I'm doing an ultimate attempt to help my wife get off cigarettes. Not because I want to manage her life or anything like that, but because I want her to live long, and I know how bad smoking for women in their 50ties can be. (yeah yeah, not that it's better for anyone else, but you know what I mean)

I had tried before. Oh, I had tried. As I told you earlier, I got into vaping, and managed to go from 70 cigs a day to zero, now almost 1400 days ago. My wife smoked a lot less, maybe 15 a day. She could also easily not smoke for a few hours, I'd go nuts after 1 hour without my fix. So, my addiction was clearly much bigger than hers.

Bzzzt.

I got "free" in 2 weeks. When I had shown her how it worked for me (she was truly baffled), I spent massive amounts of time and money to find the right setup for her. I bought small ones, "cigalikes", bigger ones, fancy ones, arty ones. Ones that work 2 days without recharging. Tried different liquids. Tobacco, menthol, chocolate, think of a food and it exists in liquid form. I learned how to make the liquids myself, became an expert in the whole thing, read all the studies. I got into the whole technology, built my own devices, learned about the electronics, the most excruciating nerdy details of what it is, how it works.

She liked vaping, but could not get rid of those last 3 to 4 cigs. I tried higher dose nicotine. Better high quality pharma grade nicotine. I tried different taste combos. Liquids that perfectly mimic tobacco. Liquids that are totally different (there are thousands and thousands of choices). Coached her. Explained the stats. (BTW, latest research estimates that the risk of vaping giving you cancer is at least 50,000 times smaller than with smoking.) Again, not selling you anything, just not vaping or smoking is the best, no doubt, no discussion. But *if* you have to choose...

Anyway. Tried adding things called Whole Tobacco Alkaloids (other substances that are suspected to enhance the addictive qualities of nicotine. We now know tobacco companies add a lot of things that make it more addictive, and we know which ones). Didn't work. Something was still missing.

She hated the taste of the real cigs by now. The liquids I came up with tasted so much better. No coughing. No nasty after-taste. No shortness of breath. No stinking clothes. No film on everything from computer screens to walls. She *loves* the taste of my best recipe. She uses the device all the time. I maintain and clean it for her. It costs her nothing. And yet, those last 3 to 4 cigs. Which became 5 or more again... or 7... she got frustrated that I had done it and she couldn't.

It is a weird addiction alright. It's not just the nicotine, we know that now. (in fact, most vapers voluntarily taper down nic levels, some even end up with zero nic liquids). It's not just the fiddling. It's not just the hand-to-mouth routine. It's not just the warm air. It's not just the tickling of the throat. All those are present with vaping, and yet, it doesn't work for everyone. I do have a theory of why that is, but it would take us way too far and I can already see Mrs. D. raising her eyebrows.

This week I have concocted a range of liquids with different strengths, that she can switch, mix, match, depending on how she feels. I spend hours and hours on them, even did an all-nighter, my office looked like a meth lab. I bought her a new device that is very sleek, you almost don't see it, smaller than a pen, dead easy to operate, charge it by sticking it into her laptop's USB port. Will try to motivate her again with all this. Because I KNOW she really wants to quit, and is scared she will never succeed.

I will not rest until she can put out that last ritual cigarette, and feel good about it.