Today, I went to work at a chemotherapy clinic. After explaining to a patient about the risks and benefits of chemotherapy for his underlying metastatic lung cancer, he asks is it OK to smoke during chemotherapy. FML
Collection
Fall
Dead leaves, the first cold of the season and an umbrella flipped inside out: fall, the season of grace.
Today, a patient at the hospital where I work asked me if he and his son could light up a joint. He was on oxygen, and serious. FML
Today, in front of a hospital, I noticed that an old lady was having trouble lighting her cigarette because she had Parkison's. So I went to help her to light it up and she then started chatting with me and told me she had lung cancer. FML
Today, I started chemo. My immune system is so bad, it keeps attacking organs throughout my body. I just got a job I love that pays well and has insurance for once, but I’m not sure I can keep working to pay for it, due to chemo side-effects and risky conditions of the job. FML
Today, my mother told me I'm going to get lung cancer. Because she smokes. FML
Today, I walked past a few of my coworkers sitting outside smoking. As I got a whiff of the smoke, I coughed. They immediately started to defend their habit, and I was told to "mind my own fucking business." I wasn't trying to be rude; I'm actually allergic to cigarette smoke. FML
Today, I went to the dentist. After drilling my teeth for what seemed like hours, he gave me a long speech about how if I continue to smoke, the yellowing of my teeth won't be the only problem. I don't smoke. I never have. FML
Today, I told my boyfriend about how a few years ago I had cancer, and how I underwent radiation therapy. His response? "Did you glow in the dark?" FML
Today, I had to tell a bald cancer patient that no, having cancer did not entitle her to a 100% discount on coffee. I felt like a douche for saying it, but I work at a well known coffee franchise and I’m not losing my job because someone wants free coffee, no matter how ill they are. FML
Today, my doctor told me my asthma was being triggered by my dad's smoking. He wrote a note to my dad, asking him to refrain from smoking while around me. My dad took one look at the note, then threw it in the trash, saying the doctor "doesn't know what he's talking about." FML
Today, while driving me to the hospital because I was having an asthma attack, my mother lit a cigarette. FML
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Top comments
Madiluvscookies 0
Wow. Someone either really wants to die, or they're just plain stupid. >.>
hedgerow 0
Yeah, it is. Smoke kills the cancer-cells right?
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Comments (135)
cindybuzz 5
Ohhhh someone who just found out they have cancer said something silly. That's called shock. OP, you're in the wrong job.
cindybuzz 5
Ohhhh someone who just found out they have cancer said something silly. That's called shock. OP, you're in the wrong job.
polysyllabist 3
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.
cldean24 4
He probably knows it will be detrimental, he might have been asking if it would make him sick (vomit, fever, and so on).
Cinn_fml 23
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?
Quiet_one 22
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.
ZzzcheesterzzZ 0
ruta not Ur FMI ruta the patient
TheDrifter 24
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.
Barney_Rubble_75 0
maybe tell him about e-cigarettes or something?
boatkicker 5
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.