Cigarette Smoking: A lifestyle that drains brain and pain

By: Allan Elutin Ecleo

God constantly intervenes even in human’s adversities, refining one’s love for the family members.  This happened to me several times including the very recent when my stroke-survivor father was hospitalized again just this Sunday brought by internal infection which resulted his breath to be unstable. 

Brought by unavailable fund for his hospitalization, the family members (including me) could hardly decide to bring him to the hospital immediately.  At first in the morning at about 2AM, before the second hospitalization on the following day, I heard my father who was like wheezing, which is normal to him.  Realizing that it was not a snore as it was coupled with painful agony, I instantaneously woke up and gave him a glass of water which did not pacify his stomach pain so I took an ointment and massaged his stomach and back. 

After a few minutes of observing him, all the more that the pain turned to be excruciating based on his struggle for a breath so I went upstairs and called my younger sister to have his blood pressure checked.  Although it was okay, the pain did not subside so we brought him to the hospital. 

After giving him an injectable, he felt better.  The injectable costs about Php3,000 and realizing that the bill would become even bigger if he was admitted, we decided to continue his medication at home with the medicine prescribed by the doctor.  For one day, he has been alright but the piercing pain returns on the following night. 

We ended up confining him again in a different hospital wherein he got into the mood after being dextrosed.  When the doctor visited, the first question that she asked was "Is he (my father) a heavy smoker.?"  Then I replied, it’s a combination of smoking, drinking and eating fatty food.  Thenceforth, the physician responded, ‘That’s why.”  The doctor advised that she would insert a catheter (a small, flexible tube that inserted through the urethra and into the bladder, allowing urine to drain) to my father's urinal to prevent bedsore which can be caused by daily involuntary peeing.  Imagine an approximately 18 inches tube implanted inside the penile hole and you could feel how much discomfort the patient could go through while being confined for 5 days. 

Above image shows how my father was inserted with approximately 18 inches catheter to  prevent bed sores while on leaks with involuntary peeing in pampers.

What I could do in the hospital is to surrender everything to the Lord asking Him not to make it difficult for my father, considering his age at 76.  When I spotted a Crucifix on top of his bed, I touched it and tapped my father’s forehead.  I felt relieved when he smiled in a few seconds as I drew a distance - an impulse that I considered that God was just around the corner.  When I would step out of his room and pass by a Holy Family image in the hallway, I would touch it and wish a prayer.

At the end of the day, the most painful part was when we had to check out our patient, because of financial incapacity.  My sister and I who have been in a team effort in supporting our family (together with the younger siblings) had lost our jobs.  The younger brother who could support us had just went through a huge expense for his youngest son’s hospitalization, which lasted for almost a week.  Another younger brother who had his loaned house and lot almost foreclosed, was preparing for his wife who’s was about to give birth to their third child.  So the struggles had overlapped, without noticing it at a glance.

Fortunately, my sister-in-law, with the help of her siblings, together with another sister-in-law whose sister is working in a local government unity (LGU), offered their support so the hospital bill has turned to be minimal at least, so the remaining amount out of that backing had able to support the follow up check-up and maintenance on medicine.

So what’s the lesson that I would like to stress here:  That any vices (cigarette smoking which causes a heart ailment and stroke, which are the number one killer killer disease in the Philippines[1] can never be helpful in the long run when its effects to one’s health mature.  Thus, the Philippine government should also take action on regulating smoking (not just by providing huge excise tax to the manufacturers and placing a warning sign on a pack of a  cigarette stating that cigarette smoking is dangerous but by banning it if possible) than concentrating on drug problem alone (which is not actually a killer disease although it gradually compromises the positive life’s disposition and logical reasoning of both the user and the pusher, which has a crime rate of 1,004 in 2014 which is a bit less than the 1,053 rate in 2013[2],  whereas tobacco-related diseases kill more than 71,850 Filipino every year[3] or 10 Filipinos die every hour from illnesses caused by smoking caused by smoking while the country loses nearly P500 billion yearly from healthcare costs and productivity losses. [4]

My father who has been hospitalized repeatedly on annual basis (approximately twice to thrice a year) has been facing this ordeal because of this lifestyle.

With one’s false choice on a lifestyle, everybody has been compromised financially, psychologically, and physically.  It’s normal to be sick and be confined in a hospital if it’s brought by old aging or unintentional choice of a lifestyle but it’s painful to be ailing when it’s caused by choicest routine.  It’s unsuitable to praying  "Our Father who art in heaven.......Do not bring us to the test but deliver us from evil"  (Matthew 6:13) while the one praying remains in smoking, drinking or any other vices.  

Reflection:

MATTHEW 6:13 Do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.

Drug-dependents in the Philippines have been fumigated like cockroaches. However, it is not a killer-disease of the country.

Any vices (cigarette smoking which causes heart ailment and stroke, which are the number one killer disease in the Philippines) can never be helpful in the long run when its effects to one’s health mature.  Nevertheless, in any sickness that any family member/neighbor is enduring which brought them an intense monetary, psychological and physical struggles, there’s always a learning that it would like to convey that may serve as a caution to those who are engaging in different vices – that these people (like Wayne McLaren who’s formerly an endorser of Marlboro cigarette) word of advice is to keep away from this unhealthy lifestyle should anyone desires tranquility and a good life.

In connection with this, when you encounter significant others, who are into the difficulty of an ailment, do you basically make any cautions/contemplation that would be significant for yourself and the people around you, to be prudent in any lifestyle?  Why?  How?

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References:

[1] Sweetie dela Torre, DOH: Heart attack, stroke and cancer remain top causes of death among Filipinos, Philippine News Agency, January 10, 2014 5:46 AM

[2] Pia Ranada, A look at the state of crime, drugs in the Philippines, Published 5:48 PM, January 05, 2016, Updated 5:48 PM, January 05, 2016, http://www.rappler.com/nation/118004-crime-drugs-philippines

[3] Tracey Johnston, Anti-Tobacco Campaign in the Philippines Highlights Serious Health Harms of Smoking and Second-Hand Smoke, Especially to Children, Thursday, August 6, 2015, http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/36620/pid/6858

[4] Philip C. Tubeza, Smoking kills 10 Filipinos every hour, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 02:06 AM September 19th, 2011, http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/61111/smoking-kills-10-filipinos-every-hour 

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