Sunday April 21, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 6 am and my headache was completely gone. I had slept for 15 hours and I felt great. I had an idea that the headache might have been caused from caffeine withdrawal. I had been drinking a lot of chai tea and Saturday I didn’t have any chai tea. Then the headache came on in the afternoon. If I’d been thinking clearly I would have realized not having chai tea is what caused the headache and I could have drank a little caffeine to make it go away. Past experience has shown me that if I drink caffeine for a few days and stop drinking it, I get horrible caffeine withdrawals in the form of an intense headache. I’d gotten really bad headaches like that before from caffeine and I usually don’t drink caffeine daily but those chai teas are so yummy and I figured they didn’t have much caffeine in them. Wrong! That headache was intense.
In high school I took some caffeine pills one time and got violently sick from them. That kept me away from caffeine until my 20’s when I dated a guy who was a Pepsi addict. I joined him and became a Pepsi addict myself. After that, I drank mass amounts of Pepsi for years. I also got chronic headaches if I missed a dose of Pepsi. I also had many other chronic illnesses occur in my life at that time, like fibromyalgia and early onset arthritis. I’d always been sickly and suffered from chronic infections snd mental health issues since I was a child. During my Pepsi addiction days, those increased as well. I also ate nothing but fast food at that time. Yucky!
Fast forward to the age of 34 when I was so sick I was bed ridden and I prayed for guidance on how to heal and I received the answer to change my diet and lifestyle. I did change my diet and lifestyle. I no longer drank Pepsi and I quit eating all fast food and processed food. I no longer got infections, my mental health issues cleared up, the inflammation that caused fibromyalgia and arthritis went away AND I no longer got headaches from caffeine withdrawal.
Fast forward to a few years later to the age of around 37. I had lost 120lbs. and ate only raw food. I was bicycling 30 miles a day and felt better than I’d ever felt in my life. I went to visit a friend in Seattle and Seattle is known for its coffee. I had one cup of coffee in the morning with my friend 3 days in a row. I didn’t like the way coffee gave me a burst of energy and then I had a let down later in the day, so on the 4th day I didn’t have any. Later that afternoon, we were riding the city bus and I got a horrible headache. I told my friend that I had a bad headache and I thought I was going to throw up. The bus stopped and I got up to get off. I threw up all down the aisle of the bus and fell into the bushes on the side of the road. I laid in the bushes for a long time. My friend kept trying to help me up but my head hurt so bad I couldn’t stand up.
Finally after an hour or so we got on another bus and made it back to the bus stop by his house. I didn’t think I could walk the 2 blocks to his place but somehow I made it. He helped me inside and I laid down. Suddenly it dawned on me that the headache was caused from caffeine withdrawal. I asked my friend to get me some coffee. He brought it to me. I took one sip and that horrible headache was instantly gone. I threw the rest of the coffee away and swore to never touch caffeine again in my life. Well, that didn’t happen, I’ve had small amount now and then but I always get headaches if I drink it more than a coupe days in a row and then stop drinking it. They are usually not super intense headaches but I’d rather avoid all headaches, especially since I know what causes me to have them. Regardless, I seem to forget and I’d been having a lot of chai tea lately. Now chai tea is out, all caffeine is out. If something causes me headaches when I don’t have it, then that means I have to make sure I have it daily. No thank you. Plus caffeine causes inflammation in my body. My body feels so much younger and vibrant without it. The illusion of energy caffeine gives is really stimulating the adrenals to use up their reserve energy stores. All of which can cause inflammation in the joints, mood swings, depression and exhaustion. I seem to get all of those from caffeine.
When I woke up Sunday morning, I was glad my headache was gone because I had things I wanted to do. I got up and made my bed. I let out the chickens, ducks and geese and went into the house. Christopher was still in bed. I fed the dog, made my tea and cleaned the kitchen. I hung clothes on the line that were in the washing machine and started a new load. I made a smoothie and went back to the banana hut. I wrote my blog until Angel woke up. We cuddled for a while then she made her bed and we went into the house. I made a big salad to take to church for a luncheon after the service. Angel ate breakfast and got dressed up real nice for church.
We arrived at church early. I took my salad and set it in the fellowship hall, then chatted with people until the service started. The service was about fellowship and when it was over we all gathered in the fellowship hall to eat. I enjoyed eating salad and had good conversations with people.
We left church and drove to Caldwell to meet some dogs and their people for a future overnight pet sitting job. The meeting went great. There were 3 dogs, 2 German shepherds and I’m not sure of the third dogs breed. I’m guessing he is a yellow lab mix. The dogs were friendly and we played with them in their backyard while I visited with their people. We all felt that it was a good fit and I look forward to taking care of them in the future.
When I arrived home, Christopher helped me install a new regulator in the back window of the Scion. Then we put the rack on top. Now if I can get the shims put in the back and get it aligned then I will drive it to Idaho. I started to feel another headache coming on. I drank a small caffeinated drink I had in the fridge and the headache immediately went away. I hung more laundry on the line and cleaned the banana hut.
My friend that lives across the highway let me know that she had an old cell phone that I could have to put apps on for Angel. I thought that was a great idea, especially since we had a long drive to Idaho coming up. I drove over in the side-x-side to get it and thanked her very much. I drove home and went in the banana hut. I hot spotted my phone to it since we don’t have Wi-Fi and I loaded some educational apps onto it. I was excited to surprise Angel with a phone. Even though it doesn’t make calls, she is going to be so excited.
I ate a salad for dinner and told Angel I had a surprise for her in the banana hut. I told her she could find out what it is after I took my shower. She was itching to find out what it was and kept guessing things but none of the guesses were even close. After eating, I took a long hot shower. When I got out, I told Angel it was time to give her the surprise. We went out to the banana hut and I gave her the phone. She was super excited and I showed her how it worked. She played on her phone until Christopher joined us for family story time. I read one chapter from Stormy, Misty’s Foal. Angel and Christopher went in the house to sleep and I put the chickens, ducks and geese away. I got into bed and finished writing my blog and fell asleep at 9:30 pm.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria
P.S. This blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.