Smoking Since Childhood

• I grew up smoking cigarettes. My initial experiences with smoking date back to sixth grade. I used to steal cartons of cigarettes from his mother and run off to smoke them with a classmate. Even though the memory is rather hazy today, some parts of it stayed with me. For instance, I'm not sure if we raced away and hid in the university quad or the park near his house. But even now, I can vividly remember the rebellious spirit, the taboo, and the thrill of maybe getting caught.

• Being the son of a minister, it goes without saying that I was a mischievous kid. It seems practically inevitable that  minister's children will challenge conventional wisdom. I could go on and on about how my sister, cousins, mother, and others did it (we have quite a few preachers in our family tree). One of the things that set me apart from stereotypes of the typical minister's kid was my smoking habit.

• I was smoking at least one pack and a half of cigarettes every day by the time I was in my second year of high school. I could easily smoke two and a half packs a day by the time I was twenty. My preferred poison was Lucky Strikes. I was certain that I would never abandon them. I was going to pass away young and a smoker come what may.

• But I also met my fantastic and stunning future wife in my early twenties. As usual, we didn't follow convention. Before getting married, we shared a home for at least eight years. We both smoked away content as can be, never wanting to have children.

Trying to Give Up

• She and I both left a year before we got married. Yes, this is strange, but what caused it was a crème of tartar blended with orange juice. That did it, for reasons that I cannot fathom. For a year, I didn't smoke, although I was quite unhappy about it. The day of the wedding ceremony was when I restarted, and I haven't looked back since.

• I saw a gradual increase in health issues between April of 2011 and the year 2000 (when I got married). I never had a health obsession. I am obese due to lack of exercise, and I already had a protracted history of depression (with a long list of anti-depressants to go with it). Above all, I didn't give a damn. However, between 2000 and 2011, I started to see the effects of the life I had led and the decisions I had made. During that time, I also had type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, bronchitis or pneumonia every winter (many times), waking up virtually every morning coughing to the point of retching, cranial hypertension, infections, gall bladder dysfunction, and more.

• I often tried to stop smoking during those last few years as the issues mounted. Yes, I gave the orange juice and crème of tartar another go, but it didn't work. I wore patches and smoked while doing so. I chewed gum while smoking. I smoked while suckling on lozenges.

• Let's take a moment to talk about medication. Even though I already had depression, I was STILL given medicine to help me stop. The only options the doctor had were patches and medicine despite the fact that he was aware of my medical history and my lifelong struggles with depression. Most likely, that was the worst period of my life. I wanted to drive into a tree or a wall, jump off a building, or run into a busy street. The panic episodes that culminated in it drove me to the hospital twice and prevented me from working for over five months. It was the worst time of my life. Even now, even with a much lower amount, I still need to take medication to control my panic episodes.

Changing to vaping

• James must be reading this now and wondering, "Um, what happened to the short paragraphs and the vaping?" James, I'm getting there. One late December 2011 night, it was quite late. As I was drifting off to sleep and waking up, I caught a TV ad for electronic cigarettes. To be quite honest, I don't even recall the name of the company, but nevertheless throughout my existence of being half sleeping and half awake, it stayed in my memory.

• The following day, I started looking into electronic cigarettes. I took the super tiny, the 808, and the 808 with the "large battery" as usual. I stopped smoking cigarettes on April 1, 2011, even though I had been vaping since February.

Health Advantages

• So what alterations to my health have I noticed? Since I am a fairly frank person, I have no problem sharing. I weighed 365 pounds when I started vaping, my blood pressure was borderline high, I frequently had blood sugar levels in the 400s (usually people have blood sugar levels between 90 and 100), and I had pneumonia or bronchitis at least twice a winter.

• Now, despite not being in excellent shape, I weigh 330 pounds, my blood pressure is normal, my sugar levels are under 200, and I had no illnesses this winter. I am feeling so much better and no longer wake up with a cough or retching. Can I blame just vaping for this? No. To conclude, however, I'd like to go back to a point I made before.

• I used to not give a damn about my health or the fact that smoking would kill me. However, I can and will point to vaping as the key factor that changed that perspective. When the patches, gum, and workplace health committees discussed how important a support network is for quitting, I laughed. But I firmly believe that switching to vaping has significantly lessened the damage that smoking was bringing to my health. However, it was the vaping community and its members who helped me lose my stubbornness and thoughts of hopelessness that I would never be able to or care about stopping.

• I blog for that reason. Because of this, I named my blog VapersVoice. My life was impacted by the opinions of the vaping community. I was shaken and told to "WAKE UP!" because there was a way out. Whether I write a narrative or not, I want to thank everyone who helps make it possible. That's my tale, and the adventure goes on. VAPOR, LOVE, and PEACE.