27F here. Throughout high school I was a casual cigarette smoker. I would typically have a pack last me a week. Probably around 2017 I tried juul for the first time and instantly loved it. Over the next four years the amount of pods I was using per day drastically went up. I’m a recovering drug addict so nicotine and caffeine are my only vices. I stopped using alcohol and drugs and I ended up getting to a point where I was going through four pods a day. I literally felt like I was still doing hard drugs. I would have pods that I was done with and when I ran out if I couldn’t immediately go to the store I would just go back to the empty pods and use those, literally so cringe.

My coworker introduced me to zyn one day. I wasn’t necessarily interested in quitting vaping in terms of health reasons I really just wanted to stop because of the financial burden going through four pods daily. So zyn was perfect for me.

I was using zyn for about 2 years at this point. It was March of this year and I noticed my throat had a tickle in it and I was always having to clear mucus out of my throat and I attributed it to the allergy season starting. It wasn’t until July that I decided to go to the doctor because the constant irritation in my throat had gotten so bad. Originally they thought allergies and gave me singulair which did nothing. Then they tried prednisone and antibiotics thinking maybe I had inflammation or an infection. That also didn’t work. I finally went to an ear nose throat doctor and he put me on pantoprazole thinking it’s gastric reflux. He said it can take up to two months to take effect (it’s been 3 weeks and no changes).

It was always in the back of my head this may have to do with using zyn. It’s gotten so irritating and gives me anxiety always having this feeling in my throat.

So I started using the patch. Initially I put it on my arm and it was so itchy I could barely handle it. Next day I put it on my stomach and that’s been way more manageable. It’s been 8 days since I’ve used zyn and the patch has helped me a lot. My throat is still bad so I really don’t know if the two are related. Either way I’m going to continue treatment with my doctor and continue the patch until I’m done with nicotine for good.

So my question is if anyone has had any similar experiences to me?