"Non-smoker returns from break."
After a nice spring break (aka a 4 day weekend), I'm back into the swing of things. Actually I'm busier now than I was before. I guess since we had 2 days off, they decided we would just make up that time by having a lot of work this week. Well, actually I guess some of that work is my fault since silly me decided to not work during my "break." I know, I should quit complaining and be glad that I got a break at all.
I'm sure by now everyone has heard that "Non-smoker Dana Reeve" died. I find it interesting that it is important that we know that she was a non-smoker. Like that somehow makes it more tragic. I suppose they are trying to imply that had she been smoking, that would have made her to blame. Yes, smoking is HORRIBLE for your health, but just because you smoke doesn't make you a bad person and it doesn't make it okay for you to get cancer. I saw a patient just yesterday who came in severely short of breath. We diagnosed him with bronchitis. It was most likely due to his years of smoking and it will probably only by a matter of time before this develops into COPD. He was miserable. He has not been smoking for a few weeks now, but the damage is done. We didn't give him second-rate treatment because we thought he did this to himself. There are so many diseases nowadays that are caused by poor lifestyle choices. I would venture to say that most illnesses have a component due to lifestyle be it stress, alcohol, poor diet or lack of exercise. We are all guilty of something.
I'm sure by now everyone has heard that "Non-smoker Dana Reeve" died. I find it interesting that it is important that we know that she was a non-smoker. Like that somehow makes it more tragic. I suppose they are trying to imply that had she been smoking, that would have made her to blame. Yes, smoking is HORRIBLE for your health, but just because you smoke doesn't make you a bad person and it doesn't make it okay for you to get cancer. I saw a patient just yesterday who came in severely short of breath. We diagnosed him with bronchitis. It was most likely due to his years of smoking and it will probably only by a matter of time before this develops into COPD. He was miserable. He has not been smoking for a few weeks now, but the damage is done. We didn't give him second-rate treatment because we thought he did this to himself. There are so many diseases nowadays that are caused by poor lifestyle choices. I would venture to say that most illnesses have a component due to lifestyle be it stress, alcohol, poor diet or lack of exercise. We are all guilty of something.
posted by Janet @ 4:45 PM
4 Comments:
At 8:53 AM,
readhead said…
I felt that a lot of the attention that Dana Reeves was recieving was due to the fact that she was a woman and a non smoker. Some, not all, media sources seemingly wanted to make people aware that a diesese such as lung cancer can strike those who previously were considered, woman and non-smokers, not at risk for lung cancer.
Sure some media sources are playing the matryr card, making her death seem more tragic than it needs to be, but some media sources are seemingly just trying to be informative by showing the public that anyone can get lung cancer.
Sorry for being long. :o)
At 5:17 PM,
Anonymous said…
I was under the impression that the non-smoker hype had something to do with her lung cancer, not with her being a bad person.
At 6:52 PM,
Janet said…
I understand that the non-smoking thing had to do with her lung cancer. I guess my point was that they didn't really need to mention that she didn't smoke. I guess I assumed that people knew that it wasn't only smokers who got lung cancer.
At 6:09 PM,
Nabeel said…
thanks for posting this ... I understand what you're saying .. if a person smokes .. it doesn't make him/her a bad person .. people drink alcohol .. get drunk every night .. atleast we don't have the same effect when it comes to smoking ..
and yaa thanks for not giving him a 2nd grade treatment .. everyone should be treated equally even in medicine field .. i.e. smokers/non-smokers .. insurred/non-insured etc.
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