What is your story with caffeine?
 

I have to be more careful with it. Today I overdid it and I am so sorry for it. My heart was racing and my face literally felt like it was going to explode. My hands weren't working correctly and my neck was having buzzing surges of nasty misfiring electricity.

I had a cup of coffee with an afternoon visitor today and thought nothing of it. What a terrible mistake. Things are starting to calm down, but I might be in for a long night.
Over the years I have gone caffeine free on and off and have settled on 1/2 caff coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. Think I am going to detox and switch back to tea.

I found lowering my coffee intake useful for my restfulness, but I didn't note any change in my neuropathy symptoms. I certainly am more introverted when less caffinated, which suits me okay in most situations.

How long until the onset?

As long as I make sure to hydrate properly after coffee I am okay. I lean on it for work on really bad sleep nights. Not like I used to, thankfully, though more than I would like. Maybe one day soon I will try to pare it down and test a "holiday".

I hope you didn't enjoy coffee too much in the past. It seems like it is a must avoid category.

Organic Yerba Mate
 

Trader Joe's has a decent brand of this caffeinated tea that I use when i need to cut down on coffee. It is also helpful because to get the same look of coffee I need much less sweetener and cream.

I'm down to about 6oz of coffee in the morning. Sometimes it triggers my burning, sometimes not. I usually drink some Kefir 1st to negate the effects. I have given up so many things that I truly like I feel I'm rebelling on this item.

Someone once said to me that drinking coffee was like putting acid into your stomach. Don't know if that's true but do know I love my coffee:eek:

I can't tolerate caffeine well. I never drink coffee, and I had to give up black and green tea last year. They upset my stomach for days. When I was younger, coffee would give me terrible jitters, and then the stomach intolerance started.

I just drink water now, and sometimes some ginger ale diet--Vernor's-- maybe one a day in hot weather. Even peppermint tea started to bother me. That menthol attack I had with the new cool blast mints, did me in. So no more mint tea either. I might try some lightly when it gets colder...but I am not eager to do so.

To keep acid down in my organic coffee and I drink 2 cups daily, I use red mill baking soda in my grounds to cut the acid. This is probably my addiction and won't give it up. Years ago a doctor told a friend that starbucks processing caused more fibroids, so my friend stopped with the starbucks. I never was into starbucks. On tea, the leaves contain high concentrations of fluoride. I have been avoiding tea in recent months. I've often wondered if my joints would be better without the coffee but not willing to withdraw from my coffee.

Just bought some Yerba Mate organic tea at TJ's but haven't used any yet.

Oh yes, coffee is a tremendous tool to temporarily take me out of my introversion. I can feel quite euphoric from it. It has always been that way. All my life I have had to be very careful with it.
If I am smart with it, I am helped by it. When I cave into the temptation of another cup, I pay for it. Never like I did yesterday though. That was like a nightmare.
I figured out what happened. We got a coffee machine that brews espresso pods as a gift. I am used to drinking 1/2 caff organic swiss water processed just in the morning. We switched last week to this machine. I had company yesterday and in order to fuel 6 hours of being "on", I had three cups of this frothy cocaine like madness. :eek:
I will go back to my old routine and see what happens.

As I've related in some previous posts, regular coffee = burning feet for me.

I have primarily switched to decaf coffee, and various teas. I still have caffeine in very limited quantities, but any more than one cup of regular coffee ends in significant pain for me.

This is basically the case for me. Although in the mornings I opt for half caff coffee to get through the day. being on gabapentin (or some other meds) will have you a little slow to get going without it. If you use real cream in your coffee it can slow the reaction the nerves get. but then again heavy cream may give you some lab work numbers (LDL's) that might scare you as well. So, like most things its always too good to be true.

Chatty Kathy
 

I learned to have my coffee first and then take pain meds after. The coffee alone did not change me at all but combined with the pain meds I turned into a Chatty Kathy. I am long winded anyway so I really dominated the conversation until I realized that I was on a roll. Lessons learned. Ken in Texas.