I have been a smoker on and off (mostly on) for the past 30 years or so. A month and a half ago, I approached a coworker asking about that weird little device he was smoking of which I noticed more and more employee’s using instead of conventional cigarettes. He was more than informative about the electronic cigarette he was using, where he purchased it and exactly how it all worked. When he stated that he used to spend over $200 per month for cigarettes for him and his wife and was now spending about $20, my jaw dropped. So later that afternoon I visited the local store where he purchased his unit and after my first draw on an electronic cigarette, I was sold. Over the years, I had tried both the patch (which was more or less successful) and nicotine gum (which did absolutely nothing for me). This funny little device gave me exactly the same satisfaction that I got from smoking, yet for far less expense and with doing far less damage to my body. I’ve thought about trying the patch again many times over the years, yet I found them to cost me as much if not more than smoking and just barely helped alleviate the cravings for nicotine. In the first few days, I cut back from around 25 cigarettes per day down to around 4 or 5. In the next few weeks, this number dropped to 3 or fewer. Six weeks after picking up an ‘e cig’, I was down to about 1 cigarette every other day. In addition, I found that my enjoyment of a conventional smoke had dropped off enormously. On the 6 week anniversary, I had a teeth cleaning appointment and my initial goal was to be completely smoke free around the time of this cleaning, which I have accomplished. While many may argue that converting from a conventional cigarette to an electronic one is not quitting, my body will certainly disagree. The symptoms that I have been experiencing over the past month and a half are rather familiar; familiar because the last time I experienced the same effects was the one and only time I had successfully quit. While the patch was of help the first and only time I successfully quit smoking, I was still left with a feeling that something was missing, a feeling of which I do NOT have currently. The smoker’s cough has subsided, my sense of smell is returning, the wheezing is a thing of the past, it’s the first time I can easily breath through my nose in years, I’ve noticed far improved lung capacity and been told my snoring has decreased markedly. Yes, electronic cigarettes may not be quitting by some peoples definition, however I initially had no desire to completely quit smoking 6 weeks ago. A few days ago I lit up a conventional cigarette and had to grind it out halfway through because it now gives me uncontrollable hiccups.