Hello everyone,
Just wanted to make my introduction and I will apologize ahead of time for the novel here, but my journey to vaping is a long and complicated one. I am a newbie vaper. I have smoked off and on since I was in high school (I am 34 years old now). I have never considered addicted to cigarettes because I have quit cold turkey several times, often for several years without any problems. Mostly what I crave is just the ACTIVITY of smoking. My most recent re-entry into smoking happened about 5 years ago. I started a new job and bonded with the few other people that started in my same training class. A couple of them smoked and we all would try to take our breaks at the same time. I started smoking with them on breaks because it was something to do and if they were smoking, why shouldn't I? Pretty dumb I know. At the same time my husband had started smoking cigars (black and milds) fairly regularly so at home it was a way for us have to go outside and sit together and have some one on one time to talk. Again, more of a social activity for me. I will also mention now that my parents NEVER knew I smoked at all, not as a teenager and not as an adult. Any smoke smell they might have smelled on me they always assumed was due to me being around others who smoked. They knew I had lots of friends who smoked so they never questioned whether I did or not.
Fast forwarding a bit, I was set to have weight loss surgery which required me to quit at least 6 weeks before my surgery, which I did. I had some serious complications with my surgery that required another surgery and tons of tests and other procedures. To not bore you with all the details, in the end the complications (lack of nutrition from not being able to eat or keep food down for a couple months) left me with peripheral neuropathy, basically I could not move my legs at all. I could feel my legs, but could not lift them, move them, move my feet, or wiggle my toes. I also had some diminished ability on my hands as well as frequent muscle ticks and twitches due to some nerve damage to my spinal cord as well. I spent 9 weeks in the hospital's physical rehabilitation floor trying to learn to walk again. Basically though I had to wait for the nerves to grow back and build my nutrition up again. I had a PICC line inserted (basically a permanent IV port) to provide me with liquid nutrition and I left the hospital still in a wheelchair. I had to move in with my parents (I am married though) so I could have the full time care I needed.
Over the course of a year and a half through intense physical and nutritional therapy I learned to walk again. Needless to say this put an intense strain on my marriage since I was also still living with my parents this whole time. Once I was able to walk again I started frequenting a local karaoke bar with my husband. He had started going there while was sick to relive stress. Our marriage was on the verge of collapsing so I wanted to spend time with him. He had made some good friends there which in turn became my friends. The problem though of course is being in a bar setting made me want to smoke. I always wanted cigarettes more when I drank and here everyone around me was smoking so needless to say I started smoking again. At first I only smoked at the bar, which was just the weekend, but then I found myself wanting one during the week so I would sneak outside when my parents went to bed (crazy I know sneaking around like a teenager at 34 years old) and have a couple cigarettes during the week and I would smoke in my car when I would run errands for myself.
A positive about hanging out at this particular bar is that the karaoke DJ is an experienced vaper along with his girlfriend. One day I just got tired of my hair smelling nasty and not to mention that cigarette smoking is definitely not good for my neuropathy, which I still deal with in my feet (basically I still have a pins and needles feeling in my feet along with pain and some circulation issues). I talked with my friend and his girlfriend had just upgraded her setup so they started me off with a couple evod batteries and some tanks (sorry I am a newb and can't remember what kind they were). They let me try some juice flavors and gave me some of the flavors I liked.
I started vaping and I loved it. Since I have switched out the tanks they gave me to some Aspire BDC tanks because the ones they gave me tended to leak. So right now I am using a couple Kanger evod batteries and my Aspire BDC tanks. I have smoked some analogs still every now and then, but it is less and less because they taste so bad and my ejuice tastes so good! I am still getting that hand to mouth ritual I really crave and saving my health, and with the health challenges I still face I know I should not be putting something I know is harmful into my body. I am thankful every single day that I can walk again (though I still have pain and twitching issues and a slight limp on the right side) which was not guaranteed and I know it was totally stupid to purposely harm myself by smoking. Also, since I still live with my parents (my husband and I are mending out marital issues slowly, but I have still not been able to move back home due to other circumstances regarding our house itself which is a longer story), vaping is much easier because I can do so in my room whenever I want without them knowing any different.
I am already thinking about upgrading my setup in the future. I just went to my local vape store and the manager was totally helpful, walking me through some of my options for upgrading. I am looking for something easy to use (I am NOT mechanically minding so building coils and such is not of interest to me). The setup that I tried and seemed easiest and was recommended to me was the Vamo V5 mod and the Aspire Nautilus tank. I could totally taste the difference in the taste of the juice with the Nautilus tank. It seemed very easy and newbie friendly as well as the Vamo 5. I am on disability so price is definitely a factor for me as well. If anyone has any other suggestions for me I am definitely open to hearing them.
Currently my favorite juices are Kringle's Kurse by Halo, Wookie Cookie by the Vapor Hut, and Flame Thrower by High Caliber ejuice. I do NOT like fruity flavors (I don't even eat fruit). I love the hot cinnamon flavors, peppermint, and the more dessert type flavors. I am really looking for a good mint chocolate flavor. I have some Manic Mint Chocolate by Mr. e-liquid which is okay, but I was not not getting much mint flavor from it. I put a couple drops of Kringles Kurse in it and that did the trick, but I would really like to find a juice that really tastes like a thin mint cookie on its own. I do like citrus, but the one plain orange flavor I tasted was not very good. I would definitely love to hear any recommends for juices you think I might like.
Sorry for the novel but I just wanted to really paint a picture of my vaping journey. Looking forward to participating in this community of vapers!
Just wanted to make my introduction and I will apologize ahead of time for the novel here, but my journey to vaping is a long and complicated one. I am a newbie vaper. I have smoked off and on since I was in high school (I am 34 years old now). I have never considered addicted to cigarettes because I have quit cold turkey several times, often for several years without any problems. Mostly what I crave is just the ACTIVITY of smoking. My most recent re-entry into smoking happened about 5 years ago. I started a new job and bonded with the few other people that started in my same training class. A couple of them smoked and we all would try to take our breaks at the same time. I started smoking with them on breaks because it was something to do and if they were smoking, why shouldn't I? Pretty dumb I know. At the same time my husband had started smoking cigars (black and milds) fairly regularly so at home it was a way for us have to go outside and sit together and have some one on one time to talk. Again, more of a social activity for me. I will also mention now that my parents NEVER knew I smoked at all, not as a teenager and not as an adult. Any smoke smell they might have smelled on me they always assumed was due to me being around others who smoked. They knew I had lots of friends who smoked so they never questioned whether I did or not.
Fast forwarding a bit, I was set to have weight loss surgery which required me to quit at least 6 weeks before my surgery, which I did. I had some serious complications with my surgery that required another surgery and tons of tests and other procedures. To not bore you with all the details, in the end the complications (lack of nutrition from not being able to eat or keep food down for a couple months) left me with peripheral neuropathy, basically I could not move my legs at all. I could feel my legs, but could not lift them, move them, move my feet, or wiggle my toes. I also had some diminished ability on my hands as well as frequent muscle ticks and twitches due to some nerve damage to my spinal cord as well. I spent 9 weeks in the hospital's physical rehabilitation floor trying to learn to walk again. Basically though I had to wait for the nerves to grow back and build my nutrition up again. I had a PICC line inserted (basically a permanent IV port) to provide me with liquid nutrition and I left the hospital still in a wheelchair. I had to move in with my parents (I am married though) so I could have the full time care I needed.
Over the course of a year and a half through intense physical and nutritional therapy I learned to walk again. Needless to say this put an intense strain on my marriage since I was also still living with my parents this whole time. Once I was able to walk again I started frequenting a local karaoke bar with my husband. He had started going there while was sick to relive stress. Our marriage was on the verge of collapsing so I wanted to spend time with him. He had made some good friends there which in turn became my friends. The problem though of course is being in a bar setting made me want to smoke. I always wanted cigarettes more when I drank and here everyone around me was smoking so needless to say I started smoking again. At first I only smoked at the bar, which was just the weekend, but then I found myself wanting one during the week so I would sneak outside when my parents went to bed (crazy I know sneaking around like a teenager at 34 years old) and have a couple cigarettes during the week and I would smoke in my car when I would run errands for myself.
A positive about hanging out at this particular bar is that the karaoke DJ is an experienced vaper along with his girlfriend. One day I just got tired of my hair smelling nasty and not to mention that cigarette smoking is definitely not good for my neuropathy, which I still deal with in my feet (basically I still have a pins and needles feeling in my feet along with pain and some circulation issues). I talked with my friend and his girlfriend had just upgraded her setup so they started me off with a couple evod batteries and some tanks (sorry I am a newb and can't remember what kind they were). They let me try some juice flavors and gave me some of the flavors I liked.
I started vaping and I loved it. Since I have switched out the tanks they gave me to some Aspire BDC tanks because the ones they gave me tended to leak. So right now I am using a couple Kanger evod batteries and my Aspire BDC tanks. I have smoked some analogs still every now and then, but it is less and less because they taste so bad and my ejuice tastes so good! I am still getting that hand to mouth ritual I really crave and saving my health, and with the health challenges I still face I know I should not be putting something I know is harmful into my body. I am thankful every single day that I can walk again (though I still have pain and twitching issues and a slight limp on the right side) which was not guaranteed and I know it was totally stupid to purposely harm myself by smoking. Also, since I still live with my parents (my husband and I are mending out marital issues slowly, but I have still not been able to move back home due to other circumstances regarding our house itself which is a longer story), vaping is much easier because I can do so in my room whenever I want without them knowing any different.
I am already thinking about upgrading my setup in the future. I just went to my local vape store and the manager was totally helpful, walking me through some of my options for upgrading. I am looking for something easy to use (I am NOT mechanically minding so building coils and such is not of interest to me). The setup that I tried and seemed easiest and was recommended to me was the Vamo V5 mod and the Aspire Nautilus tank. I could totally taste the difference in the taste of the juice with the Nautilus tank. It seemed very easy and newbie friendly as well as the Vamo 5. I am on disability so price is definitely a factor for me as well. If anyone has any other suggestions for me I am definitely open to hearing them.
Currently my favorite juices are Kringle's Kurse by Halo, Wookie Cookie by the Vapor Hut, and Flame Thrower by High Caliber ejuice. I do NOT like fruity flavors (I don't even eat fruit). I love the hot cinnamon flavors, peppermint, and the more dessert type flavors. I am really looking for a good mint chocolate flavor. I have some Manic Mint Chocolate by Mr. e-liquid which is okay, but I was not not getting much mint flavor from it. I put a couple drops of Kringles Kurse in it and that did the trick, but I would really like to find a juice that really tastes like a thin mint cookie on its own. I do like citrus, but the one plain orange flavor I tasted was not very good. I would definitely love to hear any recommends for juices you think I might like.
Sorry for the novel but I just wanted to really paint a picture of my vaping journey. Looking forward to participating in this community of vapers!