My ecigarette experience My grandfather died of emphysema when I was 10. He was in his 50s and smoked since he was 12. We went to visit him while he was dying. I couldn’t really understand that the person on that bed, wheezing and shriveled, was the same Grandpa who taught my little brother and I to shoot in his backyard, who loved coca cola in glass bottles, who gave me a beautiful tiger eye he found in his driveway and made into a necklace for me. We stayed in his guest room for a few days, until my Dad discovered me sobbing in their bathroom. I had used a pencil to write There is no God on the plastic shelf over their toilet. Seeing him, deathly ill in a bed in the living room, had caused me to question my shaky, budding faith. He died while we were sleeping at a nearby hotel. When I started smoking at 18, I wasn’t really thinking about my grandfather. I wasn’t thinking about how I would become addicted until I was 26, what a monster I would become when I didn’t have a cigarette for a few hours. I wasn’t thinking how it would affect my future mother in law, who’s so allergic that just smelling cigarettes on someone would cause her to break out in hives. I’m not sure what I was thinking then- maybe that I would never be that addicted to something, that I was young and it would all be ok. My husband and I first started using ecigarettes in 2007, before they were widely available. I ordered a 510 setup online and loved the experience… So much better than regular cigarettes. I could feel my lungs clearing, I could taste and smell again. I knew I was still taking a risk in continuing to use nicotine, but by minimizing the amount of carcinogens and other chemicals, I was also greatly minimizing other health risks. But as the equipment started to break down and the long wait for overseas shipping became too long, I broke down and went back to analogs. And the cycle began again. I hated how I smelled all the time, how I wouldn’t be able to take a flight of stairs without gasping for air at the top. Now, ecigarettes are widely available. I bought my first kit at a local gas station. After two weeks, I can run up a flight of stairs and not be out of breath. I no longer smell like an ashtray, or have to shower and change clothes before I see my family. If I don’t have an ecigarette for a few hours, I don’t have the massive mood swings that made my poor husband so miserable. Vaping still provides a lot of the stimulation that I craved, without many of the negative side effects that are associated with analogs. This product may be nicotine based like a cigarette, but it is so very different. It may not have saved my life, but most days it feels like it. I have no doubt that it is saving me from dying like my Grandpa.