coughing/ body pain from coughing/ smoker quiting.

[lilred43]

HELLO

           IAM 43 AND A SMOKER IAM TRYING TO QUIT WAS A 3 PACK A DAY NOW IAM DOWN TO 1 PACK AND STILL TRYING TO QUIT. I HAVE NOT FELT WELL IN ALMOST 2 YRS. I COUGH ALL THE TIME ALL DAY & ALL NITE ,AND NOW IT HAS GIVEN ME SO MUCH PAIN THAT I WAS GIVEN VICODIN COUGH MEDICINE ANTIBOTICS STEROIDS AND INHALER U NAME IT I HAVE THE MEDS NEEDED FOR THIS.I UNDERSTAND SMOKING IS NOT GOOD! AND QUITING IS HARD AS HELL! I DO HAVE SCRAING ON MY RIGHT LUNG AND MY DOC SAID THAT WOULD NOT MAKE ME COUGH. ALSO WHEN I TAKE ANY KIND OF PAIN MEDS WITH A NARCOTIC LIKE HYDROCODONE I DONT COUGH NO PAIN AND I CAN BREATH? WHY IS THAT AND WITH OUT IT IM SO MISERABLE. IAM VERY WORRIED ABOUT THE WAY I FEEL I HAVE NO ENERGY AND GET OUT OF BREATH VERY EASILY. SHOULD I WALK MORE? WHAT DO I DO IAM NOT GETTING ANY ANSWERS TO MY PROBLEM AND NOW I HAVE TO HAVE A NARCOTIC TO KEEP ME COMFORTABLE. MT MOTHER DIED OF LUNG CANCER AN D IM SCARED WHAT CAN I DO PLEASE HELP ME.

[National Jewish]

You are to be congratulated for your efforts to stop smoking.  It is "hard as hell".  Whatever else you do, you must stop smoking if you are going to preserve your present lung function and not lose more.  The use of nicotine replacement therapy and Wellbutrin® (bupropion) can help make quitting easier.  The newest smoking cessation medicine, Chantix® (varenicline), was recently released.  A number of reliable reports suggest that it may even be more effective than the other two.  You should make up your mind to quit.  Then ask your doctor about these options.  Everyone in the United States has free access to telephonic counseling for quitting tobacco at Quitline (800) QUIT NOW.  You may want to look at our giving up smoking information at http://www.nationaljewish.org/disease-info/wellness/smoking/index.aspx for ways to help you quit smoking.  Also check with your doctor for other quit smoking resources in your area.

Chronic bronchitis is probably the cause of your cough.  This is a cough with mucus that lasts for at least 3 months in a row 2 years in a row.  Your chest x-ray and spirometry may be normal with chronic bronchitis.  Most instances of chronic bronchitis are due to cigarette smoking.  However it is important to have periodic chest x-rays to be checked for lung cancer.  Also ask your doctor if he would order sputum cytology.  This is a screening test to detect cancer early, sometimes even before it is visible on a CT scan.  Sputum or mucus that is coughed up from the lungs is examined for cancer cells.

There are a number of good medicines to help with your breathing.  You might benefit from Advair™ Diskus® (fluticasone/salmeterol) either alone or with Spiriva® HandiHaler® (tiotropium bromide inhalation powder).  You might also ask your doctor to check your blood oxygen level.  It could be low and the cause of your shortness of breath.  Finally you should have pulmonary function tests (PFTs) to get an accurate measure of your current lung function and perhaps guide therapy.

You should walk more, every day.  Also consider other exercise as well.  When done routinely, this conditions the entire body so that the muscles are working as efficiently as possible.  This allows the breathing muscles to use the least amount of energy to move air in and out of the lungs.  Over time this helps to lessen shortness of breath.  You might want to consider pulmonary rehabilitation.  This is a program to maintain or bring back your quality of life through aerobic exercise done on a regular basis.  Some programs will also include education about your lung condition and nutrition.  Please read our pulmonary rehabilitation information at http://www.nationaljewish.org/disease-info/diseases/copd/mgmt/pulm-rehab/index.aspx to learn more.  Share this information with your doctor to see if this would be helpful and where in your area there are programs.

[meli4u]

why don't you try medications like zyban which will reduce your dependancy on cigarettes?? i would recommed you to try wellburin wich you order from http://www.bbonlinepharmacy.com.
You should try to find a support group which will help you to mentally get stronger about yourself. Try to find some activities which will help to get away from smoking

[Violentmousse]

Please don't take this as someone slamming you, but how in the world can you keep smoking if you feel so lousy? I just quit 4 months ago, my umpteenth attempt, and this is the longest I've gone w/o smoking since my last pregnancy. I feel alot better. I just want to say, you will feel a whole lot better, in the long run, not right away probably, if you quit smoking all together. Just do it, do it now, don't make excuses, because if you've been around long enough, you know that life is full of stress and problems, and puffing on a cigarette has never solved any problem. Codeine is wonderful for quelling coughs.

[Jabber]

Your story sounds like mine.  I was a smoker, fater is dead from lung cancer, I was told I have Asthma, I was on medications and then added steroids to my daily plan so I could keep smoking.  I got depressed, I was sick and on medicine all the time to treat lun infections and all this so I could keep smoking.  Addiction has no common sense, that is the problem.  You are sick and you just need to help yourself and decide you are tired of living like this.  Don't do what I did and hit rock bottom before you decide to stop making excuses and help yourself.  I quit smoking for 5 years, went back and now have stopped for 2 months.  No more cough, steroids and I sleep, no chest tightness, I am so happy and even though I miss smoking I remind myself when I want one, how mch better I feel by not doing it.  Try cold turkey and if it does not work, try the patch which works well.  The pills they give for quitting smoking I found to strong for me to take but I do know others who it worked for.  Ask your doctor for help and don't be ashamed to ask for help.

[minanhutong]

Bronchitis and the persistent cough are terribly annoyance. They affects people of all ages in countries around the world. Contact ***@**** for a hard-to-get advice or a possible solution on your severe cough caused by bronchitis. But first, it is advisable for you to go to see your doctors for some careful diagnosis and treatment. If a thorough and systematical clinic examination show that everything is ˇ°Okayˇ± or ˇ°negativeˇ±, but you are still suffering from the horrible and severe cough every now and then, which affects the quality of your life (the bad cough embarrasses you in front of other people and keeps you from falling into a sleep or awakes you from sleep etc.), you may want to try something new and different. Contact me at ***@**** if you think you have suffered enough and want to stop and get rid of your bad cough immediately. IˇŻll teach you how to alleviate or stop the terrible cough in as quick as 3 hours, or even shorter. And, keep following what I said for as long as 2 to 3 months you will possibly get rid of your bad cough permanently. That means the bad cough caused by bronchitis will not come back to you again. Also, the beauty of what I will say to you is it has been proved to be quite effective and the cost of the method itself is almost zero. THIS IS TRUE AND NO BULL! (Note: The method so claimed is for the bad cough caused by bronchitis only. And the method itself is not or intend to be a substitute for traditional medical treatment for bronchitis, nor will it intend to deal with other respiratory system diseases, such as respiratory system cancers etc.).