Newb questions

[Eureka]

Hi All,

I stumbled upon e-cigarettes last week, and after a few hours of reading/watching about them, I ordered a NJoy pen-style....which arrived yesterday.
Trying it for the first time wasn't much fun, and I fear I did something wrong. I wasn't sure how strongly to inhale so the first few puffs didn't light up the end of it. I ended up in front of the bathroom mirror to make sure it was working. Anyway, after getting a good single inhalation with smoke, I had an immediate head rush, almost like a panic attack. I had a single puff twice more over the next 30 minutes or so. I don't know if I got some juice in my mouth or what, but I had a headache the rest of the evening.

I was using the medium cartridge, which when I looked at it afterwards, had "juice" on the outside part that inserts into the e-cig. Is it supposed to be that sloppy? I'm looking now at the package with the high nicotine rating and you can see juice inside the plastic baggy...not just condensation.

I think I'm going to retry today with the no-nicotine cartridge, but I could use some advice. I really want this to work.

 

[BadSeed]

If there's juice on the outside of the cartridge or the mouthpiece wipe it off before you use the cartridge. You want to be inhaling the vapour. You don't want the liquid in your mouth. Your symptoms do sound like nicotine overdose which you can get by getting liquid in your mouth.

 

[Kate]

Hi Eureka, welcome to the forum.

Nicotine from liquid or vapour doesn't usually have immediate effect. Your description does sound like overdose though so maybe you absorbed more than you realised when drawing without vapour.

You might be very sensitive to nicotine, try zero or low and get used to esmoking before moving to a higher dose if needed.

 

[kanoo]

I pretty much had exactly the same thing - I ordered my e-cig a few days ago after reading quite a bit on the net about them - I went for the dse901b.

It arrived and I put in a med strength cartridge and I was very excited and started puffing straight away like it was a normal cig. After a few hits I had exactly the same sensation, heart fluttering and "almost like a panic attack" then felt sick a few mins afterwards which carried on for the rest of the evening, I felt all floaty too, like wooly headed.

I also noticed that the juice was seeping out the mouth peice and into my mouth - but didn't really pay much attention to be honest - it just tasted a bit yucky.

Then when I got home I was just completely wiped out, really really tired, then I got ........ which has carried on all day.

Did I give myself a nicotine overdose? I only had one normal cig earlier in the day...

 

[Kate]

Welcome to the forum Kanoo.

Those are overdose symptoms, you may have swallowed some juice.

 

[ApOsTle51]

nicotine takes just 7 seconds from inhalation to reach the brain and take effect.

not quite Instant ...but close

 

[Eureka]

Thanks for the replies. I figured I got too much somehow. I tried the no-nicotine cartridge today and so far, so good. I got through a 2 hour period of the day in which I usually have 4-5 cigarettes. I'll try the low nicotine one once this one runs out.
It will take some getting used to the pen-style, as it's not that easy to just hold it in your mouth. Also, the varying smoke volume is somewhat confusing. Not sure if I'm drawing hard or long enough.

I'm still curious if the liquid is supposed to come out of the cartridge that easily? Seems messy. I had to do a little cleaning after removing the medium cartridge.

 

[kanoo]

Welcome to the forum Kanoo.

Those are overdose symptoms, you may have swallowed some juice.

I am really not feeling very good - this has been going on for a day, apparently this can be quite serious? the stomach problems seem to have gone away but I'm having cold sweats, palpatations, and am breathless

How long does it take to get out of your system? its been over 24 hours since I e-smoked but I had a cig a few hours ago not realising that I had overdosed and seems to have set everything off again....

 

[Kate]

You need to stop vaping with nicotine, zero should be ok and stop smoking until you feel better.

If it seems serious to you contact medical services, don't mess about.

Nicotine stays in your system for a few hours but it's effects last longer, it affects your body chemistry.

There is some health information here - http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/health-safety-e-smoking/3598-nicotine-safety.html

Let us know how it goes, I hope you feel better soon.

 

[ApOsTle51]

kanoo , best option is to seek medical advise as soon as.

take a read through this thread about a similar situation...read it all

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/general-e-smoking-discussion/3579-worst-headache-my-life.html

 

[kanoo]

Thanks for your concern guys

I just returned from the hospital where I had some tests and thankfully I am fine (better safe than sorry). They were a little alarmed about my fast pulse and high blood pressure but just told me to go home....

Don't think I am going to be using the e-cig anytime soon and in fact it's got me thinking that it might be time to quit alltogether, I'll give it a few days though see how I feel

Thanks again for the advice, I'm glad I found this forum, seems like o.d is very common with e cigs...

 

[Kate]

I'm glad you're ok Kanoo.

It is fairly common to hear of overdose symptoms here, it's easy with esmoking to take large doses of nicotine without realising.

Give it a few days before you make your mind up about it and if you do try again try zero or low nic juice.

What strength juice caused the probems you had?

 

[Tetsab]

Kate or any other knowledgeable types:

I've got to ask as I don't see instructions anywhere - how do you link to another thread/post in a reply? Ended up copy'n'pasting a bit of a post to try doing it yesterday then my pc fell over so never worked anyway!

The other thing is how do you tell when an atomiser is failing? Had mine for three weeks now and it has been fairly roundly abused so far trying out different drawing techniques and god knows how many different flavours. Got a Johnson's Creek sampler pack plus glycerin as well as a few generic carts (yuk) and been experimenting with my own menthol blends as well.

I haven't actually cleaned it out as such yet, we have a whistling kettle and thought I'd try using that - holding the atomiser in the steam (with pliers, not my fingers!). I have been blowing it out fairly regularly to clear out juice which seems to collect in it when I've over topped-up the cartridge trying to get more vapour. It's a 901b and the amount of vapour does seem to vary wildly.

As of this afternoon it doesn't seem to be terribly happy at all - lots of sucking but not much vaping. The atomiser is still getting warm but very little vapour coming through. Have I killed it? Got two spares (thanks to all the great advice here) so it isn't a disaster if I have!

 

[Kate]

To link to another thread just copy and paste the address from the address bar on your browser. To link a post click on the post # in the top right hand side of the post and then copy and paste from the address bar.

I'll let some of the more practical people answer the atomiser query, I can't tell when they are going to die, they just go on me.

 

[Tetsab]

Kate, thankyou. I knew there must be a reason for those little numbers, I just hadn't twigged what it was. Now I'll be able to ensure the right person gets the credit if I quote them without having to type it all!

Love the way your 'titles' are changing - wish I could afford to be a supporting member too. Think you should have been given this privilege for free though as you really are one of the mainstays of the forum from what I can tell. You must spend half your life on here answering people's queries - for which many thanks.

Will try searching for 'failing atomisers' in case the more techie types don't look in the newbie forum so often.