concerned about brothers health....

LegacyUser

hi i just got back from a trip to the uk with my brother this morning....we were travelling in my car for a total of 7 hours and travelled on 2 ferries (in the space of 24 hours)...now hes 27 years old and has been smoking heavily (20-30 marlboro reds a day, and lots and lots of cannabis) since he was about 15...i noticed when i picked him up yesterday mroning that there was a bad smell from him, hes quite a hygenic person so its quite strange, also his 'smokers' cough seems to have gotten far worse than i ever remember it...anyway the smell was so bad i had to have both windows of the car down the whole journey, i mean it was a REALLY bad smell...anyway on the ferry back this morning we got a cabin to get a couple of hours sleep, the cabin was like a really small room with nbo windows and 2 beds, so i woke up after a couple of hours sleep....and the stench was overpowering, i mean really really awful, not the kind of smell that youd say 'go take a shower' or 'go brush your teeth' more like ' go see a doctor'....anyways hes 27, has had a bad diet and absolutely no exercise since he was a young teenager, hes also prone to depression and has quite alot of problems in his life, my main concern is that he ight have lung cancer - that smell is really really awful, like something is dying or rotting inside him its really bad....i dont know how to say anything to him about it without embarassing him but i think he really needs to get it checked out, i dont think hes been for a checkup for many years, has anyone ever heard of anything like this being a symptom of lung cancer? im seeing my doctor tomorrow for a muscle propblem so i think ill ask her anyway....but any advice appreciated

Beruthiel

concernedbro wrote:

hi i dont know how to say anything to him about it without embarassing him

get over it
seriously, if your brother cannot count on you to 'tell it like it is' then who can he count on?
Do you not think he would want to know he smells that bad? would you not want him to tell you if the shoe was on the other foot?

tell him you want him to see a doctor, you're worried and it can do him no harm. How hard is that to say?

Blub2k4

I dont think you need to worry about cancer, there are a lot of things that could cause a smell like that, two that come to mind are "crotch rot" and the other one would be "chefs arse", I dont know the real names of them but believe me neither are too nice and neither is serious.
If his diet is bad and he gets no roughage there is also a chance that he is backed up and that can be a problem too, Jamie Oliver said he has spoken to doctors in the UK who says that some kids are so badly backed up from crappy food that they are vomiting fecal material.
There are a lot of possibilities, I'd talk to the brother myself.

Oryx

Id be more embarrassed if a person close to me didnt tell me I stank. He could have rotten teeth, halitosis, not wash enough, be smoking skunk, who knows? Lung cancer is the last thing you should be worrying about. Talk to him and rule out the obvoius first.