Caffeine Detox Timeline
Last coffee: 7:00 am Tuesday
First missed coffee: 9 pm Tuesday

Thursday:

Overnight was horrible. I woke up every time I moved because of the pain in my head. I had trouble with temperature. Had chills and sweats.

5:30 – Got up for work. Didn’t think it was going to happen. Put my hair in a ponytail to brush my teeth and cringed from pain. No way I was going to be able to wash my hair. Took a shower. Noticed weakness in legs. Called in sick to work.

9:00 – got up. Ate PB&J. Watched Golden Girls. Groaned frequently from headache pain. Pain is maybe a 8 out of 10.

10:00 – Not getting off the couch. Watched Frasier and dozed through a few What Not to Wears.

Noon – woke up. Realized head did not hurt. Laid there for about 5 minutes to enjoy. As soon as I sat up to get a drink – boom, headache returned. Bastard. Add shoulder and neck pain to headache. Although it’s still about 7 out of 10, not as severe as before.

1:30 – Ate veggie soup. Not hungry at all. Had to make myself eat about half the bowl. Laying here watching tv. Trying not to move too much. Neck and shoulder pain must have just been stiffness from how I napped ’cause they’re gone. Headache is down to about 5 of 10. Crossing my fingers that the worst has passed.

2:30 – Headache still at about 5. And I’m very thankful. No other symptoms right now other than headache. Except total lack of appetite.

5:30 – Headache about a 2. Decided to make a nice dinner and maybe head to the gym.

6:30 – Headache gone. I have that weird feeling in my head where I can tell I had a headache recently – similar to the feeling I get when I had a ponytail in too tight.

So hopefully that’s it. 2 days of pain. Pretty severe. I feel pretty much back to normal. I don’t want to go jump up and down or anything, not sure I want to risk that, but I feel fine. I would go to work with a headache like this. I wouldn’t let this level of headache stop me from anything. Good news.

What have I learned? Caffeine was a good friend. And I’m either in or I’m out. And, for now, I’m out.

Does that mean I won’t go back after Lent? I don’t know. Maybe after Lent we’ll try decaf and see how that works. Or I’ll just go to one a day. I really don’t know.

What I do know is that I’m never doing this again.