"Should you be drinking that?" "Probably not, but I don't care"
Coffee. Tea. Dark Pop.
I can't let a day go by without starting off my day with a nice hot beverage full of the wakey-wakey chemical. I will literally fall asleep without it. I attribute most of that to being raised in a very European style (I'm half Dutch), and started drinking tea every morning when I was about 8 years old.
However, there is nothing, I repeat nothing, good about caffeine for people with Crohn's. A full bodied cup of dark roast has even the healthiest gut rushing to the toilet in a half hour. For someone with Crohn's, caffeine is like kryptonite, yet a lot of I've met people with the diagnosis indulge in even more than the daily cup of joe.
It's a really hard balance to achieve. As mentioned previously in one of my posts, one of the most debilitating symptoms of Crohn's disease is fatigue. Caffeine is fake energy, but it comes with a price. You have to be choosy. The internal debate of "Do I stay tired or do I use the bathroom a few more times?" "Do I stay awake to write this paper and suffer through the pain, or do I give up and beg for a deadline extension?" is relentless. I tend to choose the more painful, frequent trips to the bathroom over missing out on something I want to do, even if I feel ill. When I'm in a huge flare (I'm talking hospitalization) I tend to stop the caffeine, mostly on account of my doctors not allowing me to have it, but give it a few weeks back at home and I'm right back on it.
I LOVE meeting a friend for coffee, sitting down with a cup of tea to write, or having an ice cold diet pepsi on a hot day. Caffeine is the gut stabbing friend that I just can't seem to do without, nor do I plan to.
