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‘I contracted lung cancer from smoking. Other smokers need to know about the pain they will suffer.’
Aisha smoked as many as three packs of cigarettes a day before she was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. Speaking from her hospital bed at JHAH Dhahran, she tells her story of addiction and illness to mark World Lung Cancer Day on August 1. Her name has been changed to protect her identity.
“Everything had the same, foul smell,” Aisha recalls of her last day at home before she was admitted to hospital. “The smell was everywhere but I had no idea where it was coming from. It was making me nauseous. I asked my daughter, ‘Can you smell it too?’ But she couldn’t. That’s when I knew something was wrong.”
Two weeks earlier, Aisha had completed her first round of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with small cell lung cancer, a disease that is almost exclusive to heavy smokers. Side effects of chemotherapy include nausea and a change in the perception of smell.
For nearly three days after being admitted to Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare (JHAH) Dhahran, Aisha could not eat or drink, “not even a biscuit or a sip of water.” By the end of the third day, she managed to eat a slice of watermelon. She says she is feeling better today, the sixth day of her stay, and is looking forward to being discharged the next morning, all things being well.
Aisha, who is in her mid-sixties, started smoking when she was 18 years old. First it was a little, then it was a lot. She gave up cigarettes during each of her pregnancies but after giving birth to her fifth and final child, she began smoking more heavily than ever. By the time she was first admitted to hospital, she was smoking as many as three packs of cigarettes a day.
“I have asthma, and I have been admitted a few times because of exacerbations,” she says. “I would always have a cigarette on the way to the hospital, and if I was wearing an oxygen mask, I’d try to smoke that cigarette in between taking breaths of oxygen.”
The more she smoked, the less she was able to exercise, such was the fatigue that set in. She suffered from insomnia and anxiety. “My addiction stopped me going to places where smoking wasn’t allowed, like in some restaurants and hotels. It also made me very angry whenever I was forced to stop, like in an airport or on an airplane. I dreaded flying.”
During Ramadan, Aisha had to keep herself busy every day to help fight the nicotine cravings. “I would be up every morning in the early hours cooking. Cooking is something I love doing but it also helped to keep my hands busy and my mind concentrating on something other than cigarettes.”
She stopped smoking late in April this year, shortly before she underwent her first cycle of chemotherapy.
I feel so much better for stopping. My breathing is better, and my voice is less rough. But I’m worried about my hair falling out because of the chemotherapy. I’ve always had long, thick, healthy hair, and I don’t want to lose it.
“Immunotherapy is a relatively new form of treatment that has been shown to lengthen the lives of patients with small cell lung cancer,” Dr. Tuqa Al Khalaf, thoracic oncologist and head of the thoracic oncology program at JHAH, who is treating Aisha, says. “Immunotherapy boosts the immune system and helps it to recognize and destroy cancer cells.”
Aisha says: “God can make us sick, and God can give us mercy. Death is in the hands of God. I am at peace in my heart; I am not afraid of dying.”
She says she has decided to stop smoking “forever, Inshallah,” and urges other smokers to do the same. “My advice to any smoker is to stop immediately. Smoking will make you sick and you will suffer more from your sickness than you can possibly imagine. I know this to be true.”
Dr. Al Khalaf says Aisha’s story should inspire others to quit smoking for good. “It can seem like a long and difficult journey — perhaps an impossible one — but often the first step towards quitting is the hardest to take,” she says. “We at JHAH are here to help you take that first step and guide you through the journey. It is by no means an impossible journey and the benefits to your health and wellbeing cannot be overstated.”
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