Ex-smoker
When I first started my practice way back in 2008, I spent a lot of time counselling about smoking cessation. I bet you didn’t know that smoking is a risk factor for abnormal paps and cervical cancer! The HPV virus hides in your cells and the immune system has to be working at its best to catch the virus during the brief time it emerges.
Lots of folks who might be too anxious to confront their long-term risk of cancer, can absolutely understand the benefit of having fewer gyne follow-ups with fewer speculum exams!
Even some people who consider themselves social smokers have a 60% risk of early death compared to nonsmokers. Smoking one to 10 cigarettes a day increases that to almost 90%, compared to people who never smoked. In Canada’s Universal Healthcare system there is a huge incentive for goverments to provide free resources for smoking cessation because sick smokers are a huge resource drain.
Health Canada has great tools here on their website.
Ontarians can access resources in their communities by calling 811 or going to Health811 online.
Pharmacists can provide free counselling and Ontario Disability Benefits provides free coverage for 4 months of Champix, a pill that targets nicotine receptors and significantly improves quit rates. Pharmacists can also prescribe nicotine gum and patches.
A big part of the problem is the mental addiction: desire for cigarettes, how much people enjoy smoking, and how it has become part of their identity. The physical addiction is only part of the equation, which is why people can sleep through the night without cravings, but can’t help but think about the next cigarette during the waking hours.
The Canadian Cancer Society’s Smokers Helpline has community forums, phone counselling, and evidence-based texting support to stay connected with peers and healthcare workers with expertise and experience to help quitters achieve their goals.
Smokers Helpline phone clients are 8 times more likely to be smoke-free after 6 months than quitters who go it alone. They even host Quit and Win challenges with cash prizes!
The Northwest Territories website talks about the 3:3:3 tool to help with the mental strain. Remember: three days and you're past the worst; three weeks and you're nearly there; three months and you're succeeding; three years and you’re done.
The thing I notice often with patients who’ve tried to quit unsucessfully is that they have a bad day, slip up and declare that they’re a failure who’s failed. It’s important to learn the skills to reframe so that you can have one bad day and be a non-smoker again in the morning.
I had a patient recently tell me she was going to try to quit. I told her that I don’t want her to try, I want her to plan to quit. Make an appointment with your doctor or pharmacist, use the tools on the Canada.ca website and sign up with the Smokers Helpline. Make a plan, set the date and do the thing! You can mess up and just keep doing it again until you’ve hit 3:3:3 and are officially an ex-smoker.
If you’re a long term smoker, there’s important news for you! Back in the old days, we didn’t have great diagnostics for lung cancer. But then we got CT scanners that can find all kinds of tiny nodules in the lungs! In the early days of CT scans though, we found lots of lesions that may or may not be cancers and we couldn’t justify doing huge life-changing surgeries for a spot that might turn out to be nothing.
Nowadays though, most lung cancers are treated with minimally invasive surgeries that have quick recovery times. There’s no significant downside now to operating on these small lesions.
Studies on smokers who get yearly CT scans predict that lung cancer screening will save one person's life for every five people who currently die from lung cancer. Modern cancer treatment is incredibly successful and better tolerated than old therapies. Cancers detected early have high survival rates, and even people with advanced cancers can live for years with new immunotherapy medications.
Access to screening programs still varies from province to province. If you’re a smoker, ask your doctor about accessing lung cancer screening in your region. In Brampton you don’t need a doctors referral and can access the program directly here.