Have you seen your DR lately? Might be a very good idea.

[pAth77]

When I told my Doctor I quit smoking and was using e-cigarettes now he said "I heard those things are dangerous and have antifreeze in them"

Propylene glycol is present in antifreeze so your doctor is correct on that point. However, the dangerous/toxic chemical in antifreeze is ethylene glycol.

 

[Zal42]

Propylene glycol is present in antifreeze so your doctor is correct on that point. However, the dangerous/toxic chemical in antifreeze is ethylene glycol.

Ironically, when pg is used in antifreeze (it isn't always), the reason they put it in there is to make the antifreeze less toxic by reducing the amount of ethylene glycol.

 

[mlinky]

My Doc practically danced a jig. I gave him info on this site.

 

[alisab]

My comment about the lawyer was my crack at being humorous, but my humor doesn't always translate well on paper (err...I mean computer).

Well I'm glad to hear that pAth77 because we can use the lawyers on our side too! (I think)

 

[Panhandler]

Well I'm glad to hear that pAth77 because we can use the lawyers on our side too! (I think)

The good lawyers would be on our side...........anti's will have the bad,lol

 

[Panhandler]

I'm visiting my pulmanary doc (CPAP) in a few.........I'll share after I see him.

 

[Kate51]

My 37 year-old neice was recently hospitalized with pulmonary embolisms, both lungs affected ~ lucky and blessed to be alive.
Her case is kind of a result of a hundred things gone wrong, weight, bad circulation in her legs compounded by inflamation (cause unknown), some kind of auto-immune problems with hormones especially estrogen, etc. etc. etc. But these embolisms are usually found at Autopsy, not usually treated in time. It's what killed her Gramma, my Mom. She came very close.
Her dad (my brother) was mortified when he found out she was still smoking (he quit cold-turkey) ~ of course, smoking had to be the culprit, right off the bat!
But when she told them to get her on a patch while she was in hospital (Doc said OK, which I took as a go-ahead for e-cigs), and then told him I was getting her started on e-cigs asap, he wanted to know where she was getting her nicotine cartidges, maybe he could write a prescription to cover costs. WELL, I didn't think we could get a pharmacy to order SmokeStik cartos, so that was out, but bottom line, her doc was all for the change and was 100% sold on the concept. Nicotine was ok, to him, so her mom is dumbfounded. For a change!
She's been home for two weeks, going back to work Monday, and has so far confined her e-cig use to less than a 5-pack of cartos, which I think is outstanding ~ 12mg/ml no less. This week I'll get her started re-filling the cartos, which will cut costs by a lot, and give her a little more incentive to keep going. She's still craving a cigarette sometimes, but says she can do this. Her lungs are still very fragile and will be for awhile, so cannot inhale deeply, which for one more reason to switch to e-cigs, no inhalation necessary.
I told her on the Q-T to go ahead and try a cigarette! I'm betting she won't like it a bit. (I hope I'm right, just don't tell her Mom I said that!) She's telling me that 4-5 puffs on the e-cig gets her through the hard times. Then she puts it away. Amazing. I can't believe she isn't puffing constantly, that's what I did. With much higher nic. But I had the incentive to just replace the cigarettes, her incentive is to eventually quit vaping as well. She's on the right path for her, I think.
I will report back, the next couple months will tell the whole story.

 

[alisab]

Really great story Kate

 

[mwa102464]

My Dr is in total favor of the ecig big time, in fact once I showed him mine he called in a couple of other Dr's in the practice to check out my ecig while I was there in the office and I gave them a quick demonstration and explained exactly how it worked. He is now telling people about them who are his patients that smoke and letting them know about the alternative to smoking.

 

[Kate51]

Just an update from my post #27, my neice is doing very well, lung function returning, there will be some function loss at the site of the clots, (and her therapy to prevent future clotting still underway) but her energy is coming back, sinus problems disapprearing, and after a little over five weeks of vaping is wondering why she didn't do this a looooong time ago. Not one cigarette since Feb. 1st or thereabouts, with just a few weaker moments at first but got through it all just fine. She's amazed, I'm happy for her. I suspect in a couple months she'll be working on decreasing nicotine.
Her Dr. also thrilled with the huge health improvement, she shared her informational pamphlets with him (from Smokestik). He is definitely on board with e-cigs.

 

[pAth77]

That's great news Kate. Out of curiosity, did they do any hypercoagulability tests on her (factor V leiden, MTHFR, etc)? It sounds like it could be the case, especially considering her age, severity & distribution of clots, and family history of PE's. I'm glad to hear that she's doing better, and that she's successfully transitioned into vaping!

 

[alisab]

Thanks for the update Kate - it continues to be a great story - it's also great that there is measurable improvement - that makes it hard to deny that e-cigs have a real place in improving our health!

 

[ctourtelot]

My 37 year-old neice was recently hospitalized with pulmonary embolisms, both lungs affected ~ lucky and blessed to be alive.
Her case is kind of a result of a hundred things gone wrong, weight, bad circulation in her legs compounded by inflamation (cause unknown), some kind of auto-immune problems with hormones especially estrogen, etc. etc. etc. But these embolisms are usually found at Autopsy, not usually treated in time. It's what killed her Gramma, my Mom. She came very close.
Her dad (my brother) was mortified when he found out she was still smoking (he quit cold-turkey) ~ of course, smoking had to be the culprit, right off the bat!
But when she told them to get her on a patch while she was in hospital (Doc said OK, which I took as a go-ahead for e-cigs), and then told him I was getting her started on e-cigs asap, he wanted to know where she was getting her nicotine cartidges, maybe he could write a prescription to cover costs. WELL, I didn't think we could get a pharmacy to order SmokeStik cartos, so that was out, but bottom line, her doc was all for the change and was 100% sold on the concept. Nicotine was ok, to him, so her mom is dumbfounded. For a change!
She's been home for two weeks, going back to work Monday, and has so far confined her e-cig use to less than a 5-pack of cartos, which I think is outstanding ~ 12mg/ml no less. This week I'll get her started re-filling the cartos, which will cut costs by a lot, and give her a little more incentive to keep going. She's still craving a cigarette sometimes, but says she can do this. Her lungs are still very fragile and will be for awhile, so cannot inhale deeply, which for one more reason to switch to e-cigs, no inhalation necessary.
I told her on the Q-T to go ahead and try a cigarette! I'm betting she won't like it a bit. (I hope I'm right, just don't tell her Mom I said that!) She's telling me that 4-5 puffs on the e-cig gets her through the hard times. Then she puts it away. Amazing. I can't believe she isn't puffing constantly, that's what I did. With much higher nic. But I had the incentive to just replace the cigarettes, her incentive is to eventually quit vaping as well. She's on the right path for her, I think.
I will report back, the next couple months will tell the whole story.

Ugh I feel her pain. I had planned and paid for a hawaiian vacation back in 2005 before realizing that I was going to have "aunt flo" visiting the entire time. This was my first vacation in over 20 years and I wasn't going to have it ruined. So I went and got on Seasonale (birth control) in order to skip that period. On January 3rd, 2005 (16 days before I was supposed to go on vacation) my best friend and man I'd lived with for over 4 years, died very suddenly of heart failure. The next morning, I was having chest pains and difficulty breathing.

After hours of everyone nagging me to go to the doctor (I was still grieving too much to even consider it), I finally went into a local urgency care place. Ironically the same one my friend had gone to the day before. They couldn't find anything wrong, but urged me to go to the ER and get a scan (also same hospital they'd sent him to where he died)

I almost didn't go because I just wanted to be alone and dealing with an ER while I was already an emotional wreck was too much to bear, but I went because my kids had already taken such a blow that I didn't want them having to deal with losing me as well.

I sat in my ER room for 7 hours (right across the hall from the room I viewed my friend's body in the day before), was unable to take anything for the pain while I waited on radiology to free up. Finally after my scan, I got the fun news.

Multiple pulminary embolisms in my left lung. The concensus was that the birth control had caused a clot in one of my lower extremities (I'd only quit smoking a few months before I started it and I was over 30) and it shot to my lungs and exploded under the stress of my friend's untimely death. I'll tell you what. MPE's are a WHOLE new level of pain. It made child birth feel like a papercut. They had me so drugged up that I couldn't tell you my name, but I knew I hurt.

They don't know to this day how I survived almost 48hrs without treatment. Part of me still feels as if my friend was with me during that time. I don't know why but I always felt it.

I'm glad your neice is doing better. She's been through a hellish ordeal!

P.S. I STILL haven't had that vacation (did get all but $300 back on what I'd paid for it though)

 

[Kate51]

Wow, this thread is becoming very deeply touching on all fronts...ctourtelot, your story is very poignant to the feeling our family had when Heidi was so sick..my mother died from pulmonary embolisms 14 years ago, her presence was also felt in that hospital. I do believe in Guardian Angels! Heidi was given a muscle relaxer and told to go home and get some rest (panic attack?). She knew something was wrong. Had she done what they said, she would not have survived till morning, that's sure.
Heidi's case is a progressive learning process. She had fertility therapy so she and her husband could start a family...(it worked, their daughter just turned 10!) but in that process it was found that she suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome....in the last few years, they seem to have discovered that she is a Hormonal Mega-Disaster. Every symptom they treat creates a new problem. I couldn't begin to list all the enzymes and hormones that are messing up her life, I've lost track of all the treatments so far, pAth77, so I can't tell you exactly what's been done for her, except that her e-cig is the one thing keeping her sane and comfortable right now. We think that's a pretty precious thing.
And I am certain mine saved me from an ugly death.
ctourtelot, I hope you get that vacation, when a door closes another always opens.
Thanks all for your replies!