The Pain of Addiction

What I thought was a brain tumour turned out to be the pain of addiction.

Saturday morning I got up early (5:45am) to walk Rusty and get him settled before I had an 8am portrait session with a newly engaged couple. In a hurry to get to the site early I didn't have any coffee or juice, my two morning beverages. The shoot ran long and I had a couple of errands to run before heading to the local Honda dealership to purchase a new car so I missed breakfast, lunch and all of the hydrating opportunities in between.

Around mid afternoon I felt like I had a spike going through my temple so I took a couple of Tylenol with a big glass of water. No effect. Early evening I took two more Tylenol with two big glasses of water thinking I was dehydrated. No effect. I went to bed early on Saturday because of the pain and the fatigue of car-buying stress, and hoped that when I woke up Sunday morning I would feel rejuvenated and pain free. No dice. My head hurt just as badly.

Then the lightbulb went off. I had had no caffeine on Saturday and to be exact, I'd had no caffeine since Friday morning. So I ground the Ethiopian coffee beans we get from Aster's and started the coffeemaker posthaste. I quickly drank two mugs of coffee and within an hour I was fine.

Oh my gosh. I only drink coffee once a day which is a large mug in the morning. I don't drink soda or iced tea anymore. I may have a cup of green tea in the afternoon but I don't think I consume a sufficient quantity of caffeine to warrant such a reaction. How could my body respond to the lack of caffeine in such a cruel manner?

The lesson learned here is to set the coffeemaker timer the night before a morning photo shoot and bring the travel mug with me.