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Have you tried to quit smoking while undergoing treatment?

Cancer | Last Active: Jan 22 10:35am | Replies (163)

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@iandunlop

You asked about quitting smoking- Well here is my story. I was a 71-year-old man smoking about 35 cigarettes a day and had been smoking for over 50 years. I had tried giving up cigarettes a few times using patches and pills but had never taken it that seriously. I did noticed pains in my feet and lower legs, hands and arms and in my chin but had not been overly concerned about these. Then I noticed problems with my toes in that the ends of my big and adjacent toes were turning black on both feet and the toe nails looked bad. Now I live in Australia and on our cigarette packets we have harassing pictures of the various problems caused by smoking. Hence, it was obvious to me that I had Buerger’s disease. As far as I knew you either stopped smoking or had your limbs amputated. Some choice. My guess was that I had only about six months more to live unless I gave up smoking. Convinced that I should give up smoking my mind strongly supported me. I just stopped cold turkey. At no stage did I have any cravings for another cigarette. Note I did not tell my Medical Practitioner about the problem or my wife who is a Specialist Histopathologist. I was going to solve this problem myself and I have. I decide to increase my exercise load and improve my already excellent diet. We had a Treadmill and I spent about 30 to 45 minutes a day walking at about 6 to 7 kilometres per hour for six months. Treadmills get very boring, so I bought a titanium road racing bike and slowly increased my riding distance to about 60 kilometres a day or 300 kilometres (188 miles) a week (had a couple of no ride days). Over a year I was riding about 12, 000 kilometres (7,500 miles) or a greater distance than I drove my car.I did this for about 3.5 years, but all did not seem to be quite right. This ended up with me being sent to a heart specialist who diagnosed that I had a non-clinical form of Atrial Fibrillation. He put me on the blood thinner Xarelto just in case. Being on a blood thinner that could not be easily reversed I gave up cycling as the thought of falling from a bike at 40 kph and having internal bleeding did not inspire me. I now walk about 30 kilometres a week, have 5 yoga lessons and a single Pilates lesson. Diet wise I have just about given up meat and have not used added sugar for 30 years and have not had any fast food in that period. I am appalled at the Super Market when I read the nutritional facts on manufactured food products. I recently had my second visit to the heart specialist who told me I am still non-clinical and have been so for a long time as the shape of my heart has changed to accommodate the AFib problem. My blood lipids are excellent with a Coronary Risk Ratio of 2.5 against an Australian average of 4.9. I have never had a heart operation and have no AFib problems that are observable to me without using an instrument like the heart rate monitor on my watch.People who see me bare footed have trouble in believing that I ever had Buerger’s disease.

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Replies to "You asked about quitting smoking- Well here is my story. I was a 71-year-old man smoking..."

@iandunlop you are an inspiration. Congratulations

@iandunlop Congratulations, Dr. Dunlop!

Your story is certainly inspiring.

Teresa

@iandunlop I thought I was doing well with my exercise — about 4 - 5 days a week of water aerobics, riding my recumbent bike about a half hour(about 6 miles) 5 - 6 days a week, and going to the gym at my health club. So far I only do the gym about 2 days a week, I hate it.
You are amazing.
JK

Inspirational! Thanks for sharing.

Hi
I am now age 83 and going very strong. I swallow many vitamins and tablets and do about one hour a day exercise. My GP fully tested me when I turned 83. She could not find a thing wrong with my health using pathology and other tests. I was told I could live as long as I liked as any problems I got were fixable in my current condition. My cognisance is fine and I even had to spell Australia backwards to prove it.

Recently I had a small skin cancer removed from my left arm but that was no trauma. People
think I look about 73 and I sometimes have to prove my age by using my drivers licence. So life is good and I still live in my own home without goverment assistance.
All the best to all of you.