Black stuff...

[cokemachine]

On Monday I'll be 3 weeks into vaping. It's been a learning curve and I've spent far more than anticipated on vaping stuff. Specifically juices. I've still not found the perfect vape, but cinnamon hots appears to have the most potential.

So anyway - a year ago I gave up smoking for about 10 weeks and used the mouth spray. It worked, to the point of helping me stop, but never gave anything like the satisfaction and ease of stopping I'm getting from vaping. And of course I started again.

So this time round there are huge differences in what appears to be happening to me. Is it coincidence or is it vape related?

Last time I didn't get a cold when I stopped. Not as far as I can remember. In fact I don't recall noticing any improvements in smell taste or health having given up for that length of time. But this time round I feel a bit plagued with coughs and colds. I had just recovered from a cold about a week before I stopped fags, then a week into vaping I get another cold - which now appears to be going. But throughout that time I've been coughing up a reasonable amount of black phlegm. Obviously it's black because of the fags, but why this time and not the last time? 

I genuinely do not recall coughing any of the black stuff when I gave up last year.  So my real question is, do you think vaping maybe accelerating my cough, or is it simply because I've had a cough that it's all coming up? I'm not particularly concerned, just interested to know why it's happening this time round when my giving up process still involves inhaling into my lungs, but last time round - nothing!

Still waiting for some decent taste to return too - 

 

[dragon]

Hi and welcome

Detoxing from the cigs can give you a cold, but this sounds like something you should see a doctor about. Vaping is better than smoking for sure, but other things can go on in our bodies that have little to do with either, and only a doc can investigate it properly.

My taste buds returned really fast, so I hope yours do too

[Jen]

Interesting! Colds are viral, there's not an awful lot you can do about getting them or to prevent it. Smoking does however weaken the immune system, making you more susceptible. I think I read somewhere that PG might even help prevent lung-related infections!

I would have thought the the black stuff is just because your lungs are clearing out combined with the cough. It's disgusting and unpleasant, but all part of the process.

I haven't noticed an amazing uptick in my taste buds' ability either, but it might be gradual rather than an in-your-face type of thing. Or I have taste buds of steel

[OneDay]

Everyone reacts differently to stopping using tobacco (and it is that, rather than starting vaping that produces symptoms). Some never get the cold or the black stuff, some get one or the other, some get both. Your sense of taste and smell WILL return though. Just rejoice that you've given up tobacco and that your body is working overtime to clear the damage you did to it

[lobeydosser]

When I stopped smoking and went vaping full time, I coughed up so much black stuff that I thought of saving it up and sell it to the roads department.

All they would have needed is a few cats eyes down the centre and the could have had an A class road.

Don't worry, the coughing will soon cease, apart from the odd one.

There are many chemicals in cigarettes and I would assume, nic sprays, that open your airways to allow smoke/vapour to penetrate deeper into your lungs.
You do not get these chemicals in E-juice and so your throat is simply re-adjusting to this new, and healthier, pursuit.

[pegasus]

I found this when I stopped the black stuff ... I put it down to the fact that I was inhaling water vapor and it was as you say accelerating the clean up of my lungs, I noticed this more at night, I would have a good vape and I would get a nice crackling in my chest .... but that's all gone now

[Perpetua]

Welcome to you Cokemachine.

I would also recommend going to see your Doctor . . . smoking can mask all sorts of conditions, so it's worth being checked out to put your mind at rest if nothing else.

[cokemachine]

Yeah - I'm not concerned enough to be going to the doctors about it - just interested in thoughts. 

Obviously I wasn't happy to have a second cold in under two months. But then I do live with two young children one of whom is of the age where coughing porridge into my face is nothing out of the ordinary. 

The phlegm is black, but not always - more often than not it's got black bits in it. It's not all the time either - and although revolting there is something satisfying about it. As has been suggested, I'm assuming it's my lungs having a clear out. 

I guess initially I was concerned about the second cold, but as it's now clearing I'm not too bothered.


I was sort of hoping for a BANG I've got taste again - but actually it's the smell that smoking affected the most. That does appear to have improved - as has my skin. But it's all very subjective and you can never really be sure what's going on inside. Everyone is different which makes the whole process even more confusing. 

(Peach Melba is not for me - tastes like flowers)

[cokemachine]

I suppose having re-read my orignal post it does sound a bit dramatic - I don't think the phlegm is any blacker than it should be - I've never been a great fan of getting a cold and have in the past gone years without having one at all (despite smoking) - it's just that I happen to have had three in the last 6 months!

[lobeydosser]

I invariably end my vaping day with 10 or so minutes of vaping a Menthol based e-juice. This is a home brew mixture of menthol and mint.
It fairly cleans out my tubes ready for a sound night's sleep.

By the by, I am sure that your young family will also be greatly benefitting from you changing to Vaping.