Average Jane Falls Off the Wagon and Pushes It Over A Cliff

So I'm drinking coffee again after well over a year without caffeine. I cannot tell you how happy that makes me.

I didn't stop drinking caffeine voluntarily; I did it because I have acid reflux that was just barely controlled by medication. As much as I loved my morning coffee, it would give me all-day heartburn. I hated to give it up, but I had no choice.

Then a miracle happened! No, not really. What really happened was much more bureaucratic than that. I went to refill my meds and discovered that the doctor had switched me to a high-dose, time-release generic drug at the behest of the insurance company. I was suspicious, but started taking the new capsules…and it turned out that the new medication actually works much better than the kind I'd been taking.

Naturally, I had to test it to see just how good it was. I went to Coffee Morning and drank two-and-a-half big cups of coffee. Later that day I had a Pepsi with lunch. Man, oh man was I sorry! My stomach was in such an uproar I was lucky to get to sleep that night.

That's how I learned that I can have ONE cup of delicious, life-improving coffee in the morning.

I love strong, black coffee. It makes me feel more focused and energetic. I get the impression that it speeds up my metabolism, but I may be making that up. I know for sure that I missed it every single day when I wasn't drinking it.

Of course there are drawbacks. The first is that I either need to make coffee in the morning before work or I have to stop somewhere and buy some. (Seriously, our office coffee is undrinkable.) Either way, it's an inconvenience and an expense. Then there's the lovely trifecta of coffee breath, tooth staining, and the inevitable little drops of coffee that land on clothes and car upholstery.

Even with all of that, I'm enjoying my morning coffee while I can. I've lived with acid reflux long enough to know that I'm pushing my luck hoping that the new meds will continue control my heartburn this well. There could quickly come a time when I'll have to go back to drinking nothing but water.

Thus, I'm actively enjoying every drop of my morning coffee each day. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to continue to do so for a long time.