Raspberry, I have those same symptoms, but unrelated to vaping. You may have a vertebrae pushing on a nerve in your neck (I want to say it is C3, but could be C6--I have some arthritis in my spine, so issues with both), and it may just be coincidental that it came along with the vaping.
Since the OP's symptoms are similar to the ones I experienced beginning eight years ago, I feel I should tell my story...
I have had cervical radiculopathy since 2006, affecting C5/C6 and C6/C7. If I recall the medical details correctly, one of the neck vertebrae has a lateral component with an opening in it, providing a path for the nerve cluster connecting the spinal cord with the nerves in each shoulder, arm and hand. The bone tissue around the pathway on the left side of my cervical spine had either "overgrown" or had become displaced, which ended up gradually crushing the nerves that serve my left shoulder, arm and hand.
I had 2 surgeries. One was in late 2006 to remove the offending bone tissue, perform a level 2 fusion in which the surgeon removed the disc tissue between C5/C6 and C6/C7 and fused those vertebral bones together with cadaver bone, then to apply a 4cm titanium plate held in place by six screws, two in each of the vertebrae C5, C6 and C7.
After I still had symptoms of pain, numbness, tingling and shooting sensations that felt like my left arm was being electrocuted every few seconds, a second surgery was scheduled in early 2007. The surgeon went in through the same incision to remove the plate, excise more of the lateral bone tissue that had originally caused the damage, then reapply the plate. In each operation, the surgeon had reached the front and left side of my cervical spine through a shared incision in the right-front of my neck.
7 years later, I still haven't recovered from the damage inflicted upon the nerve cluster. I've been
g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y improving since 2007, but I may have to accept the fact that the pain and odd sensations might never heal. I still keep the hope alive, though. Hope for the best but plan for the worst, and all that.
Anyway, RB, your symptoms are fairly similar to what I felt when all this started, so I felt compelled to share my story. Just know that what you're experiencing could be caused by any of several conditions, including switching from smoking to vaping - more likely the quitting-smoking-part rather than the starting-vaping-part. Cigarettes contain literally thousands of chemicals - far beyond the most famous one, nicotine - to which your body has become accustomed. Stopping their ingestion can affect a person in a variety of ways. From what I've read, this can include numbness and tingling in the extremities.
So why have I wanted to share my own story? Because ...
[...] it's about time you saw a medical professional for medical testing and a real medical opinion.
It's most likely not anything as serious as my condition, but only a neurologist can accurately diagnose you. This is the kind of thing that, if you catch it quickly, can be corrected without any lasting effects. After all, better safe than sorry.
