Ohhhh someone who just found out they have cancer said something silly. That's called shock. OP, you're in the wrong job.

Ohhhh someone who just found out they have cancer said something silly. That's called shock. OP, you're in the wrong job.

You are both 100% correct (omg~ you used homeostasis in fully appropriate context~!) and very very wrong. While the willpower threshold had been raised, it is not insurmountable by any means. Individuals can and have quit at every level of nicotine addiction. This individual either does not have sufficient resolve to do so, lacks the intelligence to fully appreciate the correlation, or merely doesn't care. In all likelihood, it is a combination of the three. He may not be an idiot, but he very well could be. And as much as a disadvantage as he is in due to the biology you clearly grasp, it is entirely his fault for voluntarily putting himself in that position in the first place... and entirely his fault for not doing something about it earlier. He is paying for his personal failure to overcome (regardless of difficulty, perceived or otherwise), and as much as you want to make the argument that he has no say in his actions, he does.

He probably knows it will be detrimental, he might have been asking if it would make him sick (vomit, fever, and so on).

It's understandable for a smoker to crave nicotine (and like you said, that is out of their control), but if they've got to this stage and they're taking the small chance that they might live through it, surely they should be exploiting that small percentage all they can and not undermining it?

On the one hand, I see how this would be frustrating, but try thinking about it from the patient's perspective. This person has just received a really serious diagnosis which he may not survive, so he might think it's too late to make a difference. Also, if he has only a very small chance of survival, he probably doesn't want to add the stress of nicotine withdrawal on top of his other problems. While continuing to smoke is probably not the best decision, it's still his personal choice to make, and a lot of people will be this way. If you can't handle seeing that on a daily basis, it might be a good idea to consider another line of work.

ruta not Ur FMI ruta the patient

Or he's only taking the therapy because his life insurance company will cancel him if he doesn't and thus leave his family under a mountain of debt.

maybe tell him about e-cigarettes or something?

Why on earth is he bothering to go through with the chemo? It's a hell of a process, from what I've seen. Miserable, awful, and, on top of how draining it is physically, and mentally, it's also draining on your finances..... Clearly he isn't taking this treatment seriously, and I don't blame him with how tiny his chane of survival is, but why bother getting treatment at all, if you aren't going to bother? Forget the chemo, get something that'll make it easier until the end (pain killers, maybe oxygen or something. idk.) and just wait it out, enjoy your last little bit.