Maybe it's an asthmatic thing then.
that's good to know.
I don't doubt that the first thing I reach for when I get out of bed will continue to be my nebulizer... but I'd like to stop following it with a smoke. Even I know I'm a tool for doing that.
Yeah I felt like an idiot for so long; gotta fork over mega bucks for the inhalers, so I can keep smoking. Gotta fork over mega bucks for the cigs so I gotta keep forking over mega bucks for the inhalers.
I do think it's an asthmatic thing, that continuing cough in the morning. When you sleep, your breathing is very shallow; on waking, an asthmatic has to get those bronchioles moving, because there is going to be *some* amount of mucus in them, because of the night-long shallow breathing, and that must be cleared before the wheeze or even the little draggy feeling goes away.
That morning "green giant standing on my chest" (as I described the feeling to my son, when he suffered bronchitis but often wheezed) was how I first recognized that something was wrong with my lungs. Several quacks gave me some BS meds for it, but it didn't go away, so I finally went to the chief of pulmonary medicine at Wyandotte Hospital (in michigan, when i lived there), and he diagnosed me at once, "textbook asthma" he said, and apparently adult-onset asthma is not unusual in smokers, and usually leads to COPD.
Anyway, I do still need the inhaler, that hasn't gone away and may never; there is no "cure" for asthma after all. But it's not the same urgent necessity that it was when I was still smoking, I don't use it nearly as often, and I believe the need will decrease, the longer I'm smoke-free. I've got this "vaping not smoking" chart on the wall here, and it says that after 3 months, the lungs regain the ability to clean themselves. To which I can only say, COME ON THREE MONTHS!
One thing -- you mentioned that PG kinda irritates your throat, but that's the primary vehicle, the "carrier" liquid, in most asthma inhalers (I use Ventolin, which is the only HFA albuterol that doesn't taste like grain alcohol) -- which I'm sure is why I've had NO issues with PG since starting vaping. Last week, my usual PG-Blend Virginia was sold out, and I had to get the VG blend instead, just to keep the same taste -- I'm unfortunately quite picky about that. I found that vaping 85% VG gave me a sensation in my chest like I had a hairball I couldn't cough up, just really uncomfortable. The VG is just too heavy for my lungs, so I have to stick to 85%-and-up PG blends, and drink LOTS!!! of water to make sure I stay hydrated. The irritation you feel might be just that really bad dry throat, and PG can definitely cause that, but you might find a higher level of PG easier on your lungs; it's a lot lighter, and also carries taste a lot better, and gives a much better throat hit. I've been back on my regular PG blend for 2 days, and already that "hairball" feeling is easing a lot. By the end of the week I expect it should be gone, and I will definitely make sure in future to order enough, far enough ahead of my needs, that I NEVER have to vape the VG stuff again.
Andria
