Life...

On my last cardio prac I saw a whole variety of pts with the majority being COPD pts many of whom were still smoking!

I did however have the opportunity to meet a CF pt. He was in his mid 20’s and was well aware of the fact that his only had a hand full of years to life. Yet he was so full of life and said he enjoyed living life everyday like it may be his last! He said he’d learnt how to cope with his condition from a young age and was pretty compliant with his management of CF. Meeting him helped me understand CF much better and get an insight about how he coped with his condition.

This situation got me thinking and made me realise just how valuable life is and how ungrateful some pts are with respect to their conditions and how they manage them. It makes you want to show these patients who have been choosing to harm themselves for years with smoking, drugs and drinking just how to value their lives. It’s like no matter how much to tell a pt that smoking is a bad habit and it does you more harm and good sometimes it just goes in one ear and comes out the other! Educating pts is something we have a great influence over. I guess if we keep on drilling the message into the pts we encounter somewhere along the line it will make a difference and make them realise that life is precious............