Jen's Story 2018 #16

"First and foremost, I'm a mum to 3 amazing sons and a wifey to an incredible man of 13 years, I worked full time as a CSR for Auckland Council and so we lived comfortably and therefore had no real motivation to want to quit smoking... We could afford to smoke and don't really drink unless we go out, which is never. I'm not a girly girl so don't spend money on shoes or makeup and only real thing outside of smokes I really enjoyed spending money was concerts and live music gigs.

Everyone around me has always smoked, my grandfather was even encouraged to take up smoking back in the day to assist his asthma symptoms, little did we know it would eventually kill him but even then this was of little motivation to quit. My partner and I would easily smoke a 50 gram each and at times would buy a couple of packets of 20s to tide us over until I was paid from work. I'd smoked throughout all my pregnancies and have 3 very healthy boys that weren't under weight premature etc. So couldn't understand the whole concept of dangers of smoking while pregnant either.

So since I was 11 smoking was just apart of who I was... Fast forward to August last year where my world seemed to be falling apart around me... I was made redundant the house we had been renting for the last 3 years went on the market so we had to move and I found out I was pregnant...
We couldn't find a house within 90 days so essentially ended up homeless and with very little support given I had just lost my job landlord's saw us as more of a liability than reliability... My smoking increased 10 fold over this time as though we should've been saving my redundancy money I probably spent at least 50% on cigarettes due to the immense stress we were under, a week later I woke up haemorrhaging... I was miscarrying and not in a good way... I was rushed to hospital and had to have blood transfusions and iron transfusions I later found out had I not been a cigarette smoker my blood lose would've still been bad but I wouldn't of needed so many transfusions due to the lack of oxygen in my blood stream... This was the first time my smoking had directly effected me and my family in a horrendous way that made sense to me... A week later I was discharged from hospital and back to the motel we were in.. It was then when I arrived back I had a massive realisation looking at my 3 young boys playing quietly together and hubby busy cooking tea that I almost died and that smoking contributed to it a little bit...that was it... I sat down with hubby after kids went to bed and laid it all out on the table... We calculated the costs involved, what we could do in case vaping didn't work, what we would do to support each other through the tough days... A friend of mine is a Vaper she'd been vaping for awhile so I Facebooked her for advise and tips next thing I know she's posting juices and a v8 stick for me to get on board... Few days later they arrived and I was like a kid in a candy store i wanted to try every juice i wanted clouds i wanted to not want a cigarette anymore... Nov18th I downloaded Vaper trail app set it as my quit date allowed for juices etc as it does on the app and began my Vape journey.the first week or so hubby and I made sure every week when we would buy cigarettes we spent it on juices instead or coils if needed and upgraded his stick he was using. Day 4 I'll never forget I think it was a real turning point for me... I woke up and for the first time since I can remember I felt like I had actually slept and had so much energy the thought of a cigarette made me want to vomit and I felt in my head like I'm a Vaper not a smoker... Don't get me wrong there's been days (and still is) where I want a cigarette but it's not a physical craving more a habit craving but every time I get it I remind myself where I was just 2 months ago and reach for my Vape and chain Vape for a bit... I've joined every Vape page on Facebook known to mankind, buy juices and Vape gear like its going out of fashion and surrounded myself in vapers all of these are helping on a daily basis to keep me SmokeFree and then having the added rewards of not smoking like white teeth, my 3yr old hugging me saying I smell like vanilla not stinky and more money just make me more proud to be a Vaper. "

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