Newb looking to ditch the Cancer Sticks!

[Underdawg736]

Hello everyone!

Coming from Amish Country USA (Lancaster, Pa) I'm looking to drop this nasty smoking habit once and for all by "vaping"!

My old man was an at least a 2 packer a day smoker and after a recent and pretty serious health scare he has dropped to maybe 2 analogs a day thru the use of the E-Ciggarette.
Now this man that I call my father is about as hardcore and thick skulled as they come so to see him drop analogs like a hot cake has without a doubt had profound impact on me. Tomorrow I'll (well the missus) be ordering V2's Ultimate Starter Kit, the same as what he has gotten to start off with and I'll be going from there. This past week I picked up two BLU disposables and they effectively cut my average cigarette intake by half! I've been smoking regularly for about 20 years now, averaging a pack a day but has been more in the past. Needless to say I'm sold on the concept of vaping and I definately want to take it to the next level!
I've done quite a bit of research on the vaping culture as a whole and I've decided to start with baby steps and work my way up the food chain as it looks as though this could be a pricey hobby to have. I already have one expensive hobby and dropping analogs to save money is one of my main motivators with obvious health benefits being #1.

I'm an EMT by profession and see the effects of analogs on a daily basis, that and with a young daughter I gotta keep the whole picture in mind and not just me!

Well I'm glad to have found this place, gotta say there's ALOT to digest here!
Sean

 

[DuckysBooBoo]

Hi Sean and welcome to the forum....Good for you! Congrats!

 

[Troy421]

Welcome to ECF you come to the right place to help ya quit analogs ask a ton of questions,everyone here is very helpful

 

[UncleChimney]

Good for you man! I'm not to far from you, I'm in Exeter, and I hear there is a really great vape shop in between us that just opened a few weeks ago in Ephrata. It is called Vapor Cafe. http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...on/402975-anyone-se-pa-been-brick-mortar.html Click on the link and you'll be able to get an idea of the place.

 

[NakiFantaki]

Congrats! You have come to the right place. I'm an emt as well and after seeing so many COPD/lung cancer patients, I finally decided enough was enough. Good luck to you!

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk 2

 

[Myrany]

Hi and welcome!

You will not find a better place for supportive, helpful and knowledgeable people than ECF. Many here are very very serious about helping people work out all the complexities and find the right system to get the stinky sticks out of their lives.

Big Congrats on your decision and best of luck to you.

 

[Underdawg736]

Thanks everyone for the welcome! UncleChimney, I found out about that place yesterday and I'm planning on stopping up there after work tomorrow to see what they have. My job is about 7 miles away and a half block away from the hospital I'm based out of so I guess I would have no excuse to not check them out!

 

[UncleChimney]

Thanks everyone for the welcome! UncleChimney, I found out about that place yesterday and I'm planning on stopping up there after work tomorrow to see what they have. My job is about 7 miles away and a half block away from the hospital I'm based out of so I guess I would have no excuse to not check them out!

That's awesome!! Let me know how it is after you visit....With three little girls running around it gets kind of hard just to make runs out for myself!

 

[Underdawg736]

Congrats! You have come to the right place. I'm an emt as well and after seeing so many COPD/lung cancer patients, I finally decided enough was enough. Good luck to you!

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk 2

I hear that! A company I used to work for had the main Hospice contract, one quickly saw the effects of life long smoking does not only to to ones body, but to ones family as well. My grandmother has severe emphysema which is pretty much at end stage, she's chugged on for about 15 years after diagnosis, those are not how I want to spend my last decade and a half, not by a longshot. While I do thoroughly enjoy smoking, I see that vaping gives you the best of the smoking culture without the ill effects.....I like that....A LOT!

Thanks again for the warm welcome everyone, it is very motivating on getting this new chapter started!!

 

[Spring_Hill_Papa]

welcome and good luck!

 

[simate]

Hi Sean, you've taken the biggest step in trying to give up smoking so well done for that! It doesn't have to be pricey to vape, it can be, its down to you. If/when you get shineyitus that's when it can get very pricey lol.

 

[garfield82]

Sean,
Congrats on making the decision to come into the light! !

 

[Underdawg736]

Thanks a bunch simate and garfield! This is definately the biggest move to quit to date! I tried gum in the past but still had the cravings! With what I've experienced with disposables so far is leaps and bounds over what the gum was able to do for me! I thought about getting Chantex but the bad dreams part is a big no-go for me! Today I was planning on ordering from V2 but I think I'm gonna stop by a shop close to me after work....or during work if the cards fall right! I don't think I've ever been this excited about something in a long time!
I'm not planning on dropping a lot of coin to start, get enough to start me on my path and maybe after awhile I'll start looking at the cool shiney toys!

 

[r77r7r]

I don't know if he has a store front anymore, but a well known place around here- Good Prophets- Is close to you also.

I think Blue Mist Vaping (ejuice mostly) is down there also.

I'm up near Lebanon, let us know how the shops are down there please?? Like to visit sometime.

808 Volts are nice move up from what you have, reliability wise, and a good Ego (Joyetech) is great.

There is a PA forum on here- join up!

 

[mkbilbo]

Now this man that I call my father is about as hardcore and thick skulled as they come so to see him drop analogs like a hot cake has without a doubt had profound impact on me.

Ayup. Nobody--especially not me--believed I would ever quit smoking. Then one day, when buying my usual carton, I spotted a Blu disposable. I'd been seeing their ads and hearing about the "e-cig" thing so got one just to check out what this stuff was. Don't smoke in the truck so started playing with the Blu widget. First inhale was awful since I did a deep draw like cigs and my lungs didn't seem to like having water vapor in them.

But the aftertaste (after the coughing... good thing I was still parked at the time, not on the road) was rather nice so I puffed at it on the way home, more cigar or pipe like right?

Get home. Put the carton in its usual place, get distracted by something I forget now, end up on the computer, still playing around with the funny new widget. Eventually finish up whatever I was doing, go into the living room, plop down, grab the open pack of cigs sitting by the couch, light up, take a drag...

Froze.

See, the open pack and ashtray were still in the living room. I hadn't carted them into the disaster area I call my "home office" (to make people laugh). Had this weird moment of trying to figure out what, exactly, happened.

Went and grabbed the receipt and checked the time on it.

I, the up to two pack a day smoker, had gone nine freaking hours without a single thought about a cig. Literally forgot to smoke.

To this day, I'm still stunned.

Bought a Blu kit the next day (yeah, Blu... ended up giving it away but it got me going). Dropped to no more than maybe four cigs a day? Like one TENTH normal? Two days later, took the unopened carton back. Exchanged it for Blu cartridges. Told the lady at the counter, "Apparently, I'm quitting smoking." No, actually said it like that. I was still a bit... dazed.

Over a week passed before I told anybody. I was sure something weird was going on. Maybe it was some goofy dream right? Then my mom gives me this weird look and says (as only a mother can), "You don't stink!" So I had to fess up to quitting smoking.

I didn't even try to stop smoking. I just kept losing interest. Slowing down over time. I did break down on tax day and had two cigs. Then one a week later because for some reason I had a two year old in my head having a tantrum over wanting a "real one" and I gave in I think to prove to myself I don't like them anymore. It was pretty awful. So that's been three in ten days? I think the few remaining in the house are going stale. At least that last tasted like it. Or maybe not. I'm no longer a good judge as cigs just stink and they're too harsh and they taste just awful.

It's... I don't know how to really describe it. This vaping stuff may well have saved my life. I was a heavy, heavy smoker and starting to get winded just taking out the trash. I was worried about what it was doing to me but I can't even count the number of failed quit attempts I've had over the years. I'd kind of just given up and figured I blew it when I started and it was too late to do anything about it.

Then seem to have started quitting purely by... accident?

As in, I'm still not trying to quit. I decided to deliberately not try. If I want a cig, I have some around still. It's just every week that passes and the more I enjoy vaping, the less often I think about cigarettes and the longer the gaps between even having one grow. That pack has to be just about gone now. I don't even know. I haven't seen it in a few days now. I think it's still in the cabinet in the kitchen. I don't really seem to care. Which is weird. Used to be, I knew exactly how many cigs I had and how long I had to get more before which store closed when and could go into quite the panic if I slipped and had too few. I'd be out the door and hauling to the corner store like my life depended on it.

(Funny way to put that)

I'm still a little freaked out about the whole thing. I'm not totally yet a full on "non-smoker" but I can see it from here. I don't really feel any need to replace that last pack with whatever few cigs are left. I think I'm slowing to an actual stop now. Didn't happen overnight. Some folks do. Take up vaping and walk away from smoking the same day. Others, takes longer. Me, it's coming up on two months. Still, three cigs in ten days? Used to be, I could have blown through two cartons in that time.

 

[mkbilbo]

I thought about getting Chantex but the bad dreams part is a big no-go for me!

I worried more about the suicide rate Pfizer doesn't want to talk about (I read they're settling about 2,700 lawsuits even as we speak).

Though I guess suicide is one way to quit?

(But guess which one of the two the FDA is fretting over? The one with the high suicide rate or the one that has never caused a single suicide?)

 

[hellcat]

Welcome and congrats! I am continually amazed about the stories I hear everyday on the forum about 1-3 pack a day smokers making the switch and never turning back. I have been vaping on and off for 3-4 years and have made it several months at a time and then had equipment failure and picked up analogs again so everyone's experience is different so I commend your efforts in making it down to just a few analogs over the course of a few days. Plenty of people have had success with this method and the less you actually smoke the better off you are. I hold strong in my believe that once you find your sweet spot i.e.. the right equipment and the right liquid that it makes all the difference in the world. When I first started, I wanted everything to mimmic the actual smoking experience. Now, I don't want it to look or taste like a cigarette. I tried a liquid the other day that even gave you the ashy taste after smoking an analog and I was like "man, wish I had found this when I first started!" Its a great liquid, the most real tobacco flavor I have ever had but I just won't vape it because I just can't stand cigarettes anymore. Its gotten to the point where just one whiff in the parking lot makes me violently ill. go figure.

 

[r77r7r]

Great testimony there Mark!! You put it into words for me- the stunned part, lol. An older gent at one of my motorcycle forums once said it worked alot better to think of it as "stopped" instead of quitting.

Good to have you here.

 

[Underdawg736]

Thanks for the heads up on the other local spots r77, I'll have to check them out! Definitely need to pop into the Pa forum at some point!

Mark that is on inspiring story to keep at it and fight hard! This past weekend I chugged away with the two Blu disposables and smoked less then a half pack between Friday night and Midday Monday! I know certain situations may have me reaching for an analog over the vape like after eating, I know that's not going to go over well! Today I've smoked 6 analogs which is more then half of what I'm at this time of the day. This morning I bought another Blu disposable as well as a pack of analogs. My first goal is after I grab a starter kit tonight from a local shop is that by the time I need to grab more juice/accessories next week, I still have the two packs I have now which would normally last me less then a day and a half!
If I didn't see my dad vapin and cutting down his analogs to almost zero a day I wouldn't have believed it and right now I wouldn't be here typing, I'd be out back in the smoke shack non the wiser!

 

[Underdawg736]

I worried more about the suicide rate Pfizer doesn't want to talk about (I read they're settling about 2,700 lawsuits even as we speak).

Though I guess suicide is one way to quit?

(But guess which one of the two the FDA is fretting over? The one with the high suicide rate or the one that has never caused a single suicide?)

I've heard horror stories about the dreams people have had and being a Vet and an EMS, I've seen my fair share of stuff that can't be unseen and don't care to relive it any more vividly then how it is now (which I feel isn't close to the point of debilitating, but does happen on occasion).

Big pharm and big tabacco go hand in hand, they don't care if several thousand die off unaturally due to their products, they chalk it up to anomolies. I don't agree with big pharm but I do understand that with out the majority of these medications, this world and this country would be a totally different place and not necessarily in a good way.

Ohh and by the way, Austin rocks! at least it did while I was living down that way!