Hey there:
I didn't plan on jumping in the midst of this conversation; however, I noticed the ages and the references as to whether or not a single analog cig would hurt you and that just pushed me to give my 2 cents worth here although, in my case I feel it's value is a whole lot more...
Normally, I am not one to mention my age because it depresses me especially considering my health but, I am 41 years old with 42 coming up in about 24 days from now. I spent 28-30 of those nearly 42yrs smoking 1-2 and sometimes even 3 packs of cigarettes a day unless I had the chance of getting my hands on a bottle of booze. Yes, I started very young but after living with an abusive alcoholic who beat the .... out of his oldest child then started on his youngest until the oldest (that was me) stepped in and picked a fight to keep him off my younger brother, I needed something to keep my nerves calm because it took every ounce of strength in me not to blow his freaking brains out one night to put an end to the hell our mother refused to stop!
What exactly did I get for my troubles? I ended up with the Rice Krispy Brothers Snap, Crackle, & Pop taking up refuge in my chest along with their Auntie Silk (I'm lactose in tolerant) and they made a mess of my lungs with the constant and never ending franks, wheezes, crackles, and thrills. I was told I would end up with emphasema and was already getting treatment for COPD by the time I was in my late 20s! The ashtma I had as a child came back in adulthood. If that was not enough, I was diagnosed with a retinal disease that caused blindness though I had some sight it wasn't the kind that would ever let me back behind the wheel of a vehicle again nor would I ever be able to read a regular or even large print book again. Slowly, that turned into the differences between light and dark and if I'm really good and some guardian thinks I deserve it, I can on occasion use a special software program that zooms picture frames of my computer screen large enough for me to see a movie only I miss a great deal because the retinal disease caused tunnel vision. I went from 60-degrees +, which is required in my state in order to drive, down to less than 3-5 degrees of peripheral vision today! To add a little more salt into an open wound, I was diagnosed with Lupus (SLE), Sjogren's, and Fibromyalgia about 11yrs ago. Statistically, I should have died a year ago but then again, statistically and according to a radioactive constrasted bone density scan test, I should have been wheelchair bound 11 years ago too. So now I live with a toasted immune system, never-ending antibiotics for infections and even procautionary runs, just to ensure I don't get an infection that gets so bad no antibiotic can control it...
I began using the E-Cigarettes on July 7th of 2009. Three weeks later, I had an appt with my doctor just as I have one every month with my doctor for a Lupus (SLE)/Sjogren's/Fibro checkup where he make sure there are no infections, no issues that should be scanned, and goes over the pain threshold and how my medication is holding up to help keep it in check even though I have not spent one day in 20 years where I was not in pain - often tolerable pain but pain nonetheless. I still have to rely on pain patches, breakthrough pain medications for when the patch doesn't work and the pain gets so bad I might take a notion to blow my brains out... Not that I would but when a person reaches a certain pain threshold and I have an amazing threshold for pain so it would have to be really really bad, a person would do most anything to make it stop. I take some 25+ medications every day including 2 separate eye drops that help reduce inflammation in my corneas to prevent corneal abrasions, which will cause scar tissue and make it so I cannot donate my corneas when I die, allowing me to do the one thing I can't do for myself and that is to give someone else the gift of sight! So I take the burning eye drops every day. I take the medications, I handle the pain and even hide it when I need to so my husband doesn't come unglued for my children go into a tizzy because they can't make it stop without my being hospitalized and put on a morphine drip and that would be it for me as it would be the beginning of the end. I'm not quite ready to go there anytime soon. I have a whole heck of a lot more things I need to do before I'm ready to give in to the pain even pain that requires morphine to make it tolerable.
There is something that E-cigarettes have given me that I would not trade for anything in this world... I have spent the last 2+ years without the 1st case of bronchitis! I have not had bronchitis and that means I have not had the pain in my pectoral muscles that feels as if someone has beat me in the chest with a baseball bat and I am so thankful for not having that feeling b/c it came from the coughing that was so bad I'd find it hard to breath but I had to keep coughing in order to get the crude the caused the bronchitis out of my chest.
One cigarette after a meal every once in a while... No. I wouldn't even give that a second thought or even a first one because I love being able to breath as well as having the ability to taste things with all the nuances such as the Kona coffee espresso I love so much, the Kama Sutra espresso coffee beans in coffee from Peru with the chocolate undertones! Oh, to be able to taste all the flavors in suishi again and a vegetarian pizza; vegetarian manicotti! Nope, I wouldn't trade it for that 1 cigarette after a meal because I get the exact same thing from an E-cigarette. All I have to do is bump up the nicotine dose a little bit and it's like enjoying an analog without all the CRAP that came with it!
So, while you are counting out the rest of your birthday candles, start removing a few too b/c even a few analogs after years and even decades of abuse to your lungs, the only way you can make up for that is to stay away from the analogs permanently. Pick a great tobacco flavor, cigar flavor from the e-liquid choices everywhere, add a bit more nicotine to your e-cig in order to give you that extra jolt you're jonesing for when you light up that analog and save your health instead. I'm sure your family, your parents, your husband/wive and even your children or future children will most certainly appreciate it and you will be on your knees thankful you didn't give in because it can very easily push you to the point of giving up and then wham, you're right back where you started all over again.
If I can walk away from analogs, which served to control anger management in addition to the help from a little pill helper known as Valium and get the same effects from an E-cigarette, why can't you? I'm enjoying my extra time with my kids and according to my doctors, the only vital organs that they even suspect the autoimmune diseases have begun to attack so far has been my gallbladder, which is gone now, and the cause of the inflammation of my corneas. Of course, there is the joint disease, nerve damage, chronic insomnia I was practically born with along with arthritis from more broken bones than you care to hear about and I can't even count them all but I feel them every time it gets cold or the weather changes when rain is on the way. The human barometer if you will...
I chose life over losing those years I wasted by ruining my health. But the best news I've received from the last 2, coming up on 3 years is that the damage to my lungs is going away. My lungs are healing every day, which is strange considering the autoimmune diseases but they will have their day to do damage soon enough... I will always have scar tissue from multiple bouts of pneumonia in my childhood and the couple of times I've had it as an adult; otherwise, I am making my body much healthier by going with an alternative that won't help the autoimmune diseases and my age itself as my body slowly begins to wind down ... I'm not going to help these things to finish killing me any sooner than they will in the end. I will wrestle every year, every month, every day, and even every moment I can from the grips of them all just to be sure I have settled all my affairs and been there for my girls as they move from children into adulthood and middle age. One is already grown and recently celebrated her 1st wedding anniversary while the other is in her first year of high school. I've gone through the college ordeal wtih my oldest and in 4 years I will be going through it again with my youngest... Then career choices, and one day she will met a young man who turns her heart as well as her head and I plan to be there to enjoy this one finding happiness but also the love of her life just as I did the day I met and then years later married their dad...
So just think on that for a little while before you pick up that next "cancer stick." You do hopefully know there was a reason as to why analogs were once referred to as "cancer sticks," and it wasn't just because the name sounded cool either... do a little history research and you will find what I did. It wasn't just a cool name; it was because it caused cancer and you don't want to tangle with cancer. I thought I'd walk that line 5 days after my daughter's wedding when I had 2 cysts removed but thankfully, the test results from the lab came back showing they were benign but I have another mass in the other breast so only time will tell along with a few biopsies, if I will have to fight breast cancer too and if I do, then I will fight it as well b/c it can just step in line and take a number as well as pack a lunch and a dinner as well as a breakfast too because I'm not giving up.
Paise
I don't think there is anything wrong with that, but I'm not convinced I could do it. Right now, 3 weeks of non smoking, and I don't feel a need for a cigarette. But I'm not at all convinced that if I told myself "A cig after dinner is OK" that I wouldn't end up smoking again. For me, I think I have to plan on not smoking, because if I open a pack and light one, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to stop at one.
I would like to smoke one again, maybe in a month or two, just to see what I think of them after I've been off them awhile. I've heard a lot of people say that after they switched to vaping and tried a cig, that they hated the cig. I'd be thrilled to find that for myself. But I don't expect it. I expect to enjoy the hell out of that cig, and want more. I'm not even willing to risk it until I've been off the cigs for a lot longer than I've been off them so far.
