I’ve been smoking since I was 15. That’s almost 30 years ago. I was officially diagnosed as being asthmatic 10 years ago. The combination of the two have caused me health problems in the past but nothing I couldn’t remedy on my own until a couple of months ago.

About 2 months ago I had two massive asthma attacks within a week of each other. One cost me a $400 trip to the ER while the other cost me a job interview. Mrs. Trench mentioned to me that the smoking probably wasn’t helping. I knew I had to quit but how? I had tried patches before but they weren’t that successful. I always went back to smoking. So one Saturday while I was out I picked up a $10 disposable electronic cigarette. That was two months ago and I haven’t even picked up an actual cigarette since.

I’ve tried both the rechargeable and refillable kind but I prefer the disposable. They seem to make it feel physically more like smoking than the rechargeables. I don’t go for the fancy ones where you mix your own juice because I don’t have the time and patience for that. It reminds me of when I used to make my own cigarettes. It saved money in the long run but was such a pain in the ass.

Here’s what I think is the amazing part. In those 30 years I was a pack a day smoker. The e-cigs that I buy are supposed to be the equivalent of 1 1/2-2 packs of cigarettes. The longest I’ve had one last is 3 weeks instead of two days. How I do it is I treat one puff as one cigarette. Don’t use the e-cig, or vaporizer as it’s properly called, as a regular cigarette. Think of it more like a nicotine inhaler. When you would normally smoke or when you feel the urge take one drag then put it down. During this time I was able to go without even the e-cig for a week but the withdraw headaches became too much but I am working on cutting down on the nicotine gradually instead.

Now again even if I wanted to go back to regular cigarettes I can’t because of my asthma so your mileage may vary.