Oh, I'm sorry, I was rambling on up there and thought my post was already too lengthy, and totally forgot the important part! I got the 50/50 blend with 18% nicotine, because I was looking at a comparison chart and that said "medium," and I've mostly always smoked mild tobacco. I read somewhere also (maybe here? my mind is a jumble) that most heavy smokers usually have to start with really high nicotine to compensate for the absorption rate with the vapor. I'm confused.
I got a couple of tobacco flavors (USA and something else, it's upstairs in a cupboard now), some raspberry, wintergreen, spearmint, and they tossed in a little freebie bottle of something-ice, which I assume is another mint/menthol flavor. I filled the tanks on the two e-cigs, one with the USA tobacco flavor, and the other with wintergreen, and they both taste the same. Like crap, basically (ask me how I know what THAT tastes like!), and it's really hard to tell them apart. Another thing is there's a kind of little popping/crackling sound when I hit the battery button on both of them to try an inhale, and I don't know if that's normal. If not, maybe the problem lies there. The little disposable I tried tasted fine, I could inhale it just like a regular cigarette, and it didn't pop or crackle. But when I tried that I didn't know the proper way to inhale vapor (I was doing short quick puffs), so I probably got NO nicotine out of it whatsoever, which is probably why I kept reaching for my pack. I didn't smoke any regular cigarettes, though, until the disposable ran out around noon the next day. Which tells me that although I go THROUGH two packs a day, I don't think I actually SMOKE anywhere near that amount. I'm always doing something, setting one down and coming back to find it all burned up, so I light another one. If the disposable is only equal to 4 to 6 regular cigarettes (is that right?) then I guess I'm not really a heavy smoker, just a heavy burner-upper.
Anyway, I figured getting a decent setup would help, plus me doing a little more reading and finding out how to use them properly, but UGH! I already tried just holding the vapor in my mouth, but it sends my husband off into fits of giggles because he says I look like a chipmunk with my cheeks full of nuts! But hey, whatever. He married me because I'm silly, so this should be nothing new to him.

Or maybe I should just ban him to his shop, and tell him to leave me alone to experiment by myself for a bit, huh?
So, am I understanding that this "owie" is the
throat hit? If so, I want no more PG! Right? Just VG? The stuff I have is already so thick, it's hard to work with, and the blunt needle dropper tip won't fit on the bottles so I had to get a syringe out of the cows' med kit and use that. I'm not sure how straight VG would work... I couldn't draw it out of the bottle with the needle, so I took the needle off, covered the needle end with my finger, and squeezed from the bottle into the top of the syringe to 1.5 ml on the first one (the tank capacity is 1.6), and just 1 ml on the other one. Then I put the plunger partway in, turned it upright, pushed the plunger to get all the air out, put the needle back on and "injected it" into the tank, between the tank sides and the center hole thing. I probably got some in the center hole, although I was trying to be careful not to. It's so thick, and it's hard to see in there while I'm filling it that way. Could that cause the popping sound? Or did I get duds? Or it's an ID10T error?
I appreciate your help, you guys. I really want this to work.
~Lannie