Chocolate and coffee all damn day…

[franklanguage]

I had to go two days without caffeine for a Pulmonary Function Test at NYU Medical the 13th; this is part of my diagnostics relating to the World Trade Center health program. Have no idea how I did; the results haven't been posted to my chart (MyChart) yet.

[ETA: I got a call today—Tuesday, May 18—and was told my lung function is normal, and will be used as the baseline in all successive (yearly) studies. So that's good news; although I thought for a moment she was about to say I was disqualified. No, I'm not disqualified.]

My main observation? God, I'm such an addict; the past two days were hell—even though I usually abstain from caffeine for a week before I give blood. Otherwise, my hemoglobin isn't likely to be high enough and I'm turned away, which sucks.

So after the test, I indulged in a cold-brew coffee—no ice, please—and a bar of 100% dark chocolate. If I'm going to be a junkie, I might as well be one for caffeine.

[100% dark chocolate is because I have to severely limit my sugar intake, and if I can learn to like unsweeetened chocolate—turns out I can—I'm going to do that.]

Comments

[armiphlage]

TWO days?!!!

[franklanguage]

You guys are such wimps! I had someone over on Twitter say he wasn't sure he could manage it either.

[annie_r]

100% dark chocolate? I think I've had some lesser but still high % and it was quite bitter. But maybe if I don't think of it as candy, but a drug, hmm. Due to ADHD meds I don't drink caffeine much.
I hope they finally get you properly diagnosed after all you've been through.

[franklanguage]

Chocolate is a food—and #caffeine and #theobromine are drugs; my motivation is that my doctor told me—now over a year ago—that my blood glucose was "one point below diabetic!" Since then, I've been on a mission to limit my intake of added sugar—guided by the knowledge that if you don't eat sugar, you don't crave it.

It's good to eat fruit, however; fruit contains fiber and other useful chemicals.

[sabotabby]

I'd probably die. I'm glad you got your cold brew!

[franklanguage]

You wouldn't die, but you'd probably wish you did!

[cmcmck]

Two days without coffee?

Argh!

[myka]

well done! I have no idea what would happen if I didn't have caffeine for 2 days.

[franklanguage]

As of this writing—actually, last week I got a call from a lawyer—I'm being urged to get checked at my other clinic, because the pulmonary function test made no mention of my bronchial function, which is my chief complaint at this moment.

In retrospect, I think it's weird that no mention was made of my asthmatic coughing and wheezing, and I'd like that introduced into the record—as they say.