As others, the wheezing/whistling when laying down. Cost keeps going up. Things just didn't taste good anymore. But, the main thing that happened to finally make me look elsewhere... My desire to not go outside during our recent cold snap with 'minus something' wind chills...while my best buddy, our kitty would be pawing the glass door wanting his 'daddy' back inside.
What was your "final straw" moment?
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My moment is when I was doing my bills and realized OMG I was spending anywhere from 80-120 dollars a month for cigarettes AND and additional 90 dollars a month for breathing medications. So I tried a medicine for quitting (hadn't heard of e cigs yet) and it made me crazy (er). I managed to stop for 3 months with that med but scared the hell out of my family. After 3 months I started cheating and within a month was back up to almost a pack a day again. Then the final moment hit me. My Aunt who had smoked for 2 years 30 years ago had lung cancer, had half a lung removed and been through radiation and chemo numerous times decided she was done fighting and being sick all of the time. All this while I was happily smoking away. Now she may not have gotten cancer from the smoking (probably not) But I look at my family history with numerous types of cancer on both sides up to and including my 40 year old brother and realize I wasn't doing myself or my children any favors and it was time to stop. On a positive note at least I never smoked in my home or vehicles so my kids were never exposed to the full on second hand smoke....
I had a collision with another guy on a dirt bike a while back. Everything was fine, neither of us got seriously injured. After grumbling at each other over whose fault it was, we parted ways. About a week later, my chest started to hurt. Then, about 2 days after that, my back hurt in the exact same place as it did on the front. Then breathing started to hurt on my front and back. Went in to the Doc's, and was told I needed a chest xray. This scared the hell out of me. I didn;t want to know what my lungs looked like after all the smoking. Long story short, I had a bruised lung, but was ok. But the scare I got pushed me over the line. It wasn't to much longer after that that I found a pv and gave up smoking.
I had the annoying smoker's cough, pounding heart if I exercised too hard or climbed too many stairs, my husband quit smoking in June 2009 (but never nagged me, he knew that doesn't work). But I kept smoking. Learned about e-cigs in September and got my first kit in October. Kept smoking while I was going through the learning curve of my pv. Once I realized I was enjoying vaping a lot more than smoking, I thought I'd stop buying cigarettes because if I had them, I'd smoke them. But I still bought them because I'd start to panic when I was down to 1 or 2. The final straw was when I went to the dentist and he told me my gums were receding because of the smoking. That did it! My last analog was Nov. 14th and I don't miss them one little bit.
Now I have more energy, my gums are getting healthier, no more cough, and my skin is getting really soft. Loving it!!!!
Now I have more energy, my gums are getting healthier, no more cough, and my skin is getting really soft. Loving it!!!!
If you're a Southern Nevada native, it's probably for the same reason weird cancers run in both sides of my family, too (I'm a SoUtah native), but I figure there's no point in adding smoking on top of the other stuff.
1. Excessive wheezing at night
2. Almost no lung capacity-walking aver 150 ft and could hardly catch my breath
3. Coughing when laying down
4. Burnt hole in carpet in my NEW truck
5. 98% of available men on Match.com, eharmony, etc....SAID THEY WOULD NOT DATE A SMOKER!!
(at least the ones I might be interested in....the ones that said it was ok if you smoked, looked like
they belonged on Americas Most Wanted, not a dating site)
(Yes granny still wants a romantic life as well as a healthy life, I'm over the hill, but not dead yet)
2. Almost no lung capacity-walking aver 150 ft and could hardly catch my breath
3. Coughing when laying down
4. Burnt hole in carpet in my NEW truck
5. 98% of available men on Match.com, eharmony, etc....SAID THEY WOULD NOT DATE A SMOKER!!
(at least the ones I might be interested in....the ones that said it was ok if you smoked, looked like
they belonged on Americas Most Wanted, not a dating site)
(Yes granny still wants a romantic life as well as a healthy life, I'm over the hill, but not dead yet)
WOW! Thanks so much for all the replies, we all have so many of the same experiences. Nice to see were all in the fight..and winning!
Like others, the health issues, cost, smell & social stigma (and 40 yrs of slavery to the weed) all played into making the decision to stop smoking. The final straw was the FSC in the cigarettes that did it for me. You would think FSC chemicals, not PVs would be the target of the FDA.
I had always said that I would quit smoking before my 30th birthday. On New Years Eve it dawned on me that the big dreaded 30 was just 3 months away and I was still puffing away. Over the last year I have really started to notice the effects smoking has had on me, wheezing being the worst. My mom has been begging me to switch for over a year and she offered to give me all the stuff I needed to help me convert to vaping. So just before midnight I took my last puff and entered the new year analog free. I am 3 days in and already feel so much better and have no desire to look back!
I've had a few that all added up to "I have to quit NOW."
My first was when my 3 year old son looked at me as I was on my way out to the garage and said, "Are you going to smoke AGAIN, mommy?"
Then, I received my first child support check from his father, and immediately went out and bought a bunch of cigs with it.
Finally, my boyfriend (who is extremely asthmatic, compared to my mild seasonal asthma) had a severe asthma attack after spending a day in the car with me, and we had to leave a movie we were seeing to rush home so that he could use his nebulizer, running multiple red lights and making several illegal turns along the way, because he actually COULD NOT BREATHE. And I thought, "Wow, if I can get my nic fix without affecting his lungs, I'm a real b!&$# for choosing the harmful alternative."
I still slip up and have the occasional analog, but never at home, never around him, and never around my son.
My first was when my 3 year old son looked at me as I was on my way out to the garage and said, "Are you going to smoke AGAIN, mommy?"
Then, I received my first child support check from his father, and immediately went out and bought a bunch of cigs with it.
Finally, my boyfriend (who is extremely asthmatic, compared to my mild seasonal asthma) had a severe asthma attack after spending a day in the car with me, and we had to leave a movie we were seeing to rush home so that he could use his nebulizer, running multiple red lights and making several illegal turns along the way, because he actually COULD NOT BREATHE. And I thought, "Wow, if I can get my nic fix without affecting his lungs, I'm a real b!&$# for choosing the harmful alternative."
I still slip up and have the occasional analog, but never at home, never around him, and never around my son.
Mine happened when I started making a habit of checking my bank account nightly... and I'd watch the numbers go down, down, down, down.....
1. watching my mom pass 2 years ago from congestive heart failure brought on by COPD. She quit smoking 30 years ago and it still killed her.
2. seeing my new pals last year puffing on e-cigs
3. knowing that life is filled with inevitability (knowing your family history helps)
4. I have always worked on pushing the inevitable back as far as possible
5. tired of taking pills every day and knowing there are more in my future
6. not being able to walk to work without huffing, puffing, hurting, sweating....
7. getting sick to death at the amount of money I was spending every month with a pack of ciggies a day
8. choosing ciggies over food when times were lean.
9. so fed up I couldn't stand myself anymore
10. saving my own life.
2. seeing my new pals last year puffing on e-cigs
3. knowing that life is filled with inevitability (knowing your family history helps)
4. I have always worked on pushing the inevitable back as far as possible
5. tired of taking pills every day and knowing there are more in my future
6. not being able to walk to work without huffing, puffing, hurting, sweating....
7. getting sick to death at the amount of money I was spending every month with a pack of ciggies a day
8. choosing ciggies over food when times were lean.
9. so fed up I couldn't stand myself anymore
10. saving my own life.
OK, this thread is really starting to suck! I hate tear-jerkers. 
It is really depressing to see what smoking does to people, and to think of what the FDA, WHO, etc are trying to do. So many valuable lives are being changed, and this thread is plenty of proof. I really hate governments and taxes and all that @#$%^ sometimes!
It is really depressing to see what smoking does to people, and to think of what the FDA, WHO, etc are trying to do. So many valuable lives are being changed, and this thread is plenty of proof. I really hate governments and taxes and all that @#$%^ sometimes!
Congrats and welcome to ECF, LinzCarp. Best of Luck..
And you as well John Top.
And you as well John Top.
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For me, it was more of a culmination of things. For one, I realized I had been smoking over 15 years and I thought long and hard about how much longer I was going to keep it up. I also had a bad cold last month and found myself smoking even though it hurt my lungs BAD. But my biggest motivation was my little girl. She's only 2 and I'm 37 and I want to be around long enough to see my grandchildren (if she decides to have any), plus I was tired of only being able to play and run with her for a minute before I had to say, "Mommy has to sit down. I'm tired!"
The money didn't bother me except when I was digging in the car seat to find enough to get a pack. I had decided not to quit because I liked smoking, was willing to pay $10 per pack and figured I'd be one of those 100 year old raspy voiced ladies with crooked lipstick.
Then an awesome, friendly, no-drama, always willing to help co-worker took a day off to get a chest biopsy to find out why she couldn't shake a cough and never came back. Three weeks later we were collecting for funeral flowers.
This generous woman loved her family, her kids and had a full, happy life yet she died. I still can't believe it. When you hear about deaths due to cancer you imagine long battles, sad, tired, sick people, right? Well, that's not how it went. She was fine - joking around, looking forward to seeing her grandkid - and then she was dead.
That was the final straw for me. I couldn't go on smoking as if I had some kind of cancer exemption written on my lifeline.
For me, it was the day the doctor told me I couldn't have gastric bypass surgery until I had been tabacco free for 30 days or more. I have Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, so my health isn't great anyway. I had developed a horrible smoker's cough, the wheezing and all the rest, and still I didn't want to quit.
Both of my daughters are expecting babies this year. When the eldest one told me she wouldn't bring the baby to my house unless I quit, I was alarmed, but after smoking 2 and sometimes more, packs of cigarettes a day, I didn't think I had a prayer of being able to quit.
Then a friend on a GBS forum told me about Revolver e-cigs. Her husband dumped a 3 pack a day habit the day he recieved his. I ordered my first kit that same day.
It's only been a week since my kit arrived but I'm already down to just a handfull of analogs a day (5-6). The day after I started to vap I woke up feeling better. The wheezing is already gone, the smoke smell is beginning to leave my house, and I'm not burning holes in everything I own anymore. Since I'm bedridden most days, I've ruined all my nice sheet sets. Now I know that I can have pretty new sheets without burn holes and scorch marks in them! YAY!!
Both of my daughters are expecting babies this year. When the eldest one told me she wouldn't bring the baby to my house unless I quit, I was alarmed, but after smoking 2 and sometimes more, packs of cigarettes a day, I didn't think I had a prayer of being able to quit.
Then a friend on a GBS forum told me about Revolver e-cigs. Her husband dumped a 3 pack a day habit the day he recieved his. I ordered my first kit that same day.
It's only been a week since my kit arrived but I'm already down to just a handfull of analogs a day (5-6). The day after I started to vap I woke up feeling better. The wheezing is already gone, the smoke smell is beginning to leave my house, and I'm not burning holes in everything I own anymore. Since I'm bedridden most days, I've ruined all my nice sheet sets. Now I know that I can have pretty new sheets without burn holes and scorch marks in them! YAY!!
I never had a final straw moment. I've been thinking about quitting and tried a few things over the nears, but nothing ever stuck. Then this past Thanksgiving my brother showed up with his Mall Kiosk E-Cig and it started a revolution within our family. Half of us are smokers, and once we saw my brother's "smoking" gizmo, I knew my answer had come. I knew that I loved smoking, I just didn't love the smoke, if that makes any sense. Anyway, I obsessed as I often do about things, and within ten days I have my first starter kit and haven't looked back. Vaping gives me what I loved about smoking without the smoke. Who'd thunk it actually existed.
Mine should of been 20yrs. ago when I had pollups removed from my Larynx. This past year I noticed every time I yelled at the kids I would lose my voice somewhat. I then discovered vaping! I have a very strong voice now!
The birth of my daughter. I realized that after years of wheezing, I was not going to be around to raise her if I didnt do something and fast.
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