‘Stop Smoking’ Aids
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008Each time I go to the chemist’s shop to pick up my prescription medicine nicotine nasal spray, the help I am using to assist me stop smoking, the person receiving me does a double-take at the cost. “Whoa!” the lady behind the counter stated last month while the four bottles of spray, which is a bit more than a month’s meriting, recorded to be $259.99. “Do you know this one is not addressed by the insurance, right?” I understand. Boy, do I acknowledge. The spray, though, is acting. In spite of past slips, I am not fuming. And I calculate the price of my future and my health is — invaluable. The other day, one UCSF nursing student admirer who assisted me stop smoking shared this point with me: There are two terms for those having Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, a condition induced by smoking.
One is known as a “blue bloater” while the other one a “pink puffer.” The blue bloater is normally heavy and draws in whatever air he can get in strained, deep breaths. The pink puffer is generally lean and breathes with wrinkled lips, as if he’s absorbing through a coffee budging straw. Many patients with COPD cannot walk above 300 feet without a lot of discomfort. I enjoy hiking, climbing and biking and I want to be capable of doing this while I am 50. In my impression, that’s meriting the $260 every month right there.