One day I was rushing around to take some supplies to one of the satellite sites and I had a sudden cutting and enduring pain in the bottom of my chest. I have a pretty high pain thresh-hold but this one made me stop a minute or two and notice it. I finished loading the van but the pain persisted. It was so severe that instead of going to the site I drove to the doctor’s office. I went in to the receptionist and said, “Either I’m having a heart attack or this is the absolute worst case of heartburn ever!!”
That got me into an examination room immediately. A half hour later and two hefty doses of the doctor’s special chalky goopy stuff I was feeling a little better. Turned out it was heart burn. When I asked what could have caused it at 11 AM the doctor asked how much coffee I’d had that morning….Hmm. Well I was a chain coffee drinker. You know the cigarette smoker who lights his next cigarette from the one he’s finishing….yeah. Well, I “lit up” the cold coffee in the bottom of my cup by refilling the whole cup with hot from the pot…probably 4 maybe 5 good-sized mugs that morning. THAT had caused the severe pain.
Now one would think I’d learn, but no, it took a few more months and a stomach that burned and stabbed constantly before I realized that all that coffee was not good. I cut back to one (okay, it was large) cup in the morning and another (smaller one, normal for most people) just before lunch. Then no more coffee! And basically, I’ve stuck to that pattern for I can’t remember how long and I love my coffee!
But Monday afternoon I just had a hankering for some hot coffee. It was gray and rainy and I just felt like a cup of good coffee would warm me up and brighten the day. I asked Rachael if she would drink some if I made a half pot. She said sure she would and I made the coffee while she was fixing supper. Turned out between then and eight o’clock she drank about half a cup and Vondi drank the rest! Bud-deeee! Did that get my heart pumping and my toes jiggling-until about 2:00 in the morning! I think I calmed down enough to sleep by around 3:30 and woke up again at 6:30. Of course I ran out of steam about two in the afternoon and fell asleep a couple hours which made me wide awake again when most people were sleeping, which messed up yesterday too.
For two days now my sleep pattern has been weirder than usual. Last night I finally got back to normal. I guess from now on I’ll leave the coffee alone after noon.
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I was just telling this story on myself today.
ReplyDelete"I used to think that I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep because I was getting old. I'd heard so many tales about how when people get older they don't sleep as well. I found out that it wasn't getting old at all that was causing the problem. It was drinking coffee in the AFTERNOON."
(I thought if I stopped before 5 that would give time for the caffeine effects to wear off.) When I stopped drinking coffee after lunch, I found that even thought I still wake up in the middle of the night, I can go back to sleep. When I started work I cut back on drinking coffee like I drank it at home because I just didn't have time to make the coffee and drink it on a break. (I decided to switch to Mt. Dew for my caffeine "fix". I really didn't like Mt. Dew but figured I'd get used to the taste if I wanted a pep up.) All in all, I'm like you. I just don't drink near as much coffee as I used to and I know if I drink it after lunch it's going to affect my sleep.