an extra safeguard in case there were any undetectable cancer cells. They told me 1 in 20 people benefit. But it wasn't guaranteed plus - there were a lot of risks too.
I went for the chemotherapy, I had 8 hours of it on the first day. I thought it wasn't too bad. Next morning I felt very sickly and had nausea. I got tinnitus in my ears, I couldn't stand any form of food. No, I thought I will keep on taking the anti-sickness tablets, and I would be ok. I stuck this out for 6 days, but by the Monday when I was due to have a pre-assessment for the next day's chemotherapy, I virtually crawled into the hospital and collapsed.
I was on fluids all day via a drip. They eventually sent me home, but wanted to check on me the next morning. Next morning I got out of bed felt sickly again then collapsed back on the bed I just could not stand up.
Back to the hospital. This time they kept me in. I was put on fluids anti-sickness drugs and monitored for 5 days. The consultant came to see me and said NO MORE CHEMOTHERAPY for you. It is far too dangerous for your body.
The way I felt I could have kissed her.
The consultant has been really good and has checked me for anaemia, calcium, given me steroids to get my strength back. They are checking on me every 3 months, for the first year then it will be 6 monthly, then yearly.
I know all of this story may seem boring to you, but if you are trying to stop smoking, maybe, just maybe, reading what I have been through and being lucky enough to survive, it may encourage you to think IS IT REALLY WORTH SMOKING?
Without Quit Support and all its members, I don't think I could have kept going. The love and care you all sent was unbelievable. THANK YOU you are all angels.
THINK when the cravings start, is it worth it. I know my answer. I am sure your brain knows the answer too."
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Lesley has given us consent to share this story.
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Stories on HealthUnlocked have an incredible way of raising awareness around certain conditions, as well as inspiring people who might be in the same situation as you. Would you like to share your health journey? Email me at communications@healthunlocked.com
xo,
Leilah,
Written by
MarketingHU
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Oh! Lesley's story made me cry, if only we could get this out to young people and stop them from ever starting would be fantastic. Cant we get this into schools. Well done Lesley for keeping postitive. I wish you the very best x
The good news Izb1 is that there are fewer school children starting to smoke, however, it's not enough to completely stop all of them, as you say if we could get this into school it would be even better. As a young man way back now I was always disappointed if I saw a pretty girl and after a few minutes she got out a ciggy and started to smoke, I said to myself, yuk, don't like her now as she smokes, I always made sure all the girlfriends I had, including my wife, did not smoke.
I live fairly near to a school and it breaks my heart to see how many school kids smoke on their way home, I know we cant ban it but feel like we should. I pinched my first cigarette from my Mums packet when i was nine, thinking I was big, if only i could go back x
A very inspiring post from you LeilahHU, basically it was the smoking that caused your distress and health problems, I don't and have never smoked but I have spoken to several people who do, they would love to stop but they say it's too difficult, another thing is if I asked them to stop smoking they would think I was lecturing them about their bad habit, it's only stories like the one you have told us here that may make smokers quit before it's too late.
So well done, we do have battles to fight am so glad you are recovering well. You are so brave to tell your story and if it helps someone who is a smoker it’s all worth while. Good luck with it all.
Hi, thanks for sharing , hoping you mush wellness in the future. Me and my Colin stopped smoking after 54 years last October, it took us both heart operations to give us the push but we both said we have so much to thank the NHS for that it would be not fair undoing what they had done just to smoke. I went cold turkey Colin had patches but here we are 10 months on feeling much better and £600 per month better off. Mid you I have one and a half stone to shift lol but slimming world has been great lost half stone in 4 weeks.
Yes really great heart felt story. I am glad she felt well enough to write her story. I always said, "quitting smoking was the hardest easy thing I ever did". I wish I had known it was that easy, I would have quite sooner and so hard I will never ever forget it. Wish all of you can take courage and strength from this story to decide to quite smoking.
Nothing has changed in 70+ years, and it probably never will. It was known at least by the 1940s that smoking often causes lung cancer. We do try to let kids know that, but it just makes them feel more like smoking. It's the rebelliousness of youth, they don't like adults telling them what to do (or not to do). It doesn't help that so many parents smoke, but tell their kids that they shouldn't. The kids think that if their parents really thought it was so bad, they wouldn't do it themselves. Most smokers don't get cancer, they just go around forcing their repulsive odor on everyone around them. Those who do get cancer suddenly become crusaders against smoking. Too bad they didn't think of that when they were 14. If you smoke and want to help end the carnage, step 1 is stop smoking, whatever it takes to do that. But most smokers don't care about the carnage until/unless they become part of it.
Thanks for your honest and moving story. I am exactly the same age as you!I never smoked as we all knew it caused harm when we were young.I was just curious why you did not give up smoking earlier? You hinted that you knew what was coming....
Congrats Lesley your will power is amazing -thats terrible what you've been through Its very good advice to think before cravings -im sure everyone will do likewise
keep very positive -youre an inspiration to all of us
Congrats on being able to kick that cancer stick out the door. I have been an ex-smoker for over 18 years now. When I was first on that journey, I used hard candy (butterscotch worked for me) to quell those annoying cravings. Rest assured those cravings will get fewer and farther between until they are pretty much non existent.
Thanks to everyone for their positive and heartfelt messages to Lesley for sharing her journey with us. I will pass them all on to her. Have lovely weekends!
Many thanks for your sharing of these really tough experiences - and a big 'thankyou' for the warning to others - as an ex-smoker myself I really appreciate being made more and more aware of the possible consequences. I do hope things work out in the best possible way for you Lesley from this point on ... Best wishes
Lesley, like you I gave up too. I had a late career change and went to study a BSc Nursing (Hons) at the age of 44 to 48. On my first clinical placement I was put onto an Acute Respiratory ward. That made me drop 27 years of heavy smoking (and I mean, very heavy smoking). It wasn't easy and I didn't just do it. I went through years of patches, gum, inhalers, tablets on the tongue, acupuncture, consultations and - finally - a Respiratory Nurse prescribed Champix which didn't help much but at least, together with this ward and its' patients, I saw smoking for what it really was. Truly the most disgusting and evil habit out there. Well done to both you and I. My advice as a Registered Adult Nurse - don't start! And if you're wondering when to give up, you've just had your last one.
Gosh .I think this story needs to go to every head teacher of every school .I am 59 and when I was younger TV ads still promoted cigarettes-in fact slim and menthol ones were targeted at women .Mum and Dad both smokers accepted at 13 that I smoked .Not touched one since the age of 25 when I was pregnant and my 5 children don't smoke .Suppose I am the role model .Target the young.Also not so sure about those who vape.
Thanks for sharing your story! My wife, a chain smoker, many years ago, was working in the ER of a hospital, when she came down with all the signs and symptoms of a heart attack. Immediately, she was hospitalized and tests performed. This was on an Easter weekend. By Monday, it was determined that she needed CABG -quadruple heart bypass surgery, at the famed Cleveland Clinic! The surgeons did the surgery, but had a rough time, getting my wife’s heart to start-up after surgery! The Docs told her, that they would not do the surgery, unless she gave up smoking, cold turkey, and never touch a cigarette again. She agtreed, and now, twenty seven years later, she has had several heart attacks, and 4 stents put in, over the years, but she is still functioning ok, albeit shortness of breath. The more we can tell people, about the serious consequences of smoking cigarettes, the resulting impact could give an incentive for smokers to QUIT!!
Thank you so much for telling your story! I really want to reiterate Lesley’s important story.
I started smoking at the ripe old age of 16! My whole family were chain smokers. I remember at school seeing films on ‘the dangers of smoking’, with black lungs! When I was in my 20s I was already smoking 30 a day. In those days we could smoke in the office. I remember having to throw out the butts before anyone saw the real amount I smoked. I left my home country to go work abroad ... (won’t bore you with all the details.
All went well until I was pregnant with my youngest child, 8 months to be exact, I received a call from my sister telling ke my mom had SCLC, and she had 3 weeks to live! I was in Italy my mother in SouthAfrica and I couldn’t fly!
I decided to have a C-section at 37 weeks and after 10 days managed to get onto a plane. She had a shocking oncologist and we found her another one who convinced her to have chemo and radiation. She managed to live for another 18 months. The crazy thing is that I carried on smoking, thinking she would never pass away. She passed away on the 22/6 and on that day I put my last cigarette out! 13 years I haven’t touched a cigarette! The most positive thing about the whole story is that my kids now 17 and 14 will NEVER touch a cigarette. I am still very scared of lung cancer for myself.
Please please stay away from ‘vaping’ it’s just as bad as smoking! Kids of 13 are already doing it.
Thanks for listening to my story and thank you Lesley and Leilah for posting.
Pardon me, I could not help but respond. Were it not for vaping, I would still be a smoker.
I smoked for over 40 years and every time I tried to quit I became very, very ill. My brain would stop working. I'd feel very confused and could not concentrate. At one point I could not even read a newspaper because as soon as I got to the 2nd paragraph, I could not recall what I read in the first one. I also would become extremely depressed and could not stop crying. I did a bunch of research before there was an internet, and ended up driving 30 miles to the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD to find articles published in scientific journals regarding the effects of nicotine. I learned that nicotine improves the ability to concentrate and pay attention (no wonder teenagers take up its use!). Also, nicotine functions quite effectively as an antidepressant. Nevertheless, the most effective way to get nicotine into my brain was destroying my lungs.
I had to find another way!
When the nicotine patch was invented, I tried that, but it was not working well enough to ward off intense cravings to smoke. The 2 mg. nicotine gum was not any more effective than chewing ordinary gum. The 4 mg. gum worked a little better, but not well enough to allow me to perform work efficiently without the assistance of several cigarettes per day. I first heard about the electronic cigarette in 2007 by participating in a UK-based discussion group, e-cigarette-forum.com/ and decided to try it out. Actually, there were no cigarette type products available then, but I did order an electronic cigar from a company called NJOY. The thing worked beautifully. Unfortunately, it tasted exactly like a cigar. Yuk!
A year or so later, Chinese companies were advertising cigarette style products and I ordered one of the first primitive e-cigarettes over the internet. It helped me to smoke less, but not enough less to quit. By 2009, there were products that enabled me to refill the device with a choice of nicotine strengths. I decided to take the plunge and stop smoking totally, using only the e-cigarette as my source of nicotine. It worked. I had to use some very strong liquids to obtain a vapor with sufficient nicotine, but then I was able to very, very gradually reduce the amount of vapor I inhaled and substitute nicotine gum.
Thousands of other people began reporting similar successes. Unfortunately, the medical community seems to have something against folks being able to stop smoking unless they use expensive pharmaceutical products. In the U.S., the very organizations we thought would be thrilled for us quitting began throwing out big fat lies (BFL) about e-cigarettes (later called "vaping"). The biggest one is that there is no evidence that they can help people to quit. Another BFL is that the products were invented by the Tobacco Industry (A Chinese pharmacist invented the modern-day e-cigarette that was first marketed by Ruyan. NOTE: The FDA decided to seize shipments of their products coming into the U.S. -- Can't have U.S. smokers ruin the profits of tobacco companies by switching to a non-tobacco substitute.)
I helped to found a non-profit organization called the Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association (CASAA) to work toward correcting some of the disinformation being put out by The American Lung Association, The American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society, and Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids. casaa.org/gallery-with-side... Currently CASAA has over 250,000 members.
CASAA has gathered testimonials from thousands of people who are former smokers thanks to switching to vaping. casaa.org/_testimonials/
I'm full of admiration for you Lesley. I gave up smoking when I was 39 although it took me 17 years of failing before the successful attempt. That's how hard it was. I knew it would kill me if I didn't give up. I didn't even like smoking, I hated it, but I was SO heavily addicted. In the end I gave myself an ultimatum - either give up smoking or kill myself quickly. That did it! It was the commitment I needed and I went cold turkey and have never looked back. I've always said the worst thing I ever did was start smoking, and the best thing was giving up.
My partner smoked when I met him. You can't make someone else give up although I wished he would. Then one day he had a heart attack and when the paramedic arrived he looked at the cigarette on the table, and said "you weren't going to smoke that were you?" Actually he was, but instead he gave up smoking there and then and hasn't smoked since. That was 10 years ago and no heart trouble since.
My brother on the other hand smoked since he was 15 and wouldn't give up. He now has COPD, bladder cancer (probably due to smoking) and leukaemia. AT the age of 70, he has now given up smoking. When you actually do it, you think to yourself, actually it wasn't SO bad, why didn't I do it 20 years ago, or more to the point, why did I ever start?
I always thought I was sensible and yet I somehow got sucked in to smoking (to try and reduce weight) when I was young. Thankfully, far fewer people smoke nowadays and you are such a pariah if you do, it should be much easier for youngsters not to start.
God bless. I lost my partner of 30 years with breast cancer. She went through 3 different sessions of agonising chemotherapy but none worked. She kept trying just to stay with me but eventually lost the battle. Stay strong. None of us know what the future holds.
I just read Lesley's story & several others I say CONGRADULATIONS!! to everyone who has quit smoking & those who are still trying keep after it you will make it & I am praying for you. I quit almost 20 years now, my husband did also you can & will make it!! God bless you each & every one.
I saw where you had asked me a question a while back & now I can't find it. If my memory is right it was about who I was. I am on health unlocked with people who have MS. I didn't realize how many different aspects there were to health unlocked, it's amazing. Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you as I said I haven't been able to fond where you asked about me. Hope your having a good day.
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