Was Told I Have Copd, And So...

So I started running again. I can say from experience that vaping has to be better for your lungs than smoking ! I was up to running 5 or more miles a day and up to 10 miles while smoking a pack a day. (I'm a former Marine so I tend to do things to the extreme.) When I was smoking in the beginning of a run I would feel a tightness in my chest and I used to attribute to having to get into an aerobic heartbeat. Breathing would be hard for a while. But I would always push myself to do the run. I would finish a run and stop and hack a bit then light a ciggarette. (..... I am lol) I always wondered how it would feel to run if I wasn't smoking. So I haven't run in quite some time (Old Man Winter) and I have been quit smoking for a while. So I started out with a short 2 mile run today. Guess what ? No tightness in the chest, no hard breathing and no hacking ! Can't wait to get back up into the big mile range again ! So if vaping actually had an effect on your lungs would I have not felt it ? In contrary vaping has greatly improved my lungs. So I don't need any scientific studies I just completed my own study ! Hey if anyone else has noticed the same thing let me know I'm interested in your opinion.  

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?  

History. I'm 66, smoked for more than 30 years, quit when I had a small heart attack at about 47-49 years old. BP issues requiring meds and other health issues.

About last August 2019 I had a bunch of stress come up and handled it badly. I started on mild cigars and moved to medium strong. Got in a situation where I couldn't smoke a stogie, so bummed a cigarette. That morphed into smoking more than a carton and stogies.

I knew they'd kill me so I picked up a Juul 3%, not enough moved to 5%.
Moved on to a Vinci x and 50 salt.

Have been mixing and dropping the salt and was to 25ish. Was getting a lot of choking white phlegm every morn. Vaping mostly tobacco with very little flavor. 70-30 was better than 50-50 for muscus/phlegm problem.

The purpose of vaping was to avoid analogs and eventually quit all nicotine.

I'm into the second day today. Piece of nicorette gum in one cheek and a nicorette lozenge in the other. Both 2mg. Consult your doctor on doubling up patches, gum etc.

Withdrawal wasn't bad so far at all. Don't know if vape nic absorbs different or not. It's different than quitting analogs somehow for me anyway.

Anyhow, passing it on for anyone thinking of going down the path of being nic free again. I was off everything for 15+ years and for my heart and health am going there again.

I do have to say though that vaping definitely kept me 100% off analogs once I switched. And didn't palpitate or sense any issues from it, other than a 20 count BP rise.

I vaped lightly, 100-150 2-3 second puffs per day. I still have the equipment and juice if I fail, but so far it's going well.

Dave  

I joined this forum 8 yrs ago. After a couple of years of learning and contributing, I moved on, continued to check back every once in a while but never stopped vaping. I very rarely buy premixed juice, maybe 2-3 times in the past 5 years so when all these lungs issues came up and every other news story was about how vaping was going to kill you, I knew that I was probably OK since I make my own juice. Then it started to sound like there was actual medical proof that vaping was leading to serious lung, heart, etc, disease. Damn near threw all my gear out after reading news stories from several reputable resources confirming my worst fear.

Then I decided to come back here. I can usually pick out the BS pretty quickly and my hackles are already up from having to fend off endless well meaning "you have got to stop vaping!!! " conversations and obvious postings of the news stories on FB .

I grant you that I want all these warnings to be wrong because I love vaping, I really do. It does not make me cough, it doesn't stink up the house and I was pretty confident that it was saving my life. So I'm really kinda POed about all this crap. And I know I'm not alone. I want honest answers and that's what I came here for. After reading just a few threads I'm feeling more relaxed (or is it because I'm sucking on the nautilus mini like a milk shake...). I'm certainly not going to throw anything out...just yet. Anyway, thanks for still being here, nice to drop in .  

I wasn't completely convinced about the safety of e-cigs in the first place, but now I'm pretty sure it's having negative effects on my health.

I'm not in the best physical shape, but health wise I've been pretty resistant to sickness for most of my life. Other than the common cold, or an occasional strep throat (from smoking) in recent years I never get sick. I've rarely seen the doctor, and have never had to take off work due to sickness.

I switched to vaping on June 7th of last year, so it's been about a year. I was able to stay off the stinkies, but to do it I would have to vape at a very high rate. I also found myself more addicted to vaping than I ever was with cigarettes. I mean before I was smoking one every couple of hours, but I didn't smoke at home, so I was only smoking about half a pack a day and closer to a full pack on the weekends. When I switched to e-cigs I was pretty much vaping all day, every day.

Anyways, when I first switched I had the common side effects. I felt like I was getting more acne, and got a canker sore on the inside of my mouth where the vapor used to enter. That went away after a week or two. I posted about it on here originally, and people would just say "oh, it's just your body ridding itself of toxins from smoking."

About 4 months into it, I got my first eye stye. I avoided going to the doctor, and it eventually caused my eye to almost swell shut. It went away after about a week after I was put on antibiotics and drops. A month later, through contamination, I got another stye. Same process and it was gone.

Around that time I also noticed that when I had weekends of heavy vaping out of boredom, I would develop bumps, almost like cold sores on and around my lip area.

So I posted again, and people said oh, you need to clean your drip tips better. So I started doing that pretty much every day. I will admit I think it's gotten a little better, but I do still get acne and occasional bumps around the mouth area.

I actually went to a consultation to get Laser eye surgery done so I wouldn't have to touch my eye as much with contact lenses, but the person refused to do it because of a pimple/cold sore I had from heavy vaping the weekend before. She said I'd have to go on meds for a month, so I said screw it.

About 3 months ago, my cheek started swelling up under my lip and close to my jaw. It started off feeling like a regular pimple, but eventually that side of my face started turning numb. I went to the doctor again, and told me my cheek was infected and put me on antibiotics yet again. After about another week it looked like a regular pimple on my face.

Fast forward to last week and I notice I've got what looks like a pimple on my gums, a little bit under my teeth. It was yellow just like a pimple on your face, but on my lower gum line. I've gargled with mouth wash and gave it time, but it hasn't gone away. At this point, I was pretty tired of going to the urgent care doctor, and just wanted to wait it out, but I can't because......

I developed another stye on my eye last night. That's the 3rd time since November. Going to be my 4th doctor visit since November after not going to one for almost 15 years. The stye isn't huge yet, but I know what one feels like by now and it's definitely swelling up again.

I googled "vaping weakens immune systems" and it looks like studies have actually shown that vaping does actually weaken it. I never had these types of issues when I was a smoker. Articles say that e-cig vapor weakens the body against bacteria, which I feel is causing all these infections all of a sudden.

So yes, I do like breathing better, smelling better, and the vaping is keeping my heart rate elevated, so people constantly have been telling me I'm losing weight even though I don't really exercise that much, but I've come to a vaping crossroads here.

Let this be yet another reason for those vapers that somehow feel entitled to vape inside public places that some of these chemicals are toxic and have side effects. If even 1 person in the world can be affected by second hand vapor, it should be banned from doing inside despite the inconvenience to people.

I'm headed to the doctor yet again today to get some more antibiotics. Don't try to tell me this is a PG/VG allergy again, because allergies don't cause repeated infections to different parts of the body.

Maybe I can keep vaping, but I'm going to have to turn into like a germaphobe or something. I already started trying to wash my hands even more regularly than before. I bought disinfectant wipes for my isticks, remote controls, and keyboard/mouse that I clean from time to time. Dunno if I can do much else.

Thanks for reading. Just wanted to share my experience, and maybe put a stop to these people that are absolutely convinced that vaping is completely safe somehow. I know most of the community isn't ignorant enough to make such statements without long term studies to back it, but I've read some of the threads about people openly vaping in supermarkets, disregarding the health of others, and feeling that they are somehow entitled to do it, that just annoy the crap outta me.

Maybe I'm an isolated case, but there are people like me out there.  

I am a long time member of this forum,i have been here for 12 years.I have been vaping before i found this place,yep over 12 years of vaping under my belt.I just turned 69 years old and had to call an ambulance for bad knees etc could not stand up,(sucks getting old),,SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,i get to the hospital,doctor found out i vaped and made a HUGE issue out if it,He told me i had COPD and if i even got the flu i could die,,,,I told him that last march i had type B influenza,did not take the pills they gave me and i got through the flu just fine.lmao
He wanted to make a point and to make an example out of me,(DOH),i said FINE FOOL,lol
He sent me to do the chamber COPD test,that is the standard test for COPD,Little does this clown know that for the last 20 years i have worked with severely handicapped children,and have fought with STUPID doctors that i know where screwing up on kids,I was studying to get a PHD in psychology and one of my hobbies was neuropsychology and have diagnosed dying children on their deathbed when the doctors gave up all hope,You have no idea on how painful it is to stand there when a man of god is giving a child his last rights.Long story short i have never misdiagnosed a single child or lost one in the last 20 years,I have gained the respect of one of the top neurosurgeons in America.I went to war with him 4 times and was correct every single time,he finally gave up,walked up to me and told me,"No child will ever leave this hospital again unless you say so.He said I dont know how you do what the hell you do.you never look at an xray,MRI a CT scan,,,,,,but you are always correct.We are friends now,he knows me as the "BULLRIDER FROM WYOMING"..i made that bull.... story up to cover my ... for the bull riding tatoo on my arm,he fell for it,lol,i have never been near a damned bull in my whole life,,,,lol.
The reason i am telling you guys my knowledge is i think the FDA is full of crap and this bull of congress etc is ONE BIG LIE!!
Like i said,i am 69 years old i chain smoked for years,found vaping 12 years ago was able to stop smoking in two days due to vaping.Recent chest xray CLEAR AS A BELL,NO COPD,nothing!,,,i dont blow clouds,i vape at 15 watts,.15 nic, mix my own juice,i go light on the flavor...i am good to go and i vape all day long well into the night.

So let me be an example of someone who has vaped for years.with no negative health effects.The doctor was working overtime to find something wrong with me so he could blame vaping,he suffered one huge FAIL,,,!!!,Dont buy into what politicians try to sell you,,IT IS ALL ABOUT BIG TOBACCO AND MONEY,!!  

I havent touched a cigarette in 6 days. It's a miracle !! Lol.

Using stigs from Vgod disposable pods. 6% nicotine.

Day 1: lots of heart burns, feeling buzzed and lazy/slow.

Day 2 : more heartburn, still feeling buzzed and lethargic. Few times during the day had shortness of breath and a tight chest feeling

Day 3: woke up coughing like a ******. Not feeling so lazy and slow anymore. Some chest tightness comes and goes.

Day 4: still coughing in the morning, but not feeling slow or lethargic anymore

Day 5: feeling amazing. No cough, no heart burns, no tight chest feeling.

Day 6: great till now !!!  

Hi all-
I haven't posted in a long while. I am in need of some suggestions as to what could be going in with me all of the sudden with my vaping.

Within the past two months I have a very hard time breathing when vaping. I was just thinking at first that I was getting sick or something. Then, I stopped for a few days completely and I felt better so I started again. The evening of the first day back to vaping, I laid in bed trying to go to sleep feeling like an elephant was sitting on my chest and that my throat was closing up. It was very scary. So scary that I have now been to the pulmonologist as well as the cardiologist (because the chest heaviness was bad). My lungs are clear and heart is in good condition. Soooooo....I went and purchased a ZERO nicotine juice thinking that maybe it was the nicotine. NOPE.....that didn't work either, I have used my e-cig only on the past two Saturdays and it has zero nicotine liquid in it and I still have the same problem after the day of vaping. I feel like I am struggling to breath. It is horrible. It takes a day or so to subside. I really enjoy my vape. I quit analogs on April 9, 2011 and have been vaping every since. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could possibly be? Maybe I should try just VG Juices....would that make a difference? Please help....any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!  

I've been smoke-free since 21st Jan 2018 - which is when I accidentally quit smoking

Long story short:
21st Jan 2018
Completely smashed up my ankle - needed two plates inserted, along with 15 screws. I was a smoker at that time

In the ER, they told me I'd need major surgery, that I no longer smoked, and slapped a patch on my arm

Spent 8 days in hospital before the surgery, chewing nic gum, damn near chewing nic patches, and when I could handle it, crutching to the bathroom, to vape on a lil innokin Endura T18 vape pen (that my parents brought into the hospital for me)

After the surgery, a few days later I was staying at my parents recovering. My mindset being - that I had to stop smoking for a month or two til my fractures healed, then I would start again

So I vaped my head off. Couldn't do much else, so I shopped my head off I ordered a bunch of different ejuice flavours and coils.

2 weeks down the track, I was actually enjoying vaping. I was vaping inside and it tasted a hell of a lot better than smoking.

2 more weeks later - I was a convert. My previous cunning plan went complely out the window - I was now a vaper, and would stay a vaper. Screw smoking

I ordered an upgraded starter kit, more ejuice, moved back home and healed. A month later I found ECF and the rest is history  

"
Vaping is supposed to be a form of harm reduction, that is, allow nicotine addicts to have access to the drug without the harmful tars and chemicals in cigarettes that cause cancer, heart disease, and other maladies.

Last year, the Journal of the American Heart Association published a study finding that vaping posed as great a heart risk as smoking itself. That study fueled public policies at all levels of government to stifle the industry. A lot of small business people had their livelihoods destroyed or damaged as a result.

Now, the study has been retracted — which is a very big deal in science — because the editors are “concerned that the study conclusion is unreliable” due to what appears to have been an uncompleted peer review process..........."

Major Anti-Vaping Scientific Study Retracted | National Review


Score one for our side. 'They will not stop until tobacco becomes regulated like a hard drug - 'We will not stop until our rights, especially our right to use a less harmful form of tobacco, such as vaping,
is assured.