At my wits end... a cry for help.

[tomf]

I apologize in advance for the length of this, but, really I'm at my wits end, here.
I'm a Type 1 diabetic, recovering alcoholic, musician, and I absolutely love to smoke. 2 PAD camels for the last decade or so.
I need to quit. I've tried, nothing worked, patches, gum, yada, yada, yada.
So, like everybody else I started out with a little "ecig" and have moved up to tanks, cartos, and egotwist batteries.
My Litany of problems goes like this....

1.Nicotine makes my blood sugar spike. And I mean SPIKE.
But, low nic = low TH, right? So, what gives you a big throat hit on low nic? Menthol. Yes, please. (6mg at this point)
Menthol, aparently, gives me a screaming headache. Great.

Or does it....?

1,b. Ok, maybe it's not the menthol...
So, I tried 100% VG... Constantly clearing my throat... Cravings increase dramatically probably due to the low nic (6mg.)
Reduced but noticeable headache. No good, moving on. (buy more juice, different vendors)

1.c. Perhaps a 50/50 blend? Better TH, but, still clearing my throat. Head hurts... Moving on.

1,d. Oh? Someone on the forum says that LOWER NIC causes headaches??? Ok, lets take a shot (increase to 12mg)
Increased TH, still not enough. Still clearing my throat. Still having headaches. BUT cravings go down.

1,e. TH Increased by voltage, you say? ... let's go shopping. (Add ego twist, 1000 mah, lil mamma tanks, lr cartos, more juice)

1. f. TYPE of menthol responsible for headaches? Could be...

But wait! What's this on the forum??? "Menthol added to 50/50 blend stops throat clearing???" Less menthol for 60/40, 70/30, and so on? Holy crap. (Frantically combines different bottles of SAME ejuices with varying vg/pg ratios and nic content and... voila) No headache. No Throat clearing.
THANK YOU, SWEET BABY... crap, I still want a cigarette.

To this point;
Cost: maybe $300
Time on forum: Maybe 10 hours
ok... let's screw with a good thing....

2. Nicotine.
Too much and I'm headed for a coma (at 24 mg my first few days my BG went from 120 to 423. Holy. Crap. Batman.)
Too little? I have cravings and, really, what's the point of this whole adventure? Not to mention the risk of these headaches.
I'll save you the step by step. I fooled with varying degrees of nicmg until my sugar was ok. Now, holy cow...

I only had... 10 cigs today? On a gig night? An 18 hour day with 10 cigs? You're kidding me...

3. Taste.
If ONLY i actually LIKED the flipping taste.... let's buy more juice.
30. bottle of ejuice from at least 10 vendors later and... nada, zilch, nothing. The closest I've got is my standby J55 from Rawr (50/50, 6mg), mixed with Tobacco pure from Volcano (?/? 16mg), mixed with Volcano's menthol (?/? 0% maybe 10% of mix)

4. *scratch, scratch* what the frak is this?
My hand has turned reptilian. I'm turning into an alligator. Now the skin cracks and it looks like I've gone a round with John Sullivan.
Time to turn down the PG? Sure. Ok. I REALLY don't want to go back to clearing my throat every 5 flipping seconds. Put some bag balm on it. It'll be fine. But... wait...

5. What the HELL IS THIS TASTE IN MY MOUTH?? It tastes like Rubbing alcohol mixed with dirt! Perfect!
(Frantically mixes to lower PG)

6. MY TEETH HURT!
(frantically mixes to reduce nic content)

7. I WANT A CIGARETTE! NURSE RATCHET! I WANT MY CIGARETTES!!!!!!!

Do you see? Do you see the insanity that has become my life? I have hundreds of dollars and at least 100 hours invested in this. I don't want to go back to smoking full time. I need some serious, straight up, no bull...., no "i could be sponsored by this company...but I'm not telling YOU" advise. I have SCOURED the withdrawal symptoms. I have POURED over the advise columns. Trust me. I KNOW it's the juice.

Help me believe, here, guys. Somebody.

Edited: Yes. I'm drinking tons of water. Liquid tons of water. The headaches subsided along with hydration, dumping my juice stash, and reducing pg levels. The reptilian hide and aching teeth, however...

Talked to MD today 1/30/2013
-water intake good
-rash seems to be allergy to PG
* switched to 50/50 mix 2 days ago and seeing marked improvement in rash.
-Tooth pain may be caused by flooded carto, liquid in mouth
- BG on a downward trend. Currently in normal/ low range.

Also as of 1/30/2013
-ordered unflavored pg and vg at 0, 6, and 18mg.
- will begin testing as soon as it comes in.

 

[darkhood]

idk man lol the only thing i can think to recommend is 100% vg peppermint from velvet vapors. tastes like a white canadian mint if you've ever had one of those and at 12mg gives me pretty good th despite being 100% vg...might wanna give that a shot. good luck!

 

[Jimmyhat]

This is just my opinion go to a genesis style atomizer. Now I know you are new to this but setting one up just takes a little research and some patience but once its set up your golden. I only use 6mg with these cause the throat hit is so good also its adjustable. You can get a cheap did clone almost anywhere or spend some money and get a z atty u at 310vapers.com. Your knew to vaping so the vapor will affect your throat for about a week or two untill your body gets used to it. Your cravings will also go down in time just stick with it. Also with juices to save money try diy if thats to involved just get samples, i personally love ave and copper creek juices... but taste is subjective. Also what is your setup (battery type ex. ego. or are you using a mod ex. provari. Also what kind of atomizer are you using?

 

[Jimmyhat]

also welcome to the forum, vaping is a pain in the beginning at least for me it was but once you find what you like youll never look back at analogs

 

[bleedingshrimp]

Snus. /thread

 

[darkhood]

This is just my opinion go to a genesis style atomizer. Now I know you are new to this but setting one up just takes a little research and some patience but once its set up your golden. I only use 6mg with these cause the throat hit is so good also its adjustable. You can get a cheap did clone almost anywhere or spend some money and get a z atty u at 310vapers.com. Your knew to vaping so the vapor will affect your throat for about a week or two untill your body gets used to it. Your cravings will also go down in time just stick with it. Also with juices to save money try diy if thats to involved just get samples, i personally love ave and copper creek juices... but taste is subjective. Also what is your setup (battery type ex. ego. or are you using a mod ex. provari. Also what kind of atomizer are you using?

is th really that diff't w/ a rba? just curious.

 

[Jimmyhat]

with a genesis yeah its nuts I was vaping 18mg all day through atomizers, vivi novas, cartos, etc etc when I got into genesis style atomizers i dropped right down to 6mg. Also if I twist the cap 180 degrees around the th is unbearable.

 

[tomf]

Darkhood, thanks man. I'll try it out.

Jimmyhat, I started (2 years and several quitting attempts ago) with an njoy with replaceable carts. I bumped up to a similar model from volcano with refillable wick clearos, stepped up to ego manual batteries with the same clearos, stepped up to 3.5 ml tank with multiple different cartos (big, small, 1.5 - 3 ohms, single, dual coil, kanger, smoketech, etc, etc) with 1000mah ego twist batteries. I've been rocking the twist/tank setup for about a month. I like it, but with a rebuildable won't I wind up with a whole new set of problems? (Ie: who has the best wire, what's the resistance vs production ratio, what liquids work best with this, will I need 2 on rotation? etc, etc) Is the flavor really worth all of that?

 

[tA71ana]

Drink more water because vaping can dehydrate you and dehydration has been known to cause headaches, too.

 

[Jimmyhat]

O man so you have been into it for sometime my apologies for thinking you just started. To answer your questions about the genesis yeah at first youll have the problem of getting the wick and wire right and I will say its a pain at first but there are some methods of doing it out there that are pretty easy. As far as wire i only use kanthal 32gauge wick material is 400 stainless mesh. Also since you have a twist as long at your resistance is close to 1-3ohms you can adjust the voltage to match the watts that you like to vape at. any liquid works good for the genesis I use 100%vg but I did find a mix of 30%pg and 70%vg wicks a little better if my wick isnt perfect. and the rotation of the top cap is easy I keep mine lined up with the wick and if you would want more throat hit just twist it a little to the right or left. And in my opinion its worth it all I use are genesis atomizers sure they are a pain at first and travel can get messy if your not to careful(I havent had any issues yet) but in the end the taste, vapor production and th are far superior than any other atomizer i have used to date

 

[tomf]

You wouldn't believe how much water I've been drinking.
... as soon as I started having symptoms I immediately check the forum to see if other people have what I've got.

 

[Jimmyhat]

Z-ATTY-PRO Rebuildable Atomizers For ProVari - YouTube here is a video on how to set up a z atty but most genesis attys are pretty much the same with setup

 

[tomf]

No problem, man. I should have been more clear about that. You've never had this "throat clearing" thing vaping 100% juice?

 

[ClippinWings]

From reading your post I see 2 big issues.

1. Drink more water... vaping dehydrates you... a lot of your complaints appear to be dehydration.

2. Stop trying to replicate smoking... NO Vape will taste like smoke. period. Find something that doesn't taste like unlit pipe tabacoo... a coffee or fruit flavor maybe...

Sent from the ether using the power of my mind... and the Tapatalk app.

 

[tomf]

Actually, I've tried a juice that had a great analog taste and... well, I didn't really care for it. But, for my money, Mr E rough rider was the closest I've gotten to the real McCoy.
I'm not crazy about pipe tobacco. I'm into 555 thing. Some coffees, some butterscotch. I like em, but, eh. I'll post a list of flavors I've tried tomorrow.
And, yes, I'm hydrated. That's what clear pee means, right? Haha

 

[tomf]

Z-ATTY-PRO Rebuildable Atomizers For ProVari - YouTube here is a video on how to set up a z atty but most genesis attys are pretty much the same with setup

Thanks, man. I never really considered that better equipment would solve some issues... I thought I HAD better equipment. But, hell, twist my arm to get a new rig...

 

[cappss99]

Wonder why your sugar would spike,I have type 2 it doesn't bother mine....hummmm.
Did your sugar spike on analogs?

 

[tomf]

All,

I just wanted to say, I can't believe how fast people jumped on this thread to help me. I mean, I figured it'd take a couple of days for somebody to reply. I was wrong. Thank you!

Tom

 

[Leatherneck]

Might be time to bring a MD in on this. Maybe something can help block the nicotine->Blood Sugar spike.

 

[tomf]

I've read a couple of threads on insulin dependent diabetics and nicotine levels. When I started on 24mg my bg went NUTS. I dropped the nic to 6mg and my sugar not only improved, I had to drop my lantus because I was going hypo. Good signs. Also pretty definitive cause/ effect. I never noticed such high spikes on analogs, but then again, I've adjusted my diet and routine to revolve around my pretty steady smoking habit. Pretty sad, huh?