One Year No Coffee Anniversary

One year ago today I sipped my morning coffee only to feel a strong burning sensation in my stomach. Intuiting that this wasn't a good thing - I stopped, and set up a doctor's appointment. My stomach had been bothering me for a few days quite a bit. I assumed it was just a bug because the wife had just finished a two week stomach ordeal that matched my symptoms almost exactly.

I was wrong.

Sadly, I soon came to understand that I had extreme GERD - chronic heartburn, in other words. I'd had some problems with heartburn in the past but had been taking nexium for several years and this had succeeded in suppressing the symptoms - until now. I underwent an endoscopy and my GI doctor told me flat out that I had to quit drinking all caffeine for my own good - to allow my gut to heal. Maybe not forever, but for several years at the very least.

I was livid and actively rejected this analysis for some time. I kept drinking tea, though I didn't touch coffee, because I believed that it was the tannins - not the caffeine - that was causing my problem. I was half right. It was both.

After taking a few weeks completely off caffeine during an intense work phase, I tried a cup of white tea one morning - the lowest dose of caffeine in a drink available. My stomach burned in pain for two days.

Uh oh.

Slowly, I began to accept reality. It still took me until early this year to part with my nearly twenty pounds of green (unroasted) coffee. I kept thinking things would turn around. Well, they haven't. I hope they do one day, but I am caffeine free for the foreseeable future.

If you told me tomorrow I could drink coffee without destroying my stomach - I would. But the truth is, I know I am healthier this way. I feel better, have more energy, sleep better and my day is much less of a roller coaster.

Still, it's crazy to think that a year ago I was returning from WSOP and drinking coffee and now can't drink coffee and online poker has been effectively stolen from my grasp by the DOJ. Life is crazy sometimes. I am happier than ever despite it all, and I guess that's what counts.