Old diabetic - Importance of giving up smoking

[kevs2g]

Hello reader,

Ive been wandering what to write here but decided my profile information would probably do me best. If anyone has any questions about my history below (there's a fair bit) then please feel free to send me a private message but if you're a diabetic and you smoke, you may wish to read on....

Former pancreatitis sufferer, no spleen, no gall bladder, diabetic type one since 1997 with only half a pancreas. Now suffering diabetic retinopathy and in serious need of blood glucose changes. Just started to monitor and carb count correctly, having paid the price of reading eyesight loss, hoping to add my own experiences here and support others.

Feel free to ask any questions, I spent 10 years on the sick with pancreatitis (have since worked for 9 without a problem) my magical cure was giving up smoking!! Smoking irritated my pancreas causing pain, within three weeks of stopping I managed to stop 120mg of morphine per day, 3 weeks after that I started full time work! If that doesn't grab the attention of a pancreatitis sufferer then I don't know what will.

Thanks for reading, hope to chat with you soon.

Kevin

 

[AndBreathe]

Hello reader,

Ive been wandering what to write here but decided my profile information would probably do me best. If anyone has any questions about my history below (there's a fair bit) then please feel free to send me a private message but if you're a diabetic and you smoke, you may wish to read on....

Former pancreatitis sufferer, no spleen, no gall bladder, diabetic type one since 1997 with only half a pancreas. Now suffering diabetic retinopathy and in serious need of blood glucose changes. Just started to monitor and carb count correctly, having paid the price of reading eyesight loss, hoping to add my own experiences here and support others.

Feel free to ask any questions, I spent 10 years on the sick with pancreatitis (have since worked for 9 without a problem) my magical cure was giving up smoking!! Smoking irritated my pancreas causing pain, within three weeks of stopping I managed to stop 120mg of morphine per day, 3 weeks after that I started full time work! If that doesn't grab the attention of a pancreatitis sufferer then I don't know what will.

Thanks for reading, hope to chat with you soon.

Kevin

I'm not T1, and have never smoked, thank goodness. Smoking can do such sneaky, nasty damage over the years.

May I ask though; what was the morphine for? Was it to control the pancreatitis pain? How did you come to realise your smoking was so significantly impacting your pancreas, or was the cessation of your smoking a separate decision, but you just found that as time progressed you needed less pain relief?

 

[Liam1955]

Hello @kevs2g and Welcome to the Forum .

 

[Freema]

kevs2g welcome here !

 

[kevs2g]

I'm not T1, and have never smoked, thank goodness. Smoking can do such sneaky, nasty damage over the years.

May I ask though; what was the morphine for? Was it to control the pancreatitis pain? How did you come to realise your smoking was so significantly impacting your pancreas, or was the cessation of your smoking a separate decision, but you just found that as time progressed you needed less pain relief?

Hi. I took morphine for pancreatitis pain for over 10 years. I had absolutely no idea the smoking was causing my pancreatitis, I had my gall bladder removed plus many other so called fixes that just didn't work. I decided to give up smoking to smell nice again, it was not connected to pancreatitis or to try and alleviate any pain in any way, it was a pure coincidence. I realise this wont be a cure for everyone but its worth a try!

At no point of my pancreatitis suffering did I feel that pain had decreased until I gave up smoking. Pancreatitis is evil, it changes lives, I lost 10 years of mine to it, I still regret leaving the smoking cessation so late but grateful that I did.

 

[AndBreathe]

Hi. I took morphine for pancreatitis pain for over 10 years. I had absolutely no idea the smoking was causing my pancreatitis, I had my gall bladder removed plus many other so called fixes that just didn't work. I decided to give up smoking to smell nice again, it was not connected to pancreatitis or to try and alleviate any pain in any way, it was a pure coincidence. I realise this wont be a cure for everyone but its worth a try!

At no point of my pancreatitis suffering did I feel that pain had decreased until I gave up smoking. Pancreatitis is evil, it changes lives, I lost 10 years of mine to it, I still regret leaving the smoking cessation so late but grateful that I did.

Great story (although, obviously not the part about losing 10 years to pancreatitis!).

My guess is you have a huge disincentive to ever smoking again. It's probably one of the best things you will ever have done for your overall healthy. I hope your well-being continues to improve and you can get back to some of the adventures you maybe deferred during those 10 years.

 

[zand]

Hi, welcome Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Freema]

so scary if a lot of persons get a lot of diseases just from being smokers and nobody ever getting the idea that smoking could do that kind of harm too.. so happy I stopped smoking and haven´t been smoking in 10 years now..