When I became a mom I started drinking coffee at home. 1 or 2 cups a day so I didn't drop face first into a pile of cheerios or baby food. Living in Va, there wasn't coffee stands like here in WA. I missed them, so upon my return I jumped head first into cup after cup of delicious espresso. If I was running errands, I'd stop for my 16oz sugar free white chocolate mocha. If I was going to gone all day I'd make it a 20oz. Iced please. Some days when Lance was in CT I dabbled in the good stuff. You know the white coffee that some stands have. It's like heaven in your mouth. If I had to have pot coffee from home it was pretty strong. I remember having a house guest one time that commented on being jittery from one cup of my drip. I laughed. I drink 2 or 3 of those a day! Looking back I remember craving caffeine when I was pregnant with Ashlin. I could smell an open Pepsi a mile away. I can officially say now, I was addicted. The only logical thing was for
Lance to buy me an espresso machine for my birthday.
Well rewind to last Wednesday, I got up, made me a 2 shot mocha and went about my day. I had a meeting to go to the night so at about 5 I made myself a 16oz sugar free cookie dough mocha , iced. with 2.5 shots. I was getting good at perfecting my coffees at home, I was proud because I was saving a ton of money too. Anyways that night at about 1130 I layed down, all the sudden my body starts tingling all over, I have cold sweats, my mouth tastes weird , I'm dizzy and my heart is RACING. Figuring I was probably having a panic attack I did my normal calming methods and tried to lay back down. 5 mins later it happened again. Lasted 3 mins or so then stopped. This happened off an on for about 45 mins until I realized something was wrong. Lance had duty so I called my mom. She told me to call a triage nurse and see what she said. While I was doing that I guess she looked up side effects to Prozac *BC yes I am on Prozac* and called to tell me she was on her way out because my symptoms pointed to a reaction to the medication. I called lance at work, he was able to leave. *thank the Lord for some amazing people that night* My mom got here checked my pulse rate. Wrist was like 102, but after listening to my heart she called 911. She was counting like 190 when listening to my heart. The EMT came, did all my vitals. BP was 161/122. SHIT. Did an EKG and determined that I would in fact be ok and I wasn't at risk for something cardiac related. My vitals came down and the guy asked me "how much caffeine have you had today?" so I told him and his jaw about dropped. I was sternly instructed to lay off the coffee and follow up with my Dr.
I found myself at the Dr nice and early Thursday morning. I had no sleep because the sensation I described kept happening til about 5 am. After talking with the Dr she determined I have an intolerance for caffeine. It was not a reaction to my meds at all. She explained to me that coffee has a half life of 12 hours. So drinking it at night will cause issues well into the early morning hours. She decided to take another EKG to see if there was anything else wrong. She took it a few different readings. When she was finished she explained to me that I was very lucky. My resting heartbeat is low and it is very obvious that I am an active person. She said my heart is probably healthier then someone who weighs 100lbs less than me. She told me that the exercising I do, helped save me. I could've easily had some sort of cardiac arrest with my heart rate being in the 190's but since I put my heart through exercising 2-3 times a week it was able to stand a lot more. I was relieved to hear that. Sometimes I think what I am doing is a waste. I am not getting fast results and it gets tough. But I realized it probably saved my life. Regardless of the fact that I am no where near my goal weight, the changes I've made in the last year have made a difference. SO if you are reading this, please take this lesson to heart, literally. Small changes can have a huge impact.
Its been 5 days without caffeine. The first 3 days sucked. Headaches, exhaustion and grumpiness were all day events. Yesterday was better and today is better than yesterday. No more stomach aches, no more shakiness. I realize the "off" feeling Ive been having was from all the coffee I had. I am starting to feel normal. *although I am sure my crazy pills help in that too ;)* Sometimes it really is the smallest changes that have the biggest results.
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