I received my reality check about 6 years ago when I was on my way into my brief orientation at my oncologist's office (before I was to begin my chemotherapy treatments). I was the person that refused to tell people that I was a smoker or I was a chewing tobacco user, but it had not completely sunk in how serious cancer can be and how important it is to live every day (in the day) because time is a very precious thing. Anyways, I walked into the doctor's office and he looked at me straight in the face and asked me if I was a smoker or had been and I give him the usual run around, but he stopped took a brief sigh and looked at me for a brief moment. He said, "It is very important that you do not smoke from this point on. What you have is very serious and if you don't treat it as such it may be ineffective in the long run." The tone of his voice hit me, just completely shook my perspective of my current situation. It was then that I decided to quit smoking cold turkey. It was successful but I credit the rigorous treatment of cisplatin and etoposide from the chemotherapy like daze I was in for the next three months as the crutch that got me over the hill. But as I underwent two more surgeries following all of this I found that the stress was building up and felt the need to light up again. I went to the drugstore to purchase a pack of camel crush's but instead found a cheap disposable e-cig for the same price as the pack and decided to go with what I felt was a more health contentious choice at the time. After vapeing a few of them I was looking for a cheaper supply online and found that they made refillable ones. Being the savvy shopper I am I decided to buy some juice and a rechargeable pen-style e-cig from an online retailer produced by "The Electronic Cigarette Company". From there on it's all history, I have made many local friends and purchased a few devices over the years and haven't looked back since. Today I work at a logistics company and take my breaks outside on a bench where I am joined by smokers. My friends and I who vape are not as bother by the smoke as non-smokers and have felt no urge to go back to smoking being that we are around the second had smoke of coworkers but rather enjoy conversations with them about our devices and what they have done for us. In these conversations we find that lots of people who are smokers don't necessarily want to be, but rather can't stop and I feel that it is my duty to spread the good word so that others do not have to experience what I had to.
Since I have started at work I've had four people who were smokers try vapeing. Two of those four have switched to vapeing, the third is temporarily vapeing as she is moving towards quitting everything altogether, and the final one will be going with me to a local vape shop towards the end of the week to buy one and begin his journey towards a healthier live by vapeing.
I originally felt like there was not a whole lot of out reach about e-cigs and vapeing directed at smokers. That was until I began joining online communities and making friends in my area who were more experienced vapers. It seems to be a universal feeling among vapers, we enjoy what we are doing by vapeing, we are passionate about it, and we wish to spread what it has done for us to just about anyone who is curious. These online communities are made up of incredible people who care about their health and the health of others and it makes me thankful for the people we have so far, and excited about the people who are joining now and are continuing to join daily.
I just want to close with a thank you to anyone and everyone who had a positive influence in my life directly and indirectly by growing and furthering this community, and those who have gone above and beyond by reaching out to others who have not had the chance to learn about and or try vapeing.
Thanks,
~Kevin
(P.S. sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors within this post, it is a tough and touching subject for me to rehash.)
