I'm Discouraged
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I've been fortunate in that my docs are glad I quit cigarettes and that ecigs helped me do it. They want me to tell everyone! And with that advice I follow what they say 
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http://lungcancer.about.com/od/glossary/g/packyears.htm
Duration x # cigs (well, # packs)
Your doctor may have other reasons. IDK. But don't be too depressed. E-cigs may very well represent a "way out" for you. You may even wean yourself off nic too.
Duration x # cigs (well, # packs)
Your doctor may have other reasons. IDK. But don't be too depressed. E-cigs may very well represent a "way out" for you. You may even wean yourself off nic too.
That suck I`m sorry that happen to you. When I told my doctor that I was vaping. His reply was (use it to quit or keep vaping either one just don`t go back to smoking). My wife had surgery this week and I was nerves about it and not thinking I vaped right in the hospital and no one said a word and yes they seen me. I even talked to people about vaping go figure. I don`t suggest vaping in doors I just forgot where I was lol. Wife is doing Great by the way
Contrast the OPs experience with mine.
I have fought a battle with Social Anxiety Disorder and Depression my entire 49 years (well 49 next week). When I switched to vaping from smoking my Doc was thrilled at the choice of a safer alternative and totally with me on it. She did warn that I might find dropping nic too fast to have some side effects on the anxiety and depression as smoking was likely a way of self medicating for me.
Sure enough I got down to 0 nic in 5 months. At 6 months I had a major bout with depression. Went to my doc. She said simply keep some liquid around with nic in it. Vape it when you feel the anxiety or depression setting in. Vaping 1-3 mg nic is a whole lot better than a lifetime of antidepressant meds. Guess what it works for me ymmv.
I have fought a battle with Social Anxiety Disorder and Depression my entire 49 years (well 49 next week). When I switched to vaping from smoking my Doc was thrilled at the choice of a safer alternative and totally with me on it. She did warn that I might find dropping nic too fast to have some side effects on the anxiety and depression as smoking was likely a way of self medicating for me.
Sure enough I got down to 0 nic in 5 months. At 6 months I had a major bout with depression. Went to my doc. She said simply keep some liquid around with nic in it. Vape it when you feel the anxiety or depression setting in. Vaping 1-3 mg nic is a whole lot better than a lifetime of antidepressant meds. Guess what it works for me ymmv.
3 cigs is as bad as 30??? What?? That sounds like complete nonsense from your doctor. Maybe a second opinion is in order.
I've never heard of a doctor who didn't support cutting down the number of cigarettes you're smoking a day. Yes, they always follow it with a push to get down to 0, but they still generally see it as an improvement. While I get that all doctors are against smoking, it sounds like she's taken it so far that she's unable to balance it with rational patient care.
Run away. Run far, far away.
Run away. Run far, far away.
I guess next there going to say the reason were getting such colder weather around the world
is due to global warming
The sad thing is that many people put political correctness above everything else. Including, and maybe especially, common sense.
You're not stupid. Don't feel bad, kiddo. She has no idea what she's talking about and is probably someone who also believes that whatever Dr Oz say is the gospel truth. You're on the right path. Hang in there.
Don't get discouraged! I was kinda wigged out w/the whole vaping thing when I first started and there were peeps here that actually had X-RAY proof of their lungs healing from switching to Ecigs! Needless to say, their doctors were encouraging them because they were healing and staying off analogs.
I agree w/many posters here...there are open minded doctors and others that are not. I know I breath better, don't have the morning cough anymore and feel better.
I agree w/many posters here...there are open minded doctors and others that are not. I know I breath better, don't have the morning cough anymore and feel better.
I have in the past seen a doctor that was of the same caliber. Not smoking related but when he told me "I didn't know what pain was" when I couldn't stand due to pain in both knees, I politely told him he was an idiot and wouldn't have to worry about seeing me again! I'm sure he never had a patient speak to him that way before from the look on his face. "Some" doctors think they are "God" and know it all when in fact they know little. Don't hesitate to see someone else. My PCP was thrilled I quit smoking and began vaping. Your doctor should be too!
I went through a colon resection surgery for diverticulitis in july. I had to get cardiac, pulminary, and general clearances to get the surgery. I met many doctors along the way and made it a point to ask each and every one of them about electronic cigarettes. Every single one of them said they are probably a million times better than regular cigarettes, and would much prefer i use the e-cig than smoke cigarettes.
Are they 100% safe?
who knows.
Are they a million times better than smoking?
I think so, and so do many doctors.
Are they 100% safe?
who knows.
Are they a million times better than smoking?
I think so, and so do many doctors.
And maybe I shouldn't be so I thought I would post and get thoughts. I went to my doctor and she says, "your e-cig is as bad as the real thing" and when I told her that because of it I was down to 3 "real" cigarettes per day she says "three per day may as well be thirty. It's duration of smoking not amount you smoke."
I left feeling really blah. I know for myself that I do not cough as much. I feel better and have more energy but, dang... she just made me feel stupid.
JAG
Without reading one other reply...... Find another Dr that is at least trying to be supportive of your effort.
Obviously the current DR is ignorant and has no idea about e-cigs.
Personally I would have called her on it.. "Why are they just as bad as the real thing?"
She is also wrong about the 3 day may as well be 30. I am not a Dr but that is not even logical. That is like saying 3 drinks is the same as 30 (or has the same affect) Or drinking 3 times a month is the same as getting drunk nightly.
I would not let anyone, medical degree or not, make me feel stupid. If YOU know that your feeling better then trust that you know yourself better than anyone else!
I like my Doc. Doesn't BS me, and shoots from the hip - can be harsh at times - been going to him for 20+ years now.
I see him every 6 months due to health issues, went in the last time with my ProVari and Carto-tank and said I had quit smoking last AUG and am using this instead - first thing he does is stand up and high-five's me~! Then asks about NIC level, checks and comments that my BP and heartrate are both down lower - and to keep it up, and perhaps think about lowering my NIC level when I'm comfortable doing so, but not to worry about it too much - the fact that I'm off the coffin-nails and didn't gain weight is just GREAT!
Then said my lungs sound clearer...
See you in 6 months - great visit~!
I see him every 6 months due to health issues, went in the last time with my ProVari and Carto-tank and said I had quit smoking last AUG and am using this instead - first thing he does is stand up and high-five's me~! Then asks about NIC level, checks and comments that my BP and heartrate are both down lower - and to keep it up, and perhaps think about lowering my NIC level when I'm comfortable doing so, but not to worry about it too much - the fact that I'm off the coffin-nails and didn't gain weight is just GREAT!
Then said my lungs sound clearer...
See you in 6 months - great visit~!
JAG,
Do it, for sure. I can almost guarantee you from what you said in your original post that she will likely not be able to help you sufficiently with your thyroid condition. Most doctors have the very same attitude about proper thyroid treatment as yours does about ecigs.
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Time to find another doctor JAG.
And maybe I shouldn't be so I thought I would post and get thoughts. I went to my doctor and she says, "your e-cig is as bad as the real thing" and when I told her that because of it I was down to 3 "real" cigarettes per day she says "three per day may as well be thirty. It's duration of smoking not amount you smoke."
I left feeling really blah. I know for myself that I do not cough as much. I feel better and have more energy but, dang... she just made me feel stupid.
JAG
Your doctor is an idiot and I'd be looking for a new one.
I'm not kidding. Anybody that would say that? I would not trust them with my health.
Listen, I'm surrounded by medical types in my family. I went into computers and that makes me the odd one.
Years and years they fretted over my smoking and pestered me to quit. Vaping came along and after they picked their jaws off the floor that Mark finally quit smoking, they all decided this vaping thing was the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe better.And when they asked how it works, they understood every aspect. Such as PG. It's used in *medicine* for crying out loud. It's used in *INJECTIONS* for crying even louder. My mom (retired nurse, director of nursing, and then hospital administrator) commented on how the nicotine isn't the cancer causing part of smoking and probably isn't any worse than caffeine and thinks vaping is a miracle. She's ecstatic. I mean, when I explained how this vaping stuff worked, they knew better than I did what the contents were. They think this stuff is absolutely brilliant and should be being pushed by the government. Not threatened with pro-tobacco company regulations (and, yeah, that's going on... heavy regulation by the FDA will hand the vaping world over to the tobacco companies).
That is the stupidest thing I have heard this century.
Yes and no and she should know better. I've picked up a lot just being around medical folk all the time (I was half raised in a hospital with mom running them
) and I know better.It's both. It's duration of an amount. If I recall, they refer to them as "pack years" now. Such as, two packs a day for ten years is twice as bad as one pack a day for ten years. And it's not an exact measure anyway. It's all a question of risk statistics. X pack years can raise your risk of disease Y by Z percent. There simply is no direct line. It's not like, "one pack per day for one year means emphysema". It just doesn't work that way.
"Pack years", the duration thing, is an attempt to do a measure that accounts for the fact that a very light smoker (say, oh, a social smoker who might go through two packs a week) is at less risk than a more heavy smoker (such as I was at two packs a day). A light smoker is at less risk than a heavier smoker. Not "no risk". Less risk.
Of course, anybody can draw the short straw. A light smoker can develop lung cancer and die while a heavy smoker can live to 99. It's playing the odds. It's a gamble. A potentially deadly one. Then again, so is driving. Have you SEEN how people drive these days?
A good doctor has a serious discussion over relative risks to give you the information you need to make informed choices. That one is just anti-smoking and would probably say anything to enforce their opinion.
Dump 'em.
(Somebody get the Xanax, Mark's ranting again!)
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Last time somebody suggested Chantix to me, I came back with, "Well, suicide is one way to quit smoking."
But "sarcastic" is my middle name.
Oh it was. Oh was it ever. I was put on Zyban which is Wellbutrin repackaged as a stop smoking pill. And I'll grant, it has worked for a lot of folks. But there are also some wild side effects that affect some percentage of people. I was one of those people.
Fits of rage is one of the weird side effects. I had those. One time, started throwing things at the wall in my bedroom (fortunately, nothing breakable) just furious. About... I had no idea. And when it passed, was just sort of... stunned.
But my favorite was when I became absolutely convinced somebody was breaking into the house. I ended up sitting on the edge of the bed having this bizarre argument in my head with this part of me that was just panicked about the people breaking into the house. There's not a single unusual sound in the house, I had two big dogs at the time who had dog beds in the den (but slept on the couches anyway) that these invisible burglers would have to get past. And as I'm sitting there, that panicked part of my brain insisted, "THEY'RE COMING IN THE ROOM!!!!!"
I'm thinking, "I'M LOOKING RIGHT AT THE DOOR AND THERE'S NOBODY THERE!!!!"
Needless to say, I stopped taking Zyban...
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