Tough Week

I joined ECF back in August of 2017. I was sixty-five years old and had been smoking 25-30 cigarettes a day for 40+ years. I began vaping at the same time win the hope I could at least cut down. I dual used for months, continually cutting back on cigarettes. I smoked my last cigarette on May 11, 2018 - I am coming up on my three year anniversary. When I began, I vaped 24mg nicotine. Now I alternate between 3mg and zero nic.

Given how incredibly positive vaping has been for me, I am in shock at recent events. I was down to two working mods. I have ordered four mods, some tanks and a bunch of coils. I am still able to buy some eliquids where I live - but many of my favorites from Halo have been discontinued. I still have some outstanding hardware orders that I hope get delivered.

The treatment of vaping in the media has been a one sided disgrace, and propaganda works. Over the years when I have mentioned to people that I quit by vaping, they respond, ‘so you quit smoking by picking up a habit that is even more dangerous’.

I am set for at least a year. Fortunately I have kicked my addiction to nicotine - I recently vaped zero nic for a month. If I was just starting out, it would truly be panic time, and I would go back to cigarettes for sure. I suspect that many will do just that. Happy I started when I did.  

Friday it will be eight weeks since I've had a cigarette and I am rewarding myself with a new setup. After careful consideration, I've decided on the Eleaf IStick 30w with a Kanger Subtank Nano. The ELeaf has all of the features I'm looking for and the kit comes in at under 40 bucks. Not retiring my Ego C Twist just yet though. It's been a workhorse. It got me through some tough times...as has everyone here on the forum. Thanks.  

Sooo.
I lost my sigelei 150 watt at the airport in taiwan before security.
Noticed it was missing after security (early morning flight, hadnt slept, was on the phone, doing too much at once i suppose)
Anyways, tried to figure out how to get it back by going back out through security.... But apparently, that was impossible, and no one spoke english, so I got super ...agitated... and before I blew up at the next person, I went in to the smoke room and bummed a smoke off some dude. (Cuz i was seriously agitated at this point). Dont get me wrong, i had had a few puffs post vape, but this is the first real full smoke I had. I am not posting this because ive worked myself up in to some guilt trip because I failed myself, I dont really care in that respect...I dont regret having one, because I might have ended up ... doing something bad at a foreign airport out of sheer annoyance and frustration.
Anyways, I remember, when I first started vaping, there was always ...something missing. Something...no there that was there with cigarettes.
Now, The cigarette, Burning my eyes and tasting terrible, and leaving a smell on my fingers that lasted for hours ...all that aside... There is now something missing with cigarettes.
If I had to name something... I would say that the wattage in the cigarette seems too low... or the ohms too high.... Or both, Kinda kidding, but its like that feeling... That coupled with the fact that the airflow is not enough and unfortunately, its not adjustable.... And... I kept trying to draw like i do with my vape, long and slow.... and no... i could only manage short pulls.
The point... Is I just find it weird that I definitely felt something was missing when I started vaping... Something wasnt there, but now, when I went back to smoking, Its like... everything is missing.

Needless to say, the remaining 12 hours of my journey home and to my house from the airport, I didnt crave a cigarette at all.

BUT MAN, when I got home... DID I EVER CHAIN VAPE!

On the upside, I already rebought the Sigelei, This time in Red, And stuck on Mechs till it gets here.  

Hi guys, I'm back!

I'm still vaping away, and happy as ever to be doing it. You guys might remember me, it's been a while. My mom died from lung cancer and I haven't smoked a cigarette since. But I'm humbly asking for help from the experts, because I'm at a loss.

I vape on a Vandy Vape Berserker MTL vape pen, and I buy the coils from elementvape.com or electrictobacconist.com. I vape salts, 24mg. This works BEAUTIFULLY for me. I'm satisfied, it's easy, I have zero interest in building things or using tiny screwdrivers or any of that. Maybe once all the little people in the house can use the bathroom without my assistance I'll have time to devote to coil building, but I digress....

So onto my issue... No one is selling the coils for this vape pen! It's out of stock everywhere and I am freaking out. I don't want to use pod systems, I live way out in BFE and don't want to constantly be waiting on shipments.

Can anyone tell me SPECIFIC devices to buy that 1. work with salts and 2. have coils that don't need to be built. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?!?! And dumb it down, talk slowly, I don't know all the lingo of the cool kids.

Thank you guys in advance. You all were very kind to me while my mom was dying, and I appreciate it so much.  

hey All,

I joined here several months ago. Posted that I had done e-cigs for march to about June and then switched back to traditional and came back here for support and knowledge which I have received in spades here.thanks.

32 days ago I came down with low grade fever, 100.5 at most slights aches and fatigue..nothing major but certainly not ordinary. At the time I was back to 10-15 traditional cigs per day. But with the fever and fatigue I immediately stopped tradtional cigs--as I thought it could be Covid and honestly had no desire.

Turns out it was NOT Covid and in the 32 days I have had a total of 3 puffs from an e-cig in my desk drawer. I'm otherwise back to normal and only slightly crave a hit of e-cig and I know can use it I need it but the cravings only are short.

I think one part of this is with Covid and being in NYC--I'm not on the streets as much and I never see hardly anyone smoke or even vape. I do go to an office 4 days a week and the walk to the office is 12 minutes. And like a normal city--pre covid you'd always see people outside having a smoke or a vape and enjoying themselves and for me that's what kind of drove the cravings and addiction. now when I come home from work, I don't have a craving need.

After 32 days without a traditional cig and only 3 puffs of an e-cig --does that happen to people? In my head I have committed that I will be a non traditional cig smoker and if I need the e-cigs I'm fine with that. There is a slight concern that if we ever get back to normal and I " see" people smoke that might bring it back..who knows? Hopefully I am far along enough now that it wont' effect me. In fact I saw a bke messenger smoking at a stop light yesterday and just looking at the traditional cig kind of grossed me out. so maybe that's a good sign?

The benefits so far a my apartment and clothes smell normal. I have more energy and can breath better.

Maybe for me (and others) the visual appeal or or just seeing others enjoy a cigarette was part of the addiction?  

Today was follow up #2 to my cardiologist. A bit over a year ago my heart got all outta whack from years of bad habits.
Dude blamed it on smoking. So my next logical step was to start vaping.

A follow visit later I showed him my Aspire Rover X30 (w/D22 tank) and he high fived me. Next visit everything was good to go. So he put me on a bi-yearly schedule. This was visit #2.

He came in the room all happy at what an ekg, and other tests showed good signs. He asked if I still smoke and I said yes but while pulling out my vape pod and showed him. "I smoke a lot less now" I said.

He said "keep on vaping and some day you'll stop smoking". Agreed. He said come back in a year and if I'm not smoking anymore he'll pay for the visit. (about $500 total with tests).

Ironically on the way into the facility I had to put out a fire from a cigarette in a landscaped area where the mulch was smoldering.

Anybody else have a doctor who approves of vaping?  

This is not just a vaping story, but I think vaping is a part of it, so would like to share it.

When I was 57, I was obese and pathetically out of shape. I was about 240 lbs. (height: 5'7") and in a size 40 pants. I was smoking about 3 packs a day at that time.

I had to have my heart and lungs checked for a surgery because if diverticulitis.

The testing revealed that I had COPD, and had the lung capacity of a person with 1 lung. It also revealed that I had had a heart attack at some point.

I survived the surgery, but they informed me that if I did not quit smoking, start exercising, and lose weight, that I would not be around much longer.

After I recovered enough from the surgery I started walking. I could barely walk a single mile at a slow pace before feeling like I was going to die and had to lie down to recover. I kept doing it no matter how bad it felt, and I did it 2, 3, sometimes 4 times per day.

Eventually I could walk 2 miles at a faster pace, then 3 miles, then 5. It started actually feeling good. I got a fitness tracker that monitored my heart rate and pace, and started power walking at least once a day.

I vaped years before but fell off the wagon, so I decided to start vaping again. It took about 6 months to gradually smoke less and vape more until I was just vaping.

Eventually I could not keep my heart rate up enough from just power walking so I started running. I could only run for about 30 seconds at a slow pace at first, but I followed the same process as I did for walking, and worked my way up to being able to run 5 miles non stop.

the beginning of this year I completed a 12 week half marathon training program, and my final run for the program, I ran 13.57 miles.

I just turned 62 this month, have lost about 60 lbs., went from a size 40 to a size 32 pants, and have not smoked a cigarette in going on 3 years now.

My last stress test they told me that my heart had actually healed itself from the heart attack, and that it was strong and healthy now. I also had one of those tests where you blow into the plastic tube to see how strong your lungs are, and when I blew into it, the person said... "wow... you got some healthy lungs".

Also, my resting heart rate went from the high 80's to the mid 50's over the last 5 years. This means my heart is getting stronger because it can pump more blood per beat, and does not have to beat as many times per minute to pump the same amount of blood.

Like I said... this is not just a vaping story, but I think vaping has helped along the way.  

I will be making some juice. Yes, I know how to do it, but then comes the question about how to sweep it quickly. I've heard some people purchasing a ultrasonic cleaner (wish I had the money), and for every 2 hours of doing it this way, it sweeps the juice (if done the old fashion way) 2 weeks. I'm all for that. Now, what if you took a beater and beat it for 20 mins? Would that be mixing up the stuff inside really good? Now comes the next part. Let's say you make enough juice for 1 month (in my case 1000 ml) and place this in 4 jars. All the jars get the beater treatment. Then I take one jar and use that for the week. Wouldn't the other jars be sweeping and then finally catch up? Or maybe I don't understand this sweeping at all.
Now for the next question: I just when from coils to mesh. I love it! Not having to change our a coil for 2 weeks is great! Okay, now the mesh I have in my tank now says 50-80 watts (I guess). Is it okay to still vape it at 40 watts, as 50 is a little hot for my taste.
Thanks all for your help in this.  

I posted this in 2016 in this thread: Starting to smell smoke after years of vaping?

Some of the replies freaked me out and the phantom smoke smell went away eventually though I don't know exactly how. I received some questions from other people so I thought I should follow up on what happened in my situation.

About three years ago I ended up going to the doctor because I couldn't sleep and was referred to a sleep specialist and found out I had sleep apnea. I had a week on their sleep monitor and was told I stopped breathing hundreds (or thousands? can't remember, but a lot!) of times a night and could suffocate and die at any time. Then they wanted me to buy a cpap machine and be hooked up to this thing for the rest of my life, like a pod in The Matrix, and pay for all these supplies regularly. After a week on the cpap machine I was almost suffocated by the machine multiple times and I woke up gasping for air, either because I knocked the mask loose in my sleep or because they said they had to adjust settings over the internet.

I knew the cpap wasn't going to work for me so I took it all back and never went back to the doctor (I was "only" out the $1000 or so for all the testing and what not). From reading about sleep apnea and my own logic, it made sense if I was overweight that my nasal passages and throat could be enlarged also and could be causing my breathing problems. I totally changed my diet and never ate fast food or processed food again and had to cut back to 1500-1700 calories a day to lose about 2-6 lbs of weight a week. I lost almost half of my body weight over the course of 1.5 years and my sleep apnea went away. Over that period I also switched up my vaping hardware and juice so I don't know when the phantom smoke smell disappeared, but it did, and luckily I didn't have brain cancer or anything else some people suggested.

I know weight isn't the only thing that causes sleep apnea, but in my case it did. Now I actually get REM sleep and when I get to bed on time, I'm fully rested. From what the doctors told me, before all this I was being woken constantly trying to breath. I was tired 24 hours a day no matter how much "sleep" I got and would fall asleep just sitting down for a few minutes anywhere. Sometimes I had to pull off the road for a 10 minute nap or risk falling asleep while driving. Driving long distances was misery. Now when I think back I can only describe those years as a walking dream. That's what it felt like being deprived of sleep for years.

It's hard to believe that obstructed breathing wouldn't have contributed to the sense of smell, but it was either that or just switching up my vaping. I believe the weight had something to do with it.  

This past week marks 5 years since I smoked a cigarette. It honestly doesn't seem that long, it seems like yesterday I was huddled out in the cold at work with the smokers. I had been a smoker for 28 years.

Unlike many I see posting here, I cannot say vaping helped me quit. I quit cold turkey, and never tried an ecig until about a year after I quit smoking. At that point I was still doing well as a non-smoker, I didn't physically crave smoking, but I missed the 28 year habit of lighting up, having something to fiddle with, and just the relaxing feeling of the inhale/exhale. I had been eating a lot more to make up for the void, and having been underweight all my life I started packing on pounds (too many!). I sorely needed a non-food substitute for the comfort I was missing, but wasn't about to go back to smoking.

I tried a junky convenience store ecig after that first year, and thought "if this was what they were like than forget it". I continued on not smoking, but still missing the habit. About two years after that I began seeing the new advanced products coming out, and did a lot of research. I bought my first starter kit in 2013, and slowly advanced up to bigger and better gear.

People ask why would start vaping after I had already kicked the cigarette habit, and I say, "Why not?". Other than nicotine I'm not getting any of the negative things I got with cigarettes. And in my opinion, there's really nothing wrong with a little nicotine. Nicotine is not what was killing me, it was the smoke that was delivering the nicotine that was killing me.

So I'm 5 years smoke free, I no longer hack in the mornings, my chest never hurts and my clothes, car and hair don't stink anymore.
I have no intentions on giving up vaping, as it has no negative impact on my life, and i enjoy it, so why stop?

I have since gotten my son, my step-son, and his wife to all trade vaping for smoking, so bonus points for saving all their lives too!