Long post re: Health problems.

[Pedaldog]

I started vaping at the end of February this year, about three weeks ago. Bought a basic 510 Atty' set up and some liquids from a good supplier in England. I found that I coughed a lot but not every time and there seemed to be no pattern to when I did or didn't cough! I assumed it would clear eventually and I did watch the Inhallation Techniques stuff.
I have a lot of health problems, mental and physical,that mean I use a lot of medications and things are a bit "Up and Down" most of the time. A few days after I started withthe 510 I was convinced that it was good and bought an Echo 1300mah kit with "Echomisers". Again sometimes I cough and sometines not. I then started to feel generally unwell. A lot of aches and pains in my joints and I was getting cramps in my legs, back, chest and neck. I had all but stopped the Analogues by this time and started to worry a bit. I then started to get Dizzy, confused a lot of the time, palpitations, Bad headache and felt like I was going to collapse. This went on for over a week and yesterday it got to a point I was really scared so I called an "Out of Hours" Doctor. She told me to take a few more of my regular medications and see my own doctor this morning. I did that and told him the situation. He was Horrified that I had gone down from 40 or more Analogues a day to hardly and and told me that it is my body kicking out Adrenaline as the lower level of nicotine from vaping isn't as big a stimulant as my body is used to getting. It seemed to make sense and I came home feeling a bit less worried. But, as I think about it, the problem has been bad for a couple of weeks now and surely that would have eased off? As well as that I am feeling dizzy and stoned as I Vape again this evening. Coughing like crazy every few tokes as well. I feel stoned but in a Bad way. What should I do? The Docotr actually, I swear this is true, told me I should go back to using a few Analogues and cut down gently. Why am I getting such a bad reaction and could it be an intolerance to the whole vaping thing?
I am using various liquids from 11mg to 26mg and they don't seem to be any better or worse.

Help.

 

[Nikinic]

Are you drinking LOTS of water? A lot of those symptoms sound like dehydration. I had this problem when I first started because I did not know that pg/vg dehydrate the body. I thought I was drinking enough water, but I took the advice here and doubled my water intake. Now no symptoms and I have more energy then I have had in years. Just my thoughts.

 

[ambition]

Hi mate.

For some people, switching to vapor is the easiest thing in the world, and for others, well...you know.

Some people have problems with the PG in their juice, and while most of the time I feel PG isn't to blame, it can't hurt to try an all VG juice to see if it makes a difference.

Having said that, cutting out cigarettes can make your body do crazy things to convince you to light one up, so maybe there's a bit of that also.

I hope you find the answer that works for you.

 

[Pedaldog]

Good point Nikinic, thanks.
I am blessed with the Joys of TWO types of Diabetes, type 2 and Insipidus. Insipidus is basically the Pituitary gland "got Broken" with the brain injuries and doesn't make any Anti Diurhetic Hormones. Basically my body won't hold water without medications and even then only a little bit. Difficulty is that I am not supposed to drink more than a few glasses of liquid between the medications and I am dehydrated all the time. I'll have to try some experiments with timings and keep a log of how things are.

 

[Mud Stuffin]

It sounds like a few things going on here. First and foremost, it sounds like you're experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the chemicals found in cigarette smoke. You will feel unwell and a fair bit of anxiety as those chemicals are expelled.

Second, it sounds like you're dehydrating. That would cause the joint aches. You definitely need to up your water intake while vaping. At least double your normal intake. And that's water, not fluids. Coffee, tea, caffeinated and alcoholic beverages are diuretics - they dehydrate you.

Third, it sounds like you may be overdoing the nicotine. The dizziness, headaches, and "stoned" feeling usually indicates low level nicotine overdose. See if reducing your nic may help.

Above all, DO NOT discount your doctor's advice. If your doctor recommends that you cut back gradually, then do that. He knows more about your health than anyone on this forum does. We can only give you our opinions based on our experiences.

 

[Pedaldog]

Ambition, Good idea Bloke! I've got some VG from the local Chemist so I'll maybe try mixing down some of the Higher nic' Liquids with that and see if it helps.
Cheers.

 

[Nikinic]

Good point Nikinic, thanks.
I am blessed with the Joys of TWO types of Diabetes, type 2 and Insipidus. Insipidus is basically the Pituitary gland "got Broken" with the brain injuries and doesn't make any Anti Diurhetic Hormones. Basically my body won't hold water without medications and even then only a little bit. Difficulty is that I am not supposed to drink more than a few glasses of liquid between the medications and I am dehydrated all the time. I'll have to try some experiments with timings and keep a log of how things are.

yeah that would make drinking more water rather difficult. I have type 2 and one thing I have found is that with vaping I no longer crave or miss sweets, I just vape them I will keep my fingers crossed and hope you can find a way to stick with vaping and find that sweet middle ground. Best of luck to you

 

[Pedaldog]

The "Low Level Nicotine Overdose" was my first, Coherent, thought too. That was the main reason I called the doctor last night but even on a day when I've smoked a few, maybe 8 or 9, I've only used maybe a 1ml of 24mg liquid as well so that isn't as much as my old "Normal" smoking intake.

 

[Pedaldog]

Just to add "Good here Innit?"
thanks for the quick responses.

 

[elfstone]

Hi, Pedaldog! I'm so sorry you're going through all this! I wish I had some form of good advice, but let me say from the start that I don't; please accept my "moral" support, though, for what it's worth!

It sounds like there is a lot going on "at baseline" with you, and maybe not all of your health problems were fully under control even before plunging into this transition so... take something that's not well balanced and take it even further from equilibrium...

I agree that all of your symptoms could be partly caused by dehydration, but it's probably not safe to simply chalk them off to that. As we are not your doctor, and we don't know exactly what your health issues are, even the advice to "drink more water" could be harmful (if you have heart failure, or a kidney condition, for instance). Some of the aches and pains could be anything from symptoms of a serious imbalance in the electrolytes in your blood to even symptoms of depression. I just feel it's not safe for anyone to venture into giving you advice here.

We all agree that PG is safe to inhale for a reasonably healthy, non-pregnant adult, but there in the event your body has an ailment that prevents PG from being cleared normally from the body, that it could theoretically cause "confusion". It's a nervous system "depressant" as other alcohols. That's very unlikely, though.

The different levels of nicotine in your system could, however, can change how the medications, if any, for the psychological problems you mentioned work.

I guess my whole point is - did your doctor do any labs to rule out some other things, have you had a recent chest X-ray, you know... before saying it's all from nicotine and vaping...

 

[Pedaldog]

Not long since I had an X-Ray so things are at a Tolerable level there. The thing that makes it difficult to say what is caused by any particular thing is that I have had a change of medication to a couple of months ago and haven't had a good reaction to that. The timeline suggests that the Vaping started around the same time as things got noticeably worse but.. Not sure.
The problems seem to come and go in waves that can last anything from a few minutes to a few hours. I need to keep a record of what is happening and the circumstances around the episodes.

 

[elfstone]

Ouch, I missed the post where you said you had diabetes insipidus and mellitus! I'm assuming you are quite aware how unfortunate a combination that is from a fluid / electrolyte balance point of view. This makes hydration issues a more probable situation, and it makes any "reasonable" advice I could think of less likely to be correct. I guess you should talk to your endocrine and explain to him that vaping is dehydrating, tell them exactly that the humectants that help form the vapor are extremely hygroscopic and "pull" water from your mucosae and lungs (they actually might be completely unaware of that, as doctors really don't know much about vaping). And tell them explicitely that you are vaping propylene glycol and ask if you might have difficulty clearing it through your kidneys and/or liver and whether or not you are prone to lactic acidosis due to your health problems. And look into switching to 100% VG anyway.

 

[hairball]

A lot of aches and pains in my joints and I was getting cramps in my legs, back, chest and neck.

This is caused by lack of water. Vaping is very dehydrating. Please drink tons of water. I drink almost or more than a gallon a day.

I then started to get Dizzy, confused a lot of the time, palpitations, Bad headache and felt like I was going to collapse.

Dizziness and headaches are from nic. In your case, it could be because it's absorbed differently than when you smoke. It's absorbed through your mouth and throat versus your lungs. Confusion and palpitations are common side effects of withdrawal.

Coughing can be caused from different things...flavoring, too much pg, too high a nic, not keeping your atty or cartomizer wet enough and getting a dry hit, just plain getting used too vaping in general.

 

[Pedaldog]

Thanks all. I think I need to sort out a few Facts and talk again to the doctor about it all.
I really do appreciate the thoughts and good advice from all here. I need to get some deionised water, or Vodka, to thin the VG down a bit and then I'll dilute some of the 24mg stuff down to 12 mg and see how that goes.

 

[fray]

Sounds like there are many many things going on with you. I am skeptical that it really has much to do with vaping and more to do with a multitude of prescription drugs and I assume many years of smoking multiple packs a day of cigarettes.

My advice is to follow what your doctor says because he probably knows a lot more than us.

 

[TaraMc]

Firstly and seriously, I spent about 6 weeks wondering if vaping was right for me, I went cold turkey the day my Tornado/Ego kit arrived and as instructed I vaped 18mg juice infact some folks told me I should go for 24 or 36 considering my previous intake). I spent every night with the Ocean roaring in my ears, palpitations that could have run a marathon faster than Ussain Bolt, nightmares and insomnia (yeah I know how can you have both but trust me I did). I cut the nic and that helped a lot!!

But then I kept getting sore throat after sore throat, I didn't initially worry about it, all my mates who were ex smokers kept saying it was my body getting rid of the gunk out of my lungs, but the problem was, it never was a productive "cough", in fact 6 months later after 25 years of smoking I've still not had a productive cough and on top of that I have been unoffically diagnosed with CFS due to Eptein Barr (Glandular Fever/Mono to you and me) so I just shrugged it off as my immune system playing silly beggars AGAIN.

All this time I was diligent about making sure I stayed hydrated. So somebody suggested I started mixing my own fluids and dropped to mostly VG (in fact if my favourite and now only UK concentrate supplier did a VG range it would be 100% vg), what a difference, i got rid of the majority of the PG in my mixes and I'm a different woman. And it isn't a "maybe" that the PG is an issue, I recently tested a bunch of Ego C attys for a supplier as I was suffering durability and wicking problems, and the thought was that a very high VG mix was the problem so I bought some PG and mixed a bunch of juices with a 20/80 PG/VG ratio, I'm snuffling again, borderline sore throat most evening and apparently according to my husband snoring like a traction engine again. Seems the ole PG isn't so hot on the old respiratory tract So it might be the same for you.

Secondly on a non serious not, the way your post displayed on my monitor I read "Long Post: Health Problems - Hairballs" and for ever more when I vape too much I will always think "Hairballs"

 

[Pedaldog]

I hate these Hairballs, I'll just nip out and cough one up now!

 

[TaraMc]

I need to get some deionised water, or Vodka, to thin the VG down a bit and then I'll dilute some of the 24mg stuff down to 12 mg and see how that goes.

Don't go for vodka, it not only gives one serious throat kick, but there are now a few question marks around its suitabilty with certain plastics, the kind you find in tanks and in the filler of cartos. I see you are in the UK (and not a million miles from me) a lot of the BIG Tesco's Extra stores now stock deionised water in 2.5l jugs for £1.47, you can either order it from home delivery or will find it in that wierd and wonderful aisle all tescos have which has car parts and paint brushes and nodding dog air fresheners all mixed together

 

[Pedaldog]

Thaks for that Tara. I'll have a wnader into a Tesco tomorrow sometime and check out said aisle.. Oh Yes.. Oh Yess! (Churchill the dog voice!)

 

[MadValleyVapingMama]

Welcome to the forum Pedaldog. I too couldn't do an easy transition from smokes to PV I went through some very stressful withdrawals last summer when I tried to kick off the analogs.

This winter I took my time & gradually lowered my analogs as I increased using my PV use. After 7 weeks with both, I was able to give up the analogs.

Take your time and don't stress over it. That comes from my experience.