No smoking!?!?
Well, you all know that Mo and I went to the hospital the other day. Mo’s appointment was at the chest clinic. When you enter the waiting area you are faced with large oxygen cylinders strategically place around the room, in case a patient needs help breathing. It’s a CHEST clinic, so it’s not surprising.
What is surprising is what we found outside.
This sign made us chuckle. You would think that it wouldn’t be needed for a chest clinic. I had visions of somebody taking a quick drag on a cigarette, followed be a sharp intake from the oxygen cylinder, a quick drag on….. You get my drift.
While I was pacing up and down outside I noticed something else. A shingle bed runs along the front of the clinic. On taking a closer look at it I was mortified! These are patients with chest problems of all kinds, and here, outside the clinic waiting room, lay dozens and dozens of cigarette butts! What is this telling us?
Stumble it!
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Jaffer
| 29 June 2009 at 18:39
I sometimes need to wait for the bus a the MacMaster Childeren’s hospital here in Hamilton. They also have wards for adult patients however.
What so intrigues me is that I see in-patients in hospital gowns drag themselves outside to the enterence of the hospitals and dragging their drip bottles ans sometimes electronic machinery – to light up !
They openly defy the tens of No-Smoking signs around them !
Nobody ever stops them either !
Ivanhoe
| 29 June 2009 at 18:39
All I have to say it’s I’m glad I quit. It will be three months on Wednesday!
Ivanhoe´s last blog ..Libraries and Slot Machines
Jenn Thorson
| 29 June 2009 at 18:42
Those folks with the lit ciggies and oxygen tanks better be careful.
Or there will have to be a new sign which reads:
“No Exploding.”
Jenn Thorson´s last blog ..Who You Gonna Call? Dustbusters!
beetle
| 29 June 2009 at 19:52
Jaffer: I was a smoker once and remember well the need to light up wherever I was! Thankfully (or not) smoking was not banned anywhere in those days.
Ivanhoe: Well done!! You keep it up. When I gave it up, it took me a little while to notice the benefits, health-wise. The difference is enormous though!
Jenn: Ha ha! You always make me laugh!! The mind boggles! Drag, breath, BANG!
Comedy Plus
| 29 June 2009 at 20:06
Yep, it does make you wonder doesn’t it. Way too sad.
Have a terrific day Babs.
JD at I Do Things
| 29 June 2009 at 21:50
My dad died of congestive heart failure, tho he had quit smoking years before the diagnosis. When we cleaned out his apartment, my brother and I found crumpled-up packs of cigarettes. It probably was just as you imagined: drag of cigarette followed by a hit of oxygen. I don’t know how long it had been going on, but all we could do was laugh. I hope it made him happy.
JD at I Do Things´s last blog ..I Wash Myself with a Rag on a Stick so you don’t have to
GrannyGrimble
| 29 June 2009 at 22:05
It tells me that some people want to wear blinkers and don’t believe it can happen to them. I include my son in these people and it worries me so much!
I also noticed that most of the cigrette ends in the photo are filter tips. Not only wearing blinkers, but clutchng at atraws !!
GrannyGrimble´s last blog ..OF SHOES & SHIPS & SEALING WAX & CABBAGES & KINGS
Black Cat
| 30 June 2009 at 0:47
Sometimes an addiction just outweighs any health consideration…
xxx
Black Cat´s last blog ..Introducing…
Tony Single
| 30 June 2009 at 1:23
What I wonder about are those health professionals that take a drag right in front of the hospital. They surely must be aware of the effects that smoking has on people by now… surely?
Tony Single´s last blog ..The Bad Speller Award
Lauren
| 30 June 2009 at 11:42
My mother was dx’d with leukemia over 10 years ago. In the hospital she still wanted to smoke. They made her walk around some crazy maze to get to the elevator to get outside. She said it took her so long to do it that it made her think how stupid it was to smoke, being in the hospital dx’d with leukemia and she never smoked again.
Lauren´s last blog ..Summer Quiz
beetle
| 30 June 2009 at 18:04
Sandee: Yes, it is very sad. It’s a hard thing to give up!
JD: Oh, bless him
He probably thought “What the hell. I might as well enjoy a good smoke anyway”
GrannyGrimble: It is a very hard drug to give up, but well worth it if you can!
Black Cat: Oh yes. Smoking is as hard to give up as any drug, so I’ve been told.
Tony: Yes!! I am amazed that there are still medical people that smoke!
Lauren: Sometimes all we need is something like that to get us on track for giving things up. Glad your mum managed to kick the habit!
Maureen
| 30 June 2009 at 18:55
Oh I can’t tell you how many times when leaving work, I have to wind my way through the throng of patients, blue gowns flapping in the breeze, arms tethered to IV poles, pulling long drags on cigarettes….
Liudmila
| 30 June 2009 at 19:54
Sincerely I do not understand people that smoke after I’ve seen HOW the tobacco is grown. What kinds of poisons are needed to make it arrive to the maturity.
But the most interesting are those that -seems- have the “votes” to not to smoke. Like those buddhists etc.
Well, it’s samsara…
LadyBanana
| 30 June 2009 at 20:55
Working in a GP surgery it amazes me how many people I see for Spirometry who, even though have COPD still smoke and then complain about the wheezing and coughing etc.
I am so tempted to say what I am thinking – I’m sure you can imagine what that is!
Also my neighbour who recently passed away did just that, have a puff of oxygen and a drag on her ciggy alternately!
LadyBanana´s last blog ..What Lurks In The Sewer?
LaTonya
| 1 July 2009 at 15:54
My day was in the hospital in January. There was a guy fresh out of surgery to replace a thumb, all wrapped up, pulling his IV, to go smoke! I was soooo surprised! We had pretty much camped out in the ICU waiting room, and in a day’s time he’d pass us, almost running outside I know more than 10 times. I couldn’t believe it!
LaTonya´s last blog ..DIY Hair Color: Not A Good Idea!
meleah rebeccah
| 1 July 2009 at 16:13
Um. Er. As a smoker myself, I am famous for smoking in non-smoking areas. Its a terrible habit and I’m not proud of it, BUT, I do understand why you saw so many cigarette butts everywhere!
meleah rebeccah´s last blog ..Uncharted Territories, My New Found Love For Global Positioning Systems, Trying To Beat Death On A Bridge, And Why I Need To Learn Spanish As A Second Language.
whisper
| 2 July 2009 at 7:34
Nice Post. Thanx for sharing
whisper´s last blog ..World of Photos: Ikebana [Digg]
beetle
| 2 July 2009 at 13:24
Maureen: We just saw the funny side of it, being a chest clinic, though it isn’t really funny I suppose.
Liudmila: I know there are many poisons in cigarettes. I wonder why we feel that we must put chemicals into everything!!
LadyBanana: As a one time smoker (for 30 years) I know how hard it is to give it up, but when you are faced with serious chest conditions, I would have thought that it would outweigh the addiction.
LaTonya: Wow! I think that I would have gone without smoking for that day at least!
Meleah: Oh, don’t get me wrong. I was not standing in judgement of it. I smoked myself for 30 years! I know how hard it was to go without a cigarette even for a couple of hours! It appealed to my weird sense of humour – seeing all the butts outside a chest clinic
Swubird
| 2 July 2009 at 14:57
Babs:
It’s absolutely unbelievable. People would rather die than quit smoking. And they say cigarettes aren’t habit forming. Hogwash!
My wife and I went to the doctor one day and I took a similar picture as the one you captured. I posted it but I didn’t mention the doctor’s office. There were a million butts lying all round the side of the building where the employees take their so-called “smoke break.” I thought smoke breaks went out with the dinosaurs. Again, sheer idiocy.
Very funny picture of the no smoking sign.
Happy trails.
Swubird´s last blog ..REX’S FAMOUS STEAK HOUSE
beetle
| 2 July 2009 at 20:49
Swubird: Oh smoking is very addictive! They say it’s equivalent to a morphine addiction. It certainly was very hard to give it up. I failed at my first two attempts!
Jay
| 3 July 2009 at 13:35
I have never smoked, but I do understand that it is an addiction every bit as compulsive as any other drug. Nictoine addicts very, very quickly. More quickly than some of the ‘hard’ drugs – the difference is that a heroin addict who needs help will get help and sympathy. A nicotine addict who needs help will get help and censure.
Nobody would expect a heroin addict to be admitted to hospital and just not take any while they were in. They’d be helped with methadone and counselling. Admit a nicotine addict and they’re likely to be told, no you can’t have a cigarette, stop whining, it’s a filthy habit anyway,
But the sign is still amusing, and the bed of ciggie butts is still sad. LOL!
Of course, they could belong to relatives and visitors?
beetle
| 3 July 2009 at 13:57
Jay: For somebody who has never smoked, you have a lot of empathy! Everything you say is so true. The only difference is that smokers, without wishing to, inflict smoke, and it’s dangers, to people around them. When my mother was ill, and needed an x-ray, they asked how many cigarettes she smoked a day. My mother had never smoked in her life, but my father did! They said she had the lungs of a smoker. Very sad.
No visitors at that clinic. It’s where you go and see the specialists, and have breathing tests done, prior to, or after hospitalization.
Sandie
| 3 July 2009 at 23:35
Whenever I take my daughter for radiotherapy at the hospital where cancer is treated, we are always shocked to see people in gowns, attached to a drip, smoking outside the doors directly under a NO SMOKING sign!
beetle
| 4 July 2009 at 0:56
Sandie: I know it’s hard to give up smoking, but one word from a doctor, telling me I had a problem, would have done it for me! In the end it didn’t take even that
Leeuna
| 17 July 2009 at 0:04
I gave up quitting cigarettes. I just couldn’t do it. Maybe I’ll try again in few months. I tell myself about all the dangers, how nasty it is, and how it has become a social faux pau to light up almost anywhere. However at the end of the day I just have to have that smoke. Nicotine is the most addictive thing on planet earth. The best thing to do is to never start smoking.
beetle
| 17 July 2009 at 0:24
Leeuna: I know just how you feel. It is so hard to give it up, but so worth it if you can. You will feel so much healthier, I promise you
Memes
| 25 July 2009 at 23:24
smoking is a killer habit to kill, the i need to quit and after reading some of these posts your dam right
Ivanhoe
| 25 July 2009 at 23:26
requires major will power but it can be done
Cna I repair / Renew my lungs ?
| 9 October 2009 at 19:09
Answer is YES !!!!!!!!!see the useful methods