Can Cigarette Smoke Damage BPAP/Hurt Therapy?

[Riv]

I'm not a smoker. I quit cigarettes cold turkey in April 08 before I started Apnea treatment (got my machine in June 08)..............Problem is I have a new girlfriend. I care for this woman a great deal, I could even say I love her and want to marry her.

Now that's not the problem.

The problem is that she's a smoker.

She's been over my house, slept over.

She doesn't smoke in the apartment, she goes outside if she wants a smoke. But being smoke-free these days, I have a tremendous ability to smell cigarette odor or the residual cigarette smoke and this stuff reeks on her hair, her body, the pores of her skin, her clothes, pillow, bags etc.

Can this smell get into my BPAP? Get into my lungs when I inhale the room air through my mask? Mess up the workings and the sensors of my machine?

Is there a way to get the smell of cigarettes out of an apartment or bedroom?

[Michele1234]

I know someone who bought a used machine from a smoker , the thing reeked the smell would not come out even after several cleanings.basically ruined a really nice machine.

[ozij]

Can this smell get into my BPAP?

Smell is something you sense or do not sense. Do you sense it through your BIPAP?

Get into my lungs when I inhale the room air through my mask?

Maybe - but the amount you have in your lungs from your days of smoking is much more relevant that the leftover smell from the cigarettes your girl friend smokes outside

Mess up the workings and the sensors of my machine?

I don't think so.

Ask yourself: Could you live the rest of your life married to a smoker?

And don't get into "if you loved me enough you would stop smoking -- that's a direct road to a very messy and unsatisfying relationship.

O.

[sleepie]

if you love her--then you love her!--------if not get a non-smoker----its that simple

[Elbysmom2004]

I don't know if the smoke can damage the machine or not but I do know that it can hurt you even though she is smoking outside. I don't know how much you smoked or didn't smoke but I quit cold turkey in Oct of '04. I woke up one morning lit a cig. and took a couple drags gave it to my ex and told him that I quit. I haven't picked one up since or wanted to pick one up and at times I feel like a hypocrit because the smoke smell bothers me so bad now I HATE it.

So now on to what my son's pulminologist told me about my ex smoking around my son....

When a person goes outside to smoke carcengens stick to a persons clothes, hair, skin, etc.... If my ex comes in and holds my son or my daughter for that matter the carcengens (which could be allergens) would transfere from him to my son and most likely cause an asthma attack.

It got to the point that I was in the ER with my son 2-3 times a week with 4 hour albuterol treatments. This was not fun. Especially starting in a 2 month old baby. I spent plenty of sleepless nights holding a baby on my chest inpatient at the hospital with oxygen up his nose.

If it's either you smell or don't smell why is it when you go in for IVF treatment there is a sign that says no perfume, lotions, or soaps with smells are to be used due to the fact that it can cause the embryo's to die?

Some of my son's strongest asthma triggers are smoke of any kind, perfume, and fresh cut grass. All of which could put him in the hospital at anytime.

After my ex left in Dec of '06 my son went from having 2-3 ER visits a week to not having an ER visit until March of '07. Then he didn't have another one until Oct of '08. The one in '08 was for croup though. He still is on 6 different maint. meds and see's the pulminologist we just have better control and in one of the letters from the dr it actually states that one of the reasons for the major improvement was the removal of the smoker from the home.

Also, if smoking was just a smell then why can you get cancer easier from 2nd hand smoke then from smoking yourself? Just go to the American Lung Association and read what they have to say.

[LinkC]

Actually, smoking cures OSA!
(Once you die from the zillion complications of smoking, you sleep like a log...)

And I think the only way to get the smoke smell out of your house is to eliminate the source.

[Paul56]

Well, as you know smoking inside a home can get surfaces in that home covered with a film from the smoke. Given she goes outside to smoke you will be spared the direct contact but there will always be residual contact.

How harmful that will be over the long term is the big question here.

Google "effects of second hand smoke" and do some reading.

I cannot advise you on how to deal with the relationship... I know how difficult it can be to find someone you want to spent time with and perhaps the rest of your life with. It is all about trade-offs and what you are willing to accept.

[Riv]

Well, as you know smoking inside a home can get surfaces in that home covered with a film from the smoke. Given she goes outside to smoke you will be spared the direct contact but there will always be residual contact.

How harmful that will be over the long term is the big question here.

Google "effects of second hand smoke" and do some reading.

I cannot advise you on how to deal with the relationship... I know how difficult it can be to find someone you want to spent time with and perhaps the rest of your life with. It is all about trade-offs and what you are willing to accept.

You are exactly correct when you say that it is all about trade offs.

It's all a gamble...................Can I or can we find the love and the married life that I'm yearning for, that she is yearning for, that we are yearning for and what are the variables which go into the mix?

I'm posting here about what I risk by getting involved with a smoker. I'm sure she'll think about and ask about what she risks by getting involved with me and that's something she should think about and ask about. In my case my fear isn't about being exposed to smoke per se but it's about cigarette smoke or RESIDUE/ODOR/PARTICLES from cigarette smoke messing up my BPAP, my therapy, my breathing.

I stop breathing at sleep onset, this has been going on since April 08 and I quit cigarettes three days after this nonbreathing problem began. I'm only able to sleep (with BPAP) by using generic ambien and L'Tryptophan. I sleep three hours, wake up, sleep another hour, and keep waking up every hour after and this may be due to leaks because of my high pressure.

My leaks go high each time I get a large cluster of apneas (as I see on EncoreViewer reports) and I usually wake and fix the leak.

I have had an uncomfortable, sort of burning like or a burning DENTED like feeling in my throat for a long time and this was before I quit smoking and it hasn't gone away. It comes back when I'm around odors that are unhealthy to breathe and her smoking (around me-outside the apartment and in her car) and cigarette odor brings the burning dented feeling.

I posted the original post in order to gain more knowledge so that I might better know if I can afford to take the chance of possibly living with and marrying a woman who will have smoke polluted items to bring with her into wherever we live, even if she quit smoking say sometime before that.

[sleepie]

smoke poluted items to bring with her???????---this must be a joke!----i hope she don't have a dog or kids----they can be much more annoying than --smoke poluted items---seems to me you are looking for a reason out---and since your looking,,i think you found it---smoke poluted items----run away----

[JayR_1945]

I'm not a smoker. I quit cigarettes cold turkey in April 08 before I started Apnea treatment (got my machine in June 08).........The problem is that she's a smoker.

No, the problem is that you do not smoke and she does. Unfortunately the whole issue is devisive.
If the basis for the "love" is that you are the superior person and she is the one in perpetual need of guidance and control, I don't see a happy relationship. Could you imaging living with someone who has a compulsion against CPAP machines. ....going on and on about I can't stand the noise. It keeps me awake. And those hoses, they're everywhere. You know those filters collect dust. And, I'm alergic to dust. I think I'm having an asthma attack.
Dump her before she dumps you.

[Riv]

smoke poluted items to bring with her???????---this must be a joke!----i hope she don't have a dog or kids----they can be much more annoying than --smoke poluted items---seems to me you are looking for a reason out---and since your looking,,i think you found it---smoke poluted items----run away----

No joke and I'm certainly not looking for a way out.

Are you a smoker?

Smoke gets into a lot of things, like books, furniture, video tapes. You can wash smoke out of clothes and it leaves your skin soon after you quit but it broke my heart to have to throw away a lot of valuable, precious items since I couldn't get out the strong odor of cigarette smoke and all the rest that comes from cigarettes, and the odor was messing my breathing up.

Yes, cigarette smoke pollutes a heck of a lot of household as well as other items and I'm sure that you'll find plenty of evidence on-line and in this forum that this is true.

[sleepie]

like you i quit a while ago--your making too much of the smoke---how did the caveman ever make it--he had no themostat--just a smoke filled room---live and love her smoke and all---after all ,,,you stunk once

[Pugsy]

Edited Wed Jun 9
Do the girlfriend a favor and dump her now. Save her wasting her time on a whiner.

[DreamStalker]

I've learned that different relationships have different requirements when it comes to love. The kind of relationship you are talking about is the two-way kind. You can love them all you want but if they don't love 'ya back, you will just set yourself up for unbearable pain. Having said that, if she really loves you as much as you love her, she will quit smoking. If she doesn't, you best save yourself time and pain (and maybe money too) and start looking for another ... and there are lots available, you just have to be patient in your search (just like fishing ).

[Pugsy]

Edited June 9
Offer of cheap help is withdrawn. No summer discount either.