Decaffeinated!

I did the unthinkable.  Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 1:15 PM was the last time I've had a Diet Coke.  It didn't stop there.  In the last week, I have only had one cup of caffeinated coffee.  Not going to lie, the first few days were pretty brutal.  Not only was I going through caffeine withdrawals, I was working 12 hours shifts and unable to take any type of headache medicine.  I survived and I'm still employed, so miracles really do happen.

If you are friends with me on Facebook, or know me at all, you know that my world has been revolving around caffeinated beverages for a while.  I actually trained my brain to think that it could not function for an entire 12 hour shift without the stuff.  Or, maybe my brain trained me to think it couldn't make it decaffeinated?  It reached a point where I would wake up in the morning feeling like my body was trying to register on the Richter scale, so I figured it was time to do something.

Easter Sunday, I landed back in the ER.  My blood pressure was normal, heart rate was only slightly elevated, and no fever.  Another virus.  My body was doing that metabolic acidosis stunt again, so I received two more liters of IV fluids.  They scheduled a follow up with my physician for last week Tuesday.  The same day I quit caffeine.

It's a beautiful thing when your doctor opens up the door to the exam room, shakes her head and laughs.  That's how you know you're a frequent flyer.  In the process of trying to figure out what is going on, she ordered another 24 hour lab with a list of things I had to avoid for 48 hours before the test and during the test.  So, I decided that if I had to give up caffeine, now would be the time to do it.  And, I did.

I can't say that I've seen or felt any of the benefits of giving up soda and trying to eat better, but it's only been a week.  The body is probably going through a state of shock right now.  Understandable for someone who has a food pyramid that looked like this: