March 12, 2009
Caffeine Headache
I had THE worst headache today! Normally I wake up and make a 32oz caraffe of coffee with the French press my parents gave me. I used to try to make only 16oz, but I have found that the full press makes a better cup. And I also HATE throwing things away…even homemade coffee that would probably amount to a few cents. So, over the past few months I have gotten used to drinking the full 32 ounces, for the sake of not being wasteful. Plus, it tastes pretty good.
BUT this morning I woke up at 8am and had to leave the house with all 3 girls at 8:45am. We made it out of the house, but without my morning coffee. I was fine until about 12:30pm as we were headed home from our Homeschool group. Then the headache started to kick in. I really didn’t have time to make coffee since I had to feed the girls and get them down for nap all before leaving for work at 1:45pm. I grabbed a coke, hoping it would do the trick (hindsight tells me I should have grabbed 3 ibuprofens along with it).
At 3:30pm, my head was pounding, hands were shaking, I was having hot flashes and my face was flushed. At 4:30pm I thought to make a cup of tea. It did absolutely nothing. By the time I was driving home at 6pm, my hands had stopped shaking, but my headache had become even more violent (if that is even a good description) and I had to keep swallowing to keep my stomach down (gross, I know).
Tim was aware of my condition, so he had the coffee ground and water boiling for me when I walked through the door. He handed me 600mg of ibuprofen, a glass of water and a little bite of food to help the medicine settle and sent me to bed. Five minutes later he brought in my coffee. An hour and a half later my headache was managable and I was able to rejoin the family.
Good grief! I don’t know which is worse: being so addicted to coffee that missing a cup throws me into withdrawal or having the withdrawal symptoms when I miss a cup of coffee (or 3).
Is it wrong to drink something that causes your body to become so addicted to it? I am beginning to wonder if I should start cutting back. I do not like the feeling of something else being in control of my body; this afternoon the caffeine was staking its claim. I definitely will NOT quit cold turkey, but maybe I should scale back a bit. Try 2 cups for a few days and then take it down to just 1.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Timin525's Weblog 
Jenny said,
March 13, 2009 at 11:10 am
Wow! I’m sorry you had such bad headaches! Sometimes, all you want to do then is curl up and close your eyes, but of course we moms must “power on,” and keep going. Hang in there–hope your methods pay off! And–good to see you back to blogging!
timin525 said,
March 15, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Tim was really good to me. I did actually get to lie down and felt much better for doing so. I wanted to stay up, but he was persistent and I gave in.
Mary said,
March 13, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Oh dear, I feel bad for contributing to the addiction. Feel better, and you have my prayers if you decide to cut back. Yikes!
timin525 said,
March 15, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Yep! It’s ALL your fault! 🙂 I just finished all that coffee you gave me from Christmas, so now I am on my own. I think I’ll pick a big bag up from Sams next time I am there. I have never bought it for myself b/c I thought it would go bad before I could use it all up. Now I know that they’ll last the three months it takes me to use them.
Suzanne said,
March 15, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I do think you can be addicted to coffee. I am so with Pepsi. I actually gave it up for Lent. It is a struggle every day, but hopefully I’ll be better for it.
Sarah said,
March 16, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Wow! When I stopped drinking Mt Dew I had slight headaches in the afternoon but it was never that bad. Good luck!
Kathy said,
April 19, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Hi Min
I just read your headache story. I had one like that a few weeks ago. Dad was not home in the morning and I didn’t wake up until he called me. I was in such a hurry I didn’t drink my coffee. (1 cup) it took me forever to figure out why my headache was so bad that evening.
I finally remembered and drank about 1/2 cup and all was well by morning.
I think the body gets addicted to many things that we eat and drink. It even gets addicted to exercise and things like that. We NEED to have good addictions. Like prayer and Bible Study.
It is similar to other addictions we know something is wrong put can’t put a finger on why we feel rotten and then it hits you bam in the head “Oh I haven’t been reading my Bible lately”or
“I haven’t been listening to my praise and worship music”
I remember one year at school when I was getting really upset with the 5th adn 6th graders and I couldn’t figure out why my patience had gone down so much.
It finally dawned on me that I had quit listening to the peaceful Christian music on my way to Hamrick. I started that up again and I was able to return to my happy disposition and enter the classroom with a totally different perspective.
Love you, Mom.