Pneumothorax after 5 years of Volcano use

are you tall and thin btw? I am sure the MD went over that with you but for my own curiosity?

Baron23 said:

Hi Tommy - wow, I'm not doctor and my first thought is why you are asking us since you already asked a medical specialist at a private hospital and he said "not related to vaping"

As best I understand it, the condition you had/have is commonly known as a collapsed lung, most commonly caused by a hole into the thoracic chamber. Also, severe lung disease and, as you mentioned, congenital structural defects in the lung.

So why are you looking askance at your Volcano for this condition?

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Hi Baron!

Thanks for passing by.

I never asked that question... never asked if in your opinion the Volcano was to blame. I said that I was convinced that using the Volcano had anything to do with the episode. Sorry if any of my text misled you to think I was making a relation between both things.

What I've been saying is that I found the Volcano harsh to my throat and so, taking in consideration that I had a pneumothorax and I want to be gentle to my lungs, I started this thread looking askance about alternatives to vaporize my cannabis in a way that is softer to both my throat and lungs.

This was what I was looking for all the way and now I'm not looking for it anymore because I found a good solution and I just felt I should share it with the other users that were participating in the thread and realized which kind of askance I was looking for.

But thanks for you opinion and kind words.

Kind regards,

tommy

are you tall and thin btw? I am sure the MD went over that with you but for my own curiosity?

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Hey CalyxSmokr!

Thanks for your visit

I replied to that answer 5 months ago when we were in that stage of the thread. Here's my answer and all the thoughts regarding it: http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/pneumothorax-after-5-years-of-volcano-use.20631/#post-923924


In conclusion:

I know 95% sure that the problem was in my body structure or maybe a malformation I had probably since birth. That led me to a pneumothorax. Having a pneumothorax made me decide to reduce risks and avoid forcing my lungs. Vaporization with the Volcano (something I was doing since 2010 everyday) seemed to me a bit harsh so I decided to find a better alternative and that's why I created this thread.

Now I'm here only to share the information about the alternative I found in case it can benefit others.

I'm still a big Volcano fan and I desperately want to get back to it, maybe in 18 months or so. I own the Volcano since 2005, I have a Classic and a Digital unit, I also have a Plenty. A lot of my friends (between 4 and 6) bought a Volcano based on my encouragement. It's still top of my list and it's still the first vaporizer I recommend to every smoker that wants to turn to vapor.

But for a person who recently had a pneumothorax or a lung related disease, I advice the Herborizer (or Verdamper, or Vriptech) first than the Volcano.

I know the title may misled some to think that the thread owner is convinced that the Volcano use was directly related to the episode. Sorry about it. I would change the title to "Pneumothorax - What now?" if I could change the title. Any mod can change it for me, please.

Hope it's all clear now Sweet vapes!

tommy

Just throwing it out there but I did end up getting both fused and have been ripping mad bongs... I've been alright. My cause may or may not be related to my genetic stuff, though I do fit the "tall and thin" line too. Best wishes moving forward.

Tommy said:

Hi Baron!

Thanks for passing by.

I never asked that question... never asked if in your opinion the Volcano was to blame. I said that I was convinced that using the Volcano had anything to do with the episode. Sorry if any of my text misled you to think I was making a relation between both things.

What I've been saying is that I found the Volcano harsh to my throat and so, taking in consideration that I had a pneumothorax and I want to be gentle to my lungs, I started this thread looking askance about alternatives to vaporize my cannabis in a way that is softer to both my throat and lungs.

This was what I was looking for all the way and now I'm not looking for it anymore because I found a good solution and I just felt I should share it with the other users that were participating in the thread and realized which kind of askance I was looking for.

But thanks for you opinion and kind words.

Kind regards,

tommy





Hey CalyxSmokr!

Thanks for your visit

I replied to that answer 5 months ago when we were in that stage of the thread. Here's my answer and all the thoughts regarding it: http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/pneumothorax-after-5-years-of-volcano-use.20631/#post-923924


In conclusion:

I know 95% sure that the problem was in my body structure or maybe a malformation I had probably since birth. That led me to a pneumothorax. Having a pneumothorax made me decide to reduce risks and avoid forcing my lungs. Vaporization with the Volcano (something I was doing since 2010 everyday) seemed to me a bit harsh so I decided to find a better alternative and that's why I created this thread.

Now I'm here only to share the information about the alternative I found in case it can benefit others.

I'm still a big Volcano fan and I desperately want to get back to it, maybe in 18 months or so. I own the Volcano since 2005, I have a Classic and a Digital unit, I also have a Plenty. A lot of my friends (between 4 and 6) bought a Volcano based on my encouragement. It's still top of my list and it's still the first vaporizer I recommend to every smoker that wants to turn to vapor.

But for a person who recently had a pneumothorax or a lung related disease, I advice the Herborizer (or Verdamper, or Vriptech) first than the Volcano.

I know the title may misled some to think that the thread owner is convinced that the Volcano use was directly related to the episode. Sorry about it. I would change the title to "Pneumothorax - What now?" if I could change the title. Any mod can change it for me, please.

Hope it's all clear now Sweet vapes!

tommy

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Hi Tommy - thanks, I misunderstood completely (as well as being a bit self-righteous) and also I replied before reading the rest of the thread which was a bit dense of me. The title of the thread threw me a bit as it seemed to me to link the medical condition with vaping with the Volcano.

I am very glad to read that you are now months past your episode and are feeling much more confident about the condition of your lungs. You did ask if anyone has adapted their Volcano to a water tool and I do have a glass bag-to-glass adapter but its for Easy Valve only.

Below is a post I made elsewhere...not sure if its helpful to you but I offer it in that hope:
---------
I love my Volcano. Don't have any criticism of it at all with the exception that its not easy to figure out a way to use a water tool with it. Don't get me wrong, generally I think the straight bag is just fine. What the heck, with a bag vape and a constant speed fan you are going to get some dilution to the vapor anyway and you can easily give it a minute to cool if you like. However, I do vape for sedative effects and that includes fairly high temp (e.g. 422 F) and cooking up a little sandwich of herb and shatter in a reduced chamber dosing capsule. Sometimes even the Volcano gets dry and irritating.

So I saw for sale at Planet Vape a GonG that would replace the Easy Valve mouthpiece and mate to a 14 or 18 mm female adapter.
http://www.planetvape.ca/volcano-easy-valve-gong-adapter.html

So I got one and this what it looks like compared to an EV mouthpiece:


You can see here how easily this adapter will fit into your WP and mate an EV bag


And here is the water tool with the bag on it


My impressions...well, not as good as I had hoped:

1. Bag vapor is, generally by nature, a bit more diluted and this gets more so when taking it in through a water tool...or so it seems to me
2. Bag gets in the way a bit. I would hate to have to try this with a dewar type glass with D020 fitting/
3. Just found it awkward to shut off by lifting bag...sometimes entire GonG came with it.

My overall impression is that for a couple of bucks, its pretty dang nice to have in your accessory kit, particularly for those heavy, higher temp or harsher vapor sessions. But seems a bit like gilding the Lilly for day in and day out use for me. However, for someone with breathing issues, this does seem like it will provide the absolute consistent extraction of a Volcano smoothed down by a water tool.

YMMV

Hey Baron!

Thanks

Yes, I also managed to attach the Volcano bag with the solid valve to a bong (the Sphere XL from the Herborizer, if fits perfectly) and it works but the vapor is almost as harsh as when I inhale directly from the bag.

Anyway I've always been a sensitive smoker/vaper, that's why I stopped smoking 8 years ago and always tried to find the smoothest way possible to get baked through inhalation. Fortunatelly I'm fine now with the Herborizer but I hope someday in the future I can get back to the Volcano or to any other similar vaporizer that fills balloons because it's much more confortable in almost every occasion.

Cheers and sweet vapes!

tommy

Quetzalcoatl said:

Just throwing it out there but I did end up getting both fused and have been ripping mad bongs... I've been alright. My cause may or may not be related to my genetic stuff, though I do fit the "tall and thin" line too. Best wishes moving forward.

Click to expand...

Hi Quetzalcoatl!

Nice to read from you again since 4 or 5 months ago

The 3 pneumologists I got in the public hospital during the 6 days I was there, said that I should stop vaporizing (even though they did not know very well how it worked) and talked to me in a sense that made me believe that they were convinced that maybe without vaporizing I wouldn´t have had the pneumothorax.

Then my pneumologist from the private hospital, the one I consulted twice after leaving the hospital, saw the ct-scan and he says that my issue had nothing to do with cannabis vaporization. That even if I smoked 5 or 10 joints per day he would say the same.

I want to believe him. And he is a good doctor. But I can't be 100% sure that vapor did not contribute to the episode. Maybe the origin was another, but I think vapor contributed in some way. The days before (especially the night before) the pneumothorax I felt pain and discomfort in the same side where it then happened. And I was vaporizing maybe a bit more than usual.

The night before I really felt pain in that side and it was after vaporizing.

Now, in the last 3 or 4 months, I felt the same kind of pain again occasionally, although not so intense, but it's always after vaporizing too much, or weed that was grown by unknown people and is not well dried/cured or still has traces of ferts or pesticides.

In conclusion I'm convinced that I have an exagerated sensibility in my lungs that is a consequence of some sort of disease, malformation or deficiency that I have, but inhaling anything that is irritant may be the triggering factor to provoque a pneumothorax. I have important allergies that affect my digestive and respiratory systems. I even have a bit of asthma. Some pains I feel in the chest are suggestive of pleuritis (inlammation of the pleura). And an inflammed pleura is probably more sensitive to inhaled irritants.

If this is true and if the vaporizer I use now is significantly less irritant to the throat and lungs, than by changing this habit I'm reducing a lot the chances of a 2nd episode. If this is not true, then at least I think I'm benefiting from the placebo effect, hehehe, so it's all good.

I may eventually get back to share more news in a few months or if I find a vaporizer that produces even smoother vapor than this one.

All the best and sweet vapes!

tommy

One thing i noticed with volcano is that for a certain type of weed i would get an irritating cough. The same weed with a lotus / wpa / d020 bong i did not get any cough. When i got the cough it felt more like tiny particles in my throat (like an irritation) rather than the heat or dryness. I've also tried holding the solid value of the volcano down against the d020 bong to get hits through water. That seemed to take away some of the dryness, but not much different. I'll try the volcano again this weekend with the d020, to see how many particles end up inside the wall of the bong. If i recall there is more particle matter inside the bong when used with the volcano bag compared to using the lotus with the d020. I'll confirm that later. Whether this causes your problems i have no idea. I was going to try Rosin at some point, i wonder if this would reduce the amount of fine particles getting into lungs ?. The volcano is no doubt better than lotus in terms of extraction / efficiency and getting too high.