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Two reasons to be tired December 28, 2006
I've written before about how I periodically suffer from gout, and I've had another recent flare-up. The short definition of gout is that it's a condition brought when a person has too much uric acid in his blood so that crystals build up in certain joints, causing massive swelling, hobbling, and cursing. It can be reeeealy painful, especially if you try to do something reckless like walk or stand up or lie still. See the Wikipedia entry for more information and a list of famous people who had the disease, which puts me in such illustrious company as John Calvin, Benjamin Franklin, and Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard.
In the past I've done pretty well at reducing gout bouts to one or two a year by laying off red meat, alcohol, brains, and offal. This most recent one came out of nowhere, though, and has lasted over three weeks (longest. gout. evar.) despite my relatively healthy diet. Worse, it coincided with Amanda's birth and homecoming, which put me on my feet --including my painfully swollen right toe-- a lot more than usual. So, I'm pretty much in constant pain despite the drugs (Vicodin!) the doctor gave me.
Then I learned something new. Reading about the condition on the 'net one day I found that gout is linked to the consumption of diet soda, which is something I excel at and which makes me urinate a lot. This, in turn, dehydrates me, which both raises the level of uric acid in my system and prompts me to drink more Diet Coke. It's a nasty, gout-inducing circle. To break that circle, I swore off Diet Coke, soda, or coffee of any kind. Cold turkey. Then, finding "zero Diet Cokes per day" to not be a very tenable position for me, I back peddled to "one Diet Coke per day," which is where I've been able to hold my ground for the last several days.
Given that I would drink the equivalent of 6 to 8 cans of Diet Coke and a coffee every day before this new resolution, this is a significant change. The gout is getting better, but I've learned that the intersection of New Baby Boulevard and Caffeine Withdrawal Way is not a very pleasant place. Mandy has actually been pretty good about letting us snooze, but she still wakes up a couple of times a night and rocker duty has cut into my sleep time. And apparently I was more addicted to caffeine than I knew, because I'm pretty much constantly tired and constantly have a headache. It's not exactly the best time to cut caffeine from my system.
Still, when I think about whether the cure is worse than the disease, I quickly decide that no, it is not. I'll take groggy over excruciating pain any day. And now if you'll excuse me I'm going to hobble over to the kitchen and drink a tall glass of water.
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Posted by Monkee on December 28, 2006 4:53 PM:
I have a very bad diet coke habit as well. I usually drink 4 or more 32 oz or better diet cokes a day. I found out once that carbonated beverages contribute to esophogeal cancer which is notoriously untreatable. While I find that terrifying, here I find myself typing this comment while drinking a 44 oz diet coke. I feel for you, man.
Posted by Jamie on December 28, 2006 7:04 PM:
Yeah, that could easily be me. Prior to this I'd drink a can first thing in the morning, pick up a 32 ounce drink on the way into work, have a coffee about mid morning, drink another 32 ounce Diet Coke with lunch, then have one or two more cans in the afternoon. I wasn't even thirsty, I think it's just habit and caffine addiction. I tried quitting entirely once more for a week just to see if I could, then when I found out that I could, in fact, quit if I tried, I promptly went back to the old habits.
I think I'm really cutting back for good this time. I cut red meat back to literally two or three times a year, so I think I can do this. I'm just getting sick of water.
Posted by Monkee on December 29, 2006 8:33 AM:
The one time I did quit for a while, I drank caffeine free diets to ease the pain. You didn't mention it in the post, but if you didn't know, it's the caffeine acting as a diuretic that makes you dehydrate from drinking too much soda. You might want to try drinking things that still have carbonation but don't have caffeine, like flavored bubbly water or juice with club soda. I find that it's the lack of carbonation that makes everything else seem, well, flat. Either way, I'm rooting for you. Let us know how it goes.
Posted by bethany on December 29, 2006 10:46 AM:
Ow. I quit caffeine cold-turkey once due to a different health problem, and it was awful. I had horrible headaches for three days straight before I got smart and went back to drinking coffee and then gradually weaned myself to decaf. Of course, my health problem didn't involve pain like yours does, and I didn't have a newborn at the time. But I feel for you on the caffeine withdrawal, and I hope you're feeling much better soon.
Ps. I laughed out loud at "the intersection of New Baby Boulevard and Caffeine Withdrawal Way". Then I read this entry to my mom and husband who both asked what I was laughing at, and they laughed too. You're funny, dude.
Posted by Greg on May 12, 2007 7:21 PM:
I had a similar history of gout until the week before last. After another flareup and much cursing, I decided, with a lot of prompting from my wife and family, to give up Diet Coke ("... anyway its too hard for me to lug the big bottles from the supermarket").
To cut a long story short, after I stopped drinking 2 litres a day, I ended up in the 'emergency' with a drip. The headache was so severe they sedated me and it took a couple of days to subdue. Even while sedated, I could still feel the throbbing pain of the headache. A CT scan proved that there was nothing sinister - it was all pure withdrawal; either from the caffeine or the aspartame or both. Oh and the gout is OK now also.