Well. I drank 3 cups of half-caf, and then got tired of it and had 2/3 cup full caf, slightly weak. (TOTAL: Just slightly over my current allowance of 2 cups. Not even 2-1/3, more like 2 and a smidgeon.)

BUT.

A few hours later, I had a hankerin' (and gave in to it)....

............for a cup of tea.

I am not good at this. I am a bad patient.

But you know what. The half-caf didn't seem to hurt me, but I had it when I had some sx active... first awake, soon after eating lunch and dinner, so hard to say if it contributed or not. I had the full-caf when I was symptom free, and nothing happened, no symptoms. I even tried inhaling forcefully to test if I had the mild chest pain. Nope! Zero, zip, zilch, nada, nuttin man!

The tea effect was obfuscated by my brushing my teeth right after, which always causes a lot of throat-clearing. I'll just have to have another cup of tea another time and see.

waves

When I brush my teeth,I sometimes end up coughing,and if it gets bad enough It sometimes sets off the gagging reflex,which causes my sinuses to drain in the back of my throat for a hour,or two. If this happens I end up perspiring. I feel like I'm the only person in the world that it happens to. I have to wait until the right time to brush,and floss my teeth before bed,or I won't be able to sleep afterwards. If I brush,and floss my teeth without a reaction,my throat is better off for a period of time.

I've never heard of anyone having this kind of problem that I just wrote down. It's been better recently because I've slowed my life down. I think that it's a combination of things.

Sorry for getting off the topic. My throat is very sensitive. BF

green tea is supposed to be so good for us, do you ever drink it?
bizi

I do, I do, I like green tea
But it shall not replace my regular coffee
Nor even supplant my cup of black tea
These are apples, oranges, and figs to me.

It sounds like brushing irritates your pharynx... a lot... somehow.

I have a few ideas perhaps....

1. Brushing method -- If you brush your tongue and mouth in general (it's good hygiene to do so), you might be be:

---- brushing too far back
---- brushing too hard
---- accidentally touching the more delicate upper parts of the pharynx.

2. Toothpaste -- You might be reacting to your toothpaste. I find the strongly mentholated ones give me a heavier reaction. Try different quality brands and see if a milder-tasting one is easier on you. I personally used to use Crest over there. I think it tasted mildish, but I don't really remember the different tastes now of the US brands. We have mostly different brands here. Here I use Colgate Total (can't get Crest). I remember that I preferred Crest to Colgate over there. YMMV.

3. Chronic irritation due to reflux -- Do please talk to your doctor about the reflux and possibly a gastroscopy. You might only have the heartburn when it's worse -- ie. you might have the problem sometimes without obvious symtpoms. Chronic reflux irritates the pharynx and cause irritation all the way to the base of the tongue. If these tissues are chronically irritated, they will be muuch more reactive to any stimulus, including normal brushing, acceptable toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.

----------------------------
I'm sure you're not the only person to whom this happens. I think the breaking out into a sweat is probably an anxiety reaction when the symptoms are bad, but the other symptoms all sound like irritation.

waves

Old Plan:

New Plan:

1. consume no more than 2 cups per day of caffeinated coffee of the strength I've been using.

2. Observe symtpoms so as later to evaluate effect and possible need for further reduction.

3. Any caffeine concentration allowed (any strength and decaf dilution ooptional) -- this re-allows espresso but I if I have it I will take care to observe my reaction.

---------------------------------

Coffee log, so far, today:

2/3 cup coffee, full-caf.

waves

O.K., Waves,

Are you trying to limit variables so the observations will be useful?
I am not clear on the difference between the old plan and the new plan.
Anyway, have a good day with this.

M

From regular doctors,to allergy doctors,they do not comprehend. They cannot seem to get it. They do not understand. No one at anytime seems to comprehend the deepness of this issue. I've given up on having this understood. They don't get it,but it's a real problem for me. I've never heard anyone say that they have the same thing. It just launches misunderstandings,and I guess that they think that it's a mild problem,or that I'm exaggerating. I'm not. It's a very serious problem,and I guess that no one will ever understand. It may be irritated by my mental health issues,or maybe that's a part of it. I sure don't know.

When I was getting help with my allergy shots,the insurance companies brought a end to them. Then the medication that helped me with allergies was stopped being made,and I'm trying to figure out how to help myself with these over the counter medications.

I think that my throat,down to my lungs is a very sensitive(Supersensitive)area. I started having these problems when I was about twenty. It affects my ears to. They get congested at the same time. Then they start to pop,and get better after a while. My chest gets conjested,but I cough it out until the episode calms down.

Saltine crackers help me with my throat,and has helped with these attacks.
If I am having a allergy attack in the car,I steam up the windows,so I have to roll down the windows in the Winter until the whatever subsides. I use to get red circles of redness on my face,and neck. Sometimes there would be red areas on my chest. That went away when I stopped drinking alcohol.

Thanks for caring. It's another problem that I have that I,and no one understands. BF

Lifting constraints, which ends up allowing more variables. I think I need to be convinced it is bad for me before I am motivated enough to quit/reduce.
Pretty much I just removed the "dilution rule"Old:
New:
New plan also adds the "observe what happens" which I was doing regardless, but it's important so should I wrote it up. It is something I am better at, than the limits.

I did crappy today. Totally off the rails with the limitations.

I hit my coffee quota before midday. Then got really fed up with things at one point and then mad att my mother. Had a beer -- very BADD and ugh I even had a hard time drinking it. Now having more coffee... very undiluted.

I am not sure if the gabapentin is actually helping or not. Right now at 900mgg it doesn't seem to. I am going back to 1200mg which seemed to help... then then we'll seee. Might have been a coincidental drop in sx before.

waves

Waves,

The "observe" part was what I saw.
Thanks for explaining that you want to observe better.
I understand that observing is easier than limiting.

'Sorry that you are so uncomfortable. You are going through a lot of work to figure out what is going on.

Gabapentin can work -- but mostly I feel that we use it only because there is nothing else and, except for the sleep/fog/or whatever, the side effects are tolerable.

Good luck. I hope that your night goes well for you.

M