diaphram area pain

my best friend is a smoker.  i can not get her to quit yet. still trying.  she is 39 years old.  she has been diagnosed with COPD & emphysema.  during the night she will wake up with this terrible pain in her diaphram area.  it is very severe.  she has had all kinds of tests & nothing showes up. what could be causeing this?  what can she do to make this stop or the pain less instense?  also, what can she expect from her life now that she has these ilnesses?  what else can i do to help?  i am trying to get her to quit with the smoking but she has lots of stress in her life.  we really need help.  the doctors she goes to can't seem to help.

[National Jewish]

Trying to get your friend to stop smoking is the best advice and help you can give.  There are many programs with high rates of success and medications that can help.  I would advice your friend to speak with her physician about these medications and also available programs.

It is hard to determine the cause of the pain without a good physical examination and possibly x-rays.  This can be from a problem in, on or outside of the lungs and its covering.

[Myk]

I am 41 and recently quit smoking because I had been sick since Halloween with cold/flu symptoms and coughed up blood after Thanksgiving and was diagnosed with bronchitis. The blood scared the hell out of me and I stopped cold turkey both cigs and cannabis. I am still coughing up phlegm with brown/rusty specks, my pulmonary said my chest x-rays are fine, so I am wondering what is wrong me and why it won't clear up.  

Anyhow back to your friend, my friend had a very hard time quitting - he tried hypnosis and he has been smoke free for
1 year now...worth looking into...      
Good Luck!

[Deep Sleep]

A neighbor of mine had asthma and started smoking in the eigth grade.  By 11 grade he was smoking two packs a day.  After high school he became a truck driver and moved up to five packs a day.  He started to get sick in his thirties and cut back to three packs a day of "filtered" cigarettes.  He told me the doctor said to switch but I don't believe it.  Then he switched to "lights" and moved back up to chain smoking.  

By his middle forties he was living in an oxygen tent and buying cigarettes on the internet.  

He never got cancer because he didn't live long enough.

I never saw anybody smoke so much in my life.

After he died his chest was used as a medical exhibit.