I really wish there was a simple all purpose statement or response to being singled out because of a chronic cough. Its pretty hard to have an actual smoker's cough and not smell like tobacco. Smokers aren't some evil sub humans that have weak personalities. Nicotine is a true narcotic with true chemical addiction. For a certain population of people, the habit might as well be air. It's almost as if they have multiples of dopamine receptors and the result is predictable if the opportunity exists.
I don't often have the heavy smoker hack. My cough response is almost non existent and by the time I am coughing, I'm sick. Second hand smoke probably gave me quite a bit of my cough, all the time I was living at home. One morning I was in a traffic accident on my way to school. The 90 minutes of sitting with 3-4 men, some policemen and the other driver and such, I was fully smoked by the time I was dropped at school. When getting my absence and return slips the vice principal suddenly asked if I was a smoker in an accusing tone. At first I couldn't imagine what prompted his remark. When I realized that he smelled tobacco, I was really offended. You seem to have your own answer, within reason, being friendly and reassuring is not harming anybody. We cannot expect the world to understand CF and we can still assuage people's concerns without revealing what you have.
Since the topic of smoking was broached...... Personally I feel sorry for smokers. Especially in urban Colorado where Boulderites became anti-smoking fanatics. More on that later. I abhore tobacco smoke. I can pick off tobacco smoke three houses away. My parents were smokers when virtually the only non smokers were children. When I grew to the age where people either began to smoke or knew the facts and broke with tradition, I broke with tradition. If I was born ten years earlier the culture of smoking wasn't questioned an I might have followed my father. In the U.S., anti-smoking campaigns were being sponsored by American Lung Association and American Cancer Society. They were low profile and more focused on disseminating information contained in scientific research.
One of the two non smoking teachers in our highschool almost single handedly arranged a field trip a hundred miles away to attend a convention on smoking related disease studies. I went but didn't need 6 hours of wandering around exhibits and watching videos to learn about all we knew of smoking related disease in 1967. A healthy lung hung from the neck of a bell jar "breathing" with a hidden vacuum supply along with an emphysemic lung working side by side in another bell jar apparatus.
Parents back then were not geared to question everything and smoking was a joint illusion. My older brother and I were the dishwashers. Every other time I washed, he dried and stacked and so forth. After all the dishes were done we had the ashtrays to empty, wash and dry. Ugh! ICK! Ooh I hated cleaning those things. Whenever we went anywhere as a family, we three kids filled the backseat and the second we were in motion they lit up. A three hour trip amounted to three hours of non stop smoking.
It was a culture I can't wait to die away. Anytime a substance is so universally consumed has something to it. An old cartoon shown during a documentary about tobacco finally clued me in on what's going on with nicotine in general and the act of smoking. The cartoon was this deep voiced character standing over a crying child. He quickly pops a cigarette in the child's mouth and lights it while he declares "here, have a nice Sooothing cigarette ". Victims of panic attacks know a cigarette can be both medicine and a great excuse to get some " fresh air".
Considering Boulder for the moment, non smoking laws allow employers to extend a company non smoking policy to the homes of employees. As an anti-smoking fanatic myself I find myself weighing individual rights of both sides. As much as I'd love a world without tobacco, it's not fair for those who were born needing nicotine, or something to mitigate the nervous intensity that is more than an addiction.
With no sign of anti smoking laws and policies letting up, the chances of being mistaken for a smoker are going to decrease. Every person and situation is different. Some people can't stop themselves from telling the world they have CF while others or other times discretion or just a wish for privacy seems right.
Humor is a good tool,
LL
