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Ah, yes.. Emphysema.. know it well. Watched my father die of it in 1982, watched my brother in law die of it in 2011 and my sister in law die of it earlier this year.
In my fathers case, while he was a life long smoker, the doctors didnt blame it on smoking, but rather, his life. He was 65 when he died but had always been around heat and dust. Before the 2nd World War he worked for the railways, in heavily smoke laden air from the steam engines, as soon as war broke out in 1939 he signed up and spent the next six years overseas, mostly in Egypt, Cyrpus and Crete. When he came home he spent many years working in a pipe works, where they made clay tile drainage pipes, constantly exposed to heat from the furnaces and dust from the crushers, then he got a job as a grader driver, where he worked till he retired, constantly exposed to dry dusty conditions found on gravel roads. All of that is what the doctors blamed the emphysema on.
In my brother in laws case, he too died relatively young at 62 and had a life time of breathing in dust. He worked his entire life in the one job, working in a granite quarry. Just like Fred Flinstone, his job was operating the rock crusher, and started way before anybody ever worried about health and safety at work, so he spent the first 20 or so years with no protection. He too though, was a life time smoker.
The sister in law was only 56 when she died, and had smoked a pack a day her entire life.
There is another sister in the same family who is starting to develop the same symptoms now, so there could possibly be some heriditory link going on there.
Thanks for your detailed description of my diagnosis. I'll never look at an eye doctor quite the same way again. I probably should have already knew all that but i probably tend to trust in the professionals a little too much, and dont ask enough questions. I just hope that they know what theyre doing and let them get on with the job.
I actually asked my Oncologist about high doses of vitamin c, but he's an 'old skool' doc who doesnt believe there's any merit to it. Despite that i have been to a health shop and got some concentrated powdered stuff, that i mix with water and drink. He also doesn't believe in the benefits of pure Aloe Vera, so that sums up his belief in non traditional medicines.
Oh, and i smoked for around 20 years before i seen the error of my ways. I had tried several times to give up, but always for the wrong reason. I tend to count pennies, and had always calculated how much i would save if i gave up. WRONG REASON. Money is NOT a big enough motivator to quitting. You can always find some way of justifying the cost when your 10 days into withdrawals, and you've got an idle 20 bucks in your pocket. What did it for me was waking up one morning coughing that much that i threw up. I gave my smokes to the wife that morning and said 'get rid of them' and i've never smoked since. Coughing in the morning was normal, as most smokers will tell you, but throwing up wasnt, and it was enough for me. Went cold turkey. Not going to say it was easy, because it wasnt, but with health as the motivator I knew it was going to be permanent. I told myself, and others that I wasnt 'trying to give up' as you often hear, I was a 'non smoker'. Trying implies that failure is possible. Being a non smoker was final..
In my fathers case, while he was a life long smoker, the doctors didnt blame it on smoking, but rather, his life. He was 65 when he died but had always been around heat and dust. Before the 2nd World War he worked for the railways, in heavily smoke laden air from the steam engines, as soon as war broke out in 1939 he signed up and spent the next six years overseas, mostly in Egypt, Cyrpus and Crete. When he came home he spent many years working in a pipe works, where they made clay tile drainage pipes, constantly exposed to heat from the furnaces and dust from the crushers, then he got a job as a grader driver, where he worked till he retired, constantly exposed to dry dusty conditions found on gravel roads. All of that is what the doctors blamed the emphysema on.
In my brother in laws case, he too died relatively young at 62 and had a life time of breathing in dust. He worked his entire life in the one job, working in a granite quarry. Just like Fred Flinstone, his job was operating the rock crusher, and started way before anybody ever worried about health and safety at work, so he spent the first 20 or so years with no protection. He too though, was a life time smoker.
The sister in law was only 56 when she died, and had smoked a pack a day her entire life.
There is another sister in the same family who is starting to develop the same symptoms now, so there could possibly be some heriditory link going on there.
Thanks for your detailed description of my diagnosis. I'll never look at an eye doctor quite the same way again. I probably should have already knew all that but i probably tend to trust in the professionals a little too much, and dont ask enough questions. I just hope that they know what theyre doing and let them get on with the job.
I actually asked my Oncologist about high doses of vitamin c, but he's an 'old skool' doc who doesnt believe there's any merit to it. Despite that i have been to a health shop and got some concentrated powdered stuff, that i mix with water and drink. He also doesn't believe in the benefits of pure Aloe Vera, so that sums up his belief in non traditional medicines.
Oh, and i smoked for around 20 years before i seen the error of my ways. I had tried several times to give up, but always for the wrong reason. I tend to count pennies, and had always calculated how much i would save if i gave up. WRONG REASON. Money is NOT a big enough motivator to quitting. You can always find some way of justifying the cost when your 10 days into withdrawals, and you've got an idle 20 bucks in your pocket. What did it for me was waking up one morning coughing that much that i threw up. I gave my smokes to the wife that morning and said 'get rid of them' and i've never smoked since. Coughing in the morning was normal, as most smokers will tell you, but throwing up wasnt, and it was enough for me. Went cold turkey. Not going to say it was easy, because it wasnt, but with health as the motivator I knew it was going to be permanent. I told myself, and others that I wasnt 'trying to give up' as you often hear, I was a 'non smoker'. Trying implies that failure is possible. Being a non smoker was final..
). It's extremely rare for it be found in people under 40, and almost unheard of at 18, her age at the time.
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