Wednesday, June 1, 2011

tobacco still kills

One of my nicest patients died last week. She always asked about Leo and how he was doing. She smoked for many years, and last year had an episode of blood in her urine. The workup showed cancer of her ureter, the tube from the kidney to the bladder. She had to have the ureter and kidney removed, then had lots of complications, including a wound infection, sepsis (the infection spread to her blood and all over her body.) She was able to be discharged and went home for a while, but she was too weak to take care of herself so went into a nursing home. Then she developed pneumonia. She did not want to be intubated (put on a ventilator), so she died of the pneumonia. But it was the tobacco induced cancer that caused her death. Some patients have been surprised that smoking can cause bladder or ureteral cancer, but some of the toxins from tobacco end up in the urine, and the ureter and bladder are constantly exposed to the toxins, and cancer is the result.

Another patient was brought in last week for a change in her personality, inability to sit still with near constant twitching, and muttering. I thought that she might have a movement disorder and sent her to a neurologist. The workup showed two masses in her brain that were likely metastatic cancer from somewhere else. Further scans showed a lung mass, so it is likely lung cancer from her smoking. The patient is now very confused and can barely get out of bed, so I suspect that she won't live much longer.

How much longer is this going to continue? Tobacco is a known carcinogen, as is second and third hand smoke. (Second hand is what others breathe in while someone is smoking, third hand is the residual left that others breathe in later - yes, that "tobacco smell" is cancer causing.) So why does our and nearly every other government let tobacco sales continue? In this country it is the tobacco lobby paying off our elected officials to continue this corporate murder. If I am every made ruler of the world, tobacco will be gone very quickly (but after equal rights for gays, lesbians, transgendered and women are written into law.)

6 comments:

  1. Any idea which menace kills the most people in the US each year: tobacco, alcohol or guns? I don't know the answer but if I had to guess it would be alcohol. Now THAT'S a lobby. Most people have no idea how deadly it is.

    Thank you for this sad reminder about how poisonous tobacco is.

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  2. Years of smoking killed my mother by an aneurysm in her brain that burst, likely caused by the thinning of the arteries caused by the tobacco use.

    It astounds me that in this country there are still something like 20-30% of adults who smoke! I realize it's addictive, but with all the ways to stop, why would you not?!?!

    Peace <3
    Jay

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  3. um....
    never mind...

    ~ cheers...

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  4. Jay, it is really hard to stop smoking, from what my patients tell me. I have had patients addicted to everything from alcohol, methamphetamines, cocaine, etc and they all say that it was harder to stop tobacco than anything else.

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  5. Oh I understand that. If I remember my stats from a ways back, nicotine is #2 or #3 after cocaine and herion in addictiveness. I didn't mean to say that it isn't...but I do see how my comment seemed that way...

    It's also why in drug rehab units, AA, etc., all pretty much ignore the smoking. I've been asked more than a few times why...because they're working on the "easy" addictions!

    Peace <3
    Jay

    ps - how's Leo? If he isn't out of school, I'll bet he can smell it in the air! LOL

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  6. Tobacco is still legal because it's a money maker for lots of people including our politicians who tax it so heavily.

    The real question is why hasn't more been done to to find meaningful treatments for lung cancer,COPD or other smoking related illnesses or commit money to help people quit when there is so much money being derived from the addiction and suffering of smokers. Cigarette taxes in this country are regressive and the master settlement agreement monies the states received from the tobacco companies has mostly been put into the general funds. Yet people scream about how much caring for smoking related illness costs. But, they take the money derived from the taxes on tobacco and spend it on other more "worthy" causes.

    Stigmatizing smokers is not the answer and has done a great deal of harm. That's why we spend 24,000 dollars per breast cancer death in this country and only 1,400 (yes that's hundred) per lung cancer death. Despite the fact that there are only 40,000 breast cancer deaths and 159,000 lung cancer deaths EACH YEAR in this country. UGH...this subject makes me crazy!

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