Last post Thu, Feb 14 2008 9:05 AM by hollie. 13 replies.
Do any of you smoke or are you around VERY smokers? Did it or does it effect you?
My brother had an accident Nov of 06 and is recovering at home with my parents who WILL NOT stop smoke in the only room he can get it & out of pretty much lives in, unless he goes to the doctor or shopping. Which in the car he is exposed even more.
Any answers?
I only smoke outside...I'm a very considerate smoker.
I feel the secondhand smoke is a gross exaggeration considering all the other pollutants in the air. I can recall when the "Firing Rooms" to launch early astronauts into space were total smoke houses
Joe
It was unhealthy back then,too.
I developed my asthma when people smoked like chimneys at work prior to the lifesaving no smoking rules at the work place. Its a heart breaker that parents will smoke around their kids as your parents are doing around your brother. If this is going to continue you could get an industrial air mask. Your folks wont appreciate it but your brother wont suffer from the smoke. Smoke is smoke. Addiction is addiction.
I am a smoker also but when you are with someone who is trying to heal from a brain injury is it really heathy for him to be in it? I think it would slowing his healing process. They say after a brain injury the person on average has 2 years to heal to the point they will come to. SO shouldnt he be given everything possible.
My question is does it HURT the person recovering? NO he will never be the same but doesn't excessive 2nd hand smoke slow his healing process if not hender it? It reduces the oxogen in the blood doesnt it? He also is not able to leave the room he is wheel chair or bed riden. So does he ever really get all the smoke out of his lungs?
Thank You I will check into the mask.
I just can't believe the excessive smoke isn't hendering his recovery. Not to mention might be causing other problems.
The point you mentioned about the reduction of oxygen would be exactly what I would consider very reasonable evidence that their choice to smoke in such close proximity and so often around him is decreasing the amount of recovery he may be able to make.......Traumatic brain injury survivors have sometimes shown good results with increased oxygen treatments, so it makes sense that if the oxygen were limited/polluted in such a small-probably not well-ventilated room-they aren't giving him the BEST chance for rehabilitation.
I would not advise having O2 around smokers this is a very bad combo. If the smoking continues I would advise that child protetive services be called parents that refuse to alter their behavior to benefit any child they have is plain simple wrong. They shoud take the smoking outside or at the very least smoke around and vent that sucks the smoke away.
I just discovered this community and you are the only one who has posted with a psychiatric disability. I am able bodied but reitried on disability ten years ago and have been at a loss to find much of a community in the small town I moved to. I'm very bored and I have a very low tolerance for boredom and would like very much to find a community of others who suffer from psychiatric disabilties. Even though I was forced into retirement I don't really consider myself to be very disabled. My diagnosis is schizoaffective disorder which means I play solopsistic mind games when I read the news and my emotions are sometimes inappropriate. I would like to work in the writing field, which is how I made my lving for 20 years.
There's a whole Mental Health forum here and plenty of people with psychiatric disabilities I have met in the forums and on chat. Keep looking!
The Oprah Show recently covered an episode dedicated to the cessation of smoking.
I urge you to please review it and hopefully find it useful in your circumstances.
http://www.Oprahshow.com/
hollie,
Interesting thread you started Hollie. I commend you for your concern with respect to your brother's recovery.
I used to be a two-pack a day smoker but was always considerate at home but inconsiderate at work (since others around me smoked). That said, I also know the addictive properties of nicotine and what a "pain" it is to smoke outside on a cold, wet night. But the addictive properties wouldn't let me skip a "smoke break." I have been smoke free for about 15 years now.
Hypothetical question for you. If your brother were to move in with you, would you (or do you already) be able to stop smoking inside entirely? That might shed a little light on where your parents are. Easier said than done and if your parents are getting up in their years or don't live in the best of neighborhoods, or whatever; there are a lot of factors that might keep them from smoking inside.
As for the oxygen therapy, that just might be a GOOD idea that would keep their smoking far removed from your brother. If they go to the fire department's training center and watch a video of an oxygen-therapy patient lighting up and what happens next, they might reconsider. There is also that case of a Greyhound bus blowing up because one or more of the elderly patients on the trip were using oxygen. Yes, O2 and flames to not mix well from a safe viewpoint.
If the O2 were brought in for your brother, your parents probably would not stop smoking but they might be willing to develop a smoking room inside the house with a fan exhaust to the outside. That would not be that hard and a room deodorizer unit could also be installed to help "eat" the smoke particles that the exhaust fan did not suck out of the smoking room.
One would think that your parents are reasonable folks and would be willing to make some compromises for the betterment of your brother's recovery. Approach it with gentleness or perhaps have a third party assist with making recommendations for change so that your brother will have the best possible environment for his recovery.
My best to you all.
Dave
Hi marG,
Welcome to Disaboom. You may want to post an intro thread about yourself here.
Dave,
I agree that smoking is an addiction/habit and its GREAT you have quite. I am down to about 1/2 pack a day. I have one in the house in the morning getting ready for work and that is it I dont smoke when I get home at night. When I am at my parents I go outside, to the laundry room where there is a fan or upstairs.
My parents have a 2 story house 5 bedrooms & 4 bathrooms. They choose however to smoke in the same room with my brother who CAN Not leave the room even if he wanted to since he is unable to walk just yet or move his wheel chair with just one hand or go upstairs.
I dont expect my parents to stop smoking they have done it for as long as I can remember mom smoked while she was pregnant but at least all 9 of us came out healthy. But I feel this is different they decided to bring him home to give him a better enviroment than what the long term care facility offered which is GREAT. I would just like to see them leave the room to do their smoking instead of right beside him with the smoke in his face all day long and in the only room he is able to be in. Or at least crack a window, turn on the air purifires, or a ceiling fan to circulate the smoke out of the room.
Thanks for writing.
Hollie
