Tips From Former Smokers Tips 2020/TV

Denise and Brian/Vignette “Denise and Brian I’m Just Scared Now”

The spot opens on an art card that says, “I’m Just Scared Now: A Caregiver’s Story” and then cuts to a 

shot of Denise and Brian in their kitchen. Brian sits at the kitchen table and coughs.

The spot then cuts to Denise and Brian sitting facing the camera. We see their names and state 

(Texas). 

BRIAN: Over the years, when I smoked, I never considered the effect that my smoking had on my 

family.

The spot cuts to Brian and Denise sitting in silence. We then see a photo of Denise standing with Brian 

while he’s laying in a hospital bed. 

DENISE: At 35, he had a heart attack.

The spot cuts to Denise talking to the camera.

DENISE: We were back and forth in hospital rooms constantly. I was in doctor’s offices constantly. 

The spot cuts to Denise sitting filling out forms in a doctor’s lobby. And then her and Brian sitting 

together in a waiting room.

DENISE: Then, the cancer came.

The spot cuts to a photo of Brian’s lung surgery scar.

DENISE: And that was like a punch in the stomach.

The spot cuts back to Denise talking to the camera.

DENISE: I was not prepared for that.

The spot cuts to Denise waiting at a hospital.

DENISE: And I’m like, oh my God he’s not gonna live.

The spot cuts back to Denise talking to the camera, and then to her reading her credit card 

information to a receptionist as Brian sits and waits.

DENISE: So now I have to decide what am I going to do, you know?

The spot cuts back to Denise talking to the camera.

DENISE: I thought we were okay.
The spot cuts to Denise waiting in doctor’s offices.

DENISE: Back to doctors, back to tests, back to sitting in hospital rooms.

The spot cuts back to Denise talking to the camera.

DENISE: And then...

The spot cuts to Denise and Brian hugging as they walk down a hospital hall.

DENISE: ...they found another nodule in his lung. I’m thinking, oh here we go again.

The spot cuts to Denise and Brian walking out of their house, presumably to a doctor’s appointment.

DENISE: When you have a sick spouse, it is a job.

The spot cuts back to Denise talking to the camera.

DENISE: Then you have to help him get out of bed. You have to help him change his clothes. You have 

to help, you know, make sure he doesn’t trip getting into the shower ‘cause he has that oxygen that 

he’s using, and the tube has to go in there with him.

The spot cuts to a photo of Brian in a hospital bed, and then back to Brian talking to the camera as he 

sits next to Denise.

BRIAN: And then when I even got sicker and I had to get the PICC line and we had to have pumps at 

home that had to changed out, every...I don’t know...

DENISE: Every other day.

BRIAN: ...Every other day. And the batteries had to be changed out. She did everything to make sure 

that I would - that I would survive.

The spot cuts to Denise helping Brian out of the car, and then back to her talking to the camera.

DENISE: I would get phone calls from neighbors saying, “I found Brian on the floor.” I would talk to my 

boss and say, “I have to go home, my husbands on the floor.”

The spot cuts to Brian walking into the CT scan room and going into the machine.

DENISE: And so, eventually, I told my bosses, I said “I can’t work here anymore. I gotta take care of 

Brian.”

The spot cuts back to Denise talking to the camera.

DENISE: He’s my best friend, you know, and I love him dearly.

The spot cuts to Brian in the CT machine.
DENISE: I’m just scared now, you know, of losing him.

ART CARD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

 Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services