When Grandpa stopped smoking 12/9/08

When Grandpa stopped smoking
By: Maria Reylan M. Garcia

The rice stalks dressed themselves with dewdrops glittering with every striking ray of the mighty sun. I marched down the narrow muddy path which didn't give much justice to my newly polished black shoes. All sorts of cattle scattered across the vast farmland taking advantage of a cool and damp ground brought about by last evening's rain. I continued trekking the unfamiliar place and subdued my unfortunate shoes to the sticky and thick whim of brown mud. I was clad up in my community nursing uniform and on my way to the family assigned to my
care.

Finally reaching the doorstep, I knocked on the door of a family of seven who were more than eager to welcome me into their home. For the first few visits, I have observed and learned from their life style hoping to collate the needed information for the requirements I am to pass days after. But, it wasn't long when those visits bounded themselves by concern and empathy, that I wanted to learn more about them not just to satisfy the requirements but to find ways to actually
help them.

During those visits, I was supposed to perform one nursing technique in front of my clinical instructor. Anxiety gulped me whole shaking the even the most timid nerves. I was to perform urinalysis using
acetic acid to determine if one family member, the grandfather, had risk for hypertension as he already had experienced the condition in his middle-age years. I was indeed happy after achieving a concrete result and didn't mess up the technique. Grandpa had a slight risk for the possible recurrence of hypertension. With these findings, I opted to impart some health teachings to eliminate the factors that contribute to such risk. He smokes a pack of cigarettes every day. He
drinks whisky after a tiring day from grazing his cattle and tending his field. One of his family blurted out that it's been more than 40 years since he had first smoked and this vice lingered on his daily
routine even if how abounding the reminders are to quit smoking.

Grandpa wasn't my only patient, the entire family was. Their lives are
intertwined in a web of connection, each triumph will lead to the
success of another and each failure will push the dominoes to the
downfall of another. The family was living in a semi-permanent house,
with no flooring and inadequate furniture. Their animal pens were in
proximal distance to their home, thus it wasn't surprising that the
chickens would walk in and out of the house so ordinarily and the
pig's powerful aroma diffuses to almost anywhere. Their water pump is
not yet tested whether it is safe to drink or it houses some bacteria.
These and many more are the problems I have observed with the family,
and although this may be a typical rural poverty-stricken family
lifestyle, soon as the risk factors accumulate it may endanger their
health.

The family to whom I was assigned is just one of the millions of
families with the same or even worse conditions. I wonder why our
country couldn't see the simplest needs of society and just blabber
about theoretical problems. I wonder why our government officials
would provide more fund to military force or foreign relations than to
the people's health. In other countries, medical and nursing services
are within their reach even to the most rural communities, but here in
our country the least fortunate would just be happy enough to be
visited once a year by a student nurse. I wonder why everyone deems
more for a change in the political system, for charter change, while
the rest of the people need most the drastic actions to their problems
and not comprehensive paper works and countless court sessions and
hearings. I wonder why our law makers would pass countless bills and
laws but in the end the country still suffers from economic
insufficiency, from political chaos, and from unsafe drinking water.

During the last day of my visit, the family told me Grandpa was on the
field harvesting rice with the hope of buying a Jollibee meal for it
was his granddaughter's birthday. I let out a smile. They further
added since the day I visited and imparted my health teachings and
told him to drink moderately and stop smoking, Grandpa followed. It's
been a week since he stopped completely from smoking and promise to
only drink on special occasions. His daughter approached me, held my
hand and thanked me for my six days of visit. My smile widened. The
family also promised to get their water supply check and clean up
their surroundings regularly.

A student nurse struggling to get her nursing technique done had made
even a small change in a family's life. A student nurse with muddy
black shoes convinced a Grandpa to stop smoking and improve his health
status.

What more can several others do?