Hensei's medical journal [throat issues]

[Hensei]

Written in hopes that someone else might be going through the same problems and that sharing the information as my case goes along would be helpful to others. Also, I think this way it's easier for me to track the whole cycle of mis-diagnosis' and treatments.

First, let's skip back almost a year. I'd quit my short smoking stint of two years(half-pack/day) and started vaping. At this time me and my fiancé moved to a new apartment and about one and a half month later got a dog as a pet(hence the allergy testing mentioned later on).

I enjoyed vaping, still do. It helped me break my smoking habbit without having to give up nicotine.
My first kit was a eGo-type battery and some MDCC's from Smok. First juices I tried out were 100% PG, the cheap chinese stuff. About after a month of vaping my throat was a mess. It hurt constantly and I quit vaping and went back to smoking for about a month(Why, oh why.. ). Then I found information on some local internet forums that the issues I'd had might've been caused by PG. Didn't take me long to get some PG/VG mixes(50/50 and 70/30) and off I went with vaping again.

It was great to be off the cancer stick again. But then came new problems...
Really persisten phlegm began building up in the back of my throat after about two months. This time though I consulted the internet first before quitting vaping as I did not want to pick up smoking again. People recommended I dropped my nicotine levels from the 18mg's I was at now. So I did, I dropped down to about 10-12 mg's, but that didn't help. And that's about it, this is still the situation I'm writing from.

About two weeks ago I finally managed to get my hands on some 100% VG juices and tried that for two weeks. Thusfar no change.

If anything, it's gotten worse. My throat feels very.. Hmm.. Acidy? If you've ever had heartburn, you probably know what I'm talking about. But as a heartburn sufferer myself, I'm guessing this isn't heartburn. This is going on only in my throat, it doesn't rise up from the esophagus as it usually does with heartburn.

I've been to the doctor and they've ruled out chronic sinusitis(for the phlegm build-up) and have now started ruling out allergies. I should hear back on that at the end of this week. If those come in negative, it's off to a throat-ear-nose specialist with me.

Hope is all I have at this point. I definitely don't want to have to quit vaping... Dunno if I'm yet ready to give up the nicotine.

Anyways. That's that, for now. I'll update the thread when I know something new.

[Z_Ghost]

Hope you find out what the problem is.

[windozehater]

i'm going out on a limb here but, i believe it is the excess moisture in the vg keeping your resp. trac over saturated in much the same way eating a rich dessert will coat your esophigus. have you noticed how your drip tip/tank/clearo ends full of condensation, vg is has tons in comparison to pg, i do know PG drys everything out badly, and condenses less.

this is just an over analyzing thought,,coming from my......in-less it works,then it is sound advise.

good luck and i pray you get better

[RoseB]

Hope you get to feeling better soon. I have had tonsil throat problems for years. Smoking cigarettes made it much worse. Switched to vaping and it has gotten better. All I vape is pg 'cause there just isn't many options around here (without ordering online). Long story short I quit vaping for a day (yesterday) and it felt better. If you don't feel ready to put it down for bit try drinking some plain old lipton tea. That is so soothing on a sore throat. BTW do you still have your tonsils?

[Hensei]

Hope you get to feeling better soon. I have had tonsil throat problems for years. Smoking cigarettes made it much worse. Switched to vaping and it has gotten better. All I vape is pg 'cause there just isn't many options around here (without ordering online). Long story short I quit vaping for a day (yesterday) and it felt better. If you don't feel ready to put it down for bit try drinking some plain old lipton tea. That is so soothing on a sore throat. BTW do you still have your tonsils?

As a matter of fact, yes, I do still have my tonsils. The doctor did comment on those when I went in for the check-up last week. He thought they seemed abnormally large, but added that they probably weren't the cause for my problems, or a problem of any kind for that matter.

I've been drinking tea pretty much non-stop these last few months, it has helped a lot. This mix of ginger and lemon seems to work the best. Soothes and numbs my throat atleast for a while.

Welp, the doc should be in contact with me on Friday about the results of the allergy tests and we shall see if anything interesting comes out of that. Probably not. Kinda leaning towards some sort of an infection myself.

Thank you all for the messages and well-wishes

[Hensei]

The doc called. No sign of allergies whatsoever, but they still wanted to see if a round of cortisone treatments would help. Got a nasal spray which I'm supposed to use once a day(preferably in the mornings) and a humongous packet of pills. Aaaaand this experiment, which even the doctor admitted was pointless, is going to have to go on for a month. Before that they can't send me to a specialist, because he'd just send me right back.

I hate this.

[JENerationX]

I had a dry scratchy throat with mostly PG... switched to 50/50 or 60 VG 40 PG, and the soreness went away but phlegm or frog in the throat incidence went up..... it straightened itself out within about a month. It happens from time to time that I get a little throat congestion in the mornings, but it beats the hell out of the smokers cough that it replaced.

[cags]

what did your doctor say about your vaping?

[Hensei]

what did your doctor say about your vaping?

Not much, just kinda passed with a "Oh." when I mentioned it.

[Hensei]

A week has passed since they put me on this cortisone treatment. I do realise it might take another week or so for it to start fully working, but thusfar there hasn't been any change in my condition. If anything, I can now taste and feel the phlegm/slime at the back of my throat even more. And that's just a *bleep*ing disgusting feeling. Vaping does seem to irritate my throat somewhat(PG/VG and VG juices), as I do get this sort of a slight burning sensation after I've vaped. Been trying to keep it to the absolute possible minimum, but y'know how it goes with nicotine addiction...

This is really affecting my life more than it should. I'm constantly thinking about it, constantly trying to do something about it and even though this isn't something that an outsider can see, smell or feel, I still feel kinda self-conscious about it. Which is silly, I know.

One week down, three more to go. I just hope this gets better some day...