How I Started Vaping – Michelle Hughes

Personal Stories of Ex-Smoking Heroes and Heroines

Today, Id like to continue our series of “How I Started Vaping ” Series, by introducing you to Michelle Hughes.

It’s a bit kismet that I am able to do this. Michelle and I both are writers. I do my thing while she is actually a successful Romance Author.

We have traveled in the same circles for a number of years and I had no idea she was a vaper until she kept popping up on all the usual internet vape spots.

So the fit is a natural for the series, and well demonstrates the importance of being willing to share your story enough that it just might save a life.

Michelle’s friend introduced her to vaping.

After my experience with lung surgery and a combustible tobacco relapse, I had a friend who stepped in to help. I take the responsibility of being there for the next one who is ready real seriously. I hope you do too.

Thanks to Michelle for bravely sharing her story.

I hope you all will share yours as well.

And always, #sponsorasmoker #adoptasmoker #nomorecasualties and all the Advocacy groups. Get involved. The vaping you save may be your own…

And Now… Michelle:

Thank you for the opportunity of sharing my story.

I’m a 46-year-old romance author and book publisher diagnosed in August of 2015 with COPD.

I had smoked 25 years prior to my diagnosis and had attempted many products to stop smoking: Nicotine patches and gum, hypnosis, prescription Chantix, and cold turkey.

None of these methods worked for a long period of time and the Chantix prescription had some very dangerous side effect that made it an undesirable product for me.

When I was diagnosed after a hospital stay, I knew something drastic had to change in my life. A friend talked me into trying vaping.

I’d drive by our local vapor shop a dozen times a week, and will admit it reminded me of a head shop you’d see in Florida.

I was sure that method was just some fad for the younger crowd, and if I hadn’t been in such dire straits I’d never had walked inside. I needed something that would work, and I was out of options.

With my friend on the phone, I ventured inside and the products lining the shelves were foreign. Handing my cellphone over to the clerk, she explained what I needed and I walked out of that shop with a 30w iStick, an Aero tank, and two bottles of liquid.

The clerk had setup the device for me so I used it on the way home and was shocked that I didn’t need a cigarette.

I’d chosen a tobacco flavored liquid, and it reminded me so much of the cigarettes I was smoking, I honestly believe it tricked my brain into believing I was smoking. I haven’t touched a cigarette since.

That was nine months ago. I continued using that little mod and the same flavoring for two weeks, and wonderful things happened to my body.

I could smell and taste food again in a way I didn’t even know I’d been missing over the years. Two months into vaping and I no longer needed an inhaler for shortness of breath. I even slept through the night without waking up coughing.

A cough was something I’d had for a year, and so it was a miracle to sleep that way again.

Four months later I could take walks without giving out of breath, and now?

I can sing again. Prior to being an author, I was singer/songwriter for twelve years, and also a respiratory technician for seven years.

I knew all the horrible things that could happen from smoking because I dealt with patients on ventilators, and in the emergency room suffering from complications from combustible tobacco.

Even knowing all those things, I couldn’t stop smoking until I was introduced to vaping. It’s changed my life so much that I share my story with every smoker I can.

Thanks to my friend introducing me to vaping, I was able to introduce my mother who has now been smoke-free for six months. It’s a beautiful cycle, and it all started because someone cared enough about me to introduce me to vaping.

No matter where you’re at in your vaping journey, or even if you’re just considering the idea, this is a community that will support your desire to quit

We’ve got a long road ahead of us to keep our rights as adults to vape, but there are so many incredible stories of people that have given up the smoking habit because of vaping that I think it’s worth it.

I hope after reading my story, that maybe you’ll think it’s worth it too. The life you might save with supporting this community could very well be your own, or someone you love.

Michelle Hughes

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International bestselling Author Michelle Hughes. “Sexy romance because some dreams were never meant to be outgrown!”

Should you like to share “what it was like, what happened, and what it is like today,” please feel free to reach out to us through our Twitter, FaceBook, or email.We’d love to hear your story and share it with the world as space allows and with your permission.