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COPD
[
Pectoriloquy
]
Editor’s Note: The author writes, “In ‘COPD,’ I considered what drives patients to continue smoking even when they know it is a risk factor for their conditions. I tried to capture the disconnect and difficulty in expressing oneself to one’s doctors, or even to one’s family. I am a second year medical student at Emory University School of Medicine. I am currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Styloid Process, Emory’s medical school literary and arts journal.”
COPD When you have lungs as broken as mine they blame you. Smoking is a common cause. So is genetics. Pollution. Occupational hazards. Mine is smoking. I tell them I had to start sleeping on the couch a week ago, because I couldn’t climb the stairs. Shortness of breath, they type, but I want them to know that I showed my husband what I meant by giving him a piece of uncooked macaroni and saying, Try breathing through that. He pursed his lips and tried. They all asked me why I was still smoking, and I said it made me feel clean—the sharp inhale. The release. Sophia Valesca Görgens, BS Atlanta, GA
Copyright Ó 2017 American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2017.03.042
chestjournal.org
673
Pectoriloquy
]
Editor’s Note: The author writes, “In ‘COPD,’ I considered what drives patients to continue smoking even when they know it is a risk factor for their conditions. I tried to capture the disconnect and difficulty in expressing oneself to one’s doctors, or even to one’s family. I am a second year medical student at Emory University School of Medicine. I am currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Styloid Process, Emory’s medical school literary and arts journal.”
COPD When you have lungs as broken as mine they blame you. Smoking is a common cause. So is genetics. Pollution. Occupational hazards. Mine is smoking. I tell them I had to start sleeping on the couch a week ago, because I couldn’t climb the stairs. Shortness of breath, they type, but I want them to know that I showed my husband what I meant by giving him a piece of uncooked macaroni and saying, Try breathing through that. He pursed his lips and tried. They all asked me why I was still smoking, and I said it made me feel clean—the sharp inhale. The release. Sophia Valesca Görgens, BS Atlanta, GA
Copyright Ó 2017 American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2017.03.042
chestjournal.org
673