I will be having surgery in a few weeks and in having the hardest time kicking caffeine. I am a tea drinker. I don't drink soda. Besides the awful headaches I feel like I can choke someone by the end of the day.. Any ideals how to cut it out?

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I had to kick the caffeine habit before surgery too. I was a big unsweetened iced tea drinker, big coffee drinker, and every now and then diet soda.

I guess I don't have very many good ideas for you. All I can tell you is what I did and maybe it's a good way to do it. I immediately stopped drinking the coffee 2 weeks post op on my post op diet. I allowed myself one glass of iced tea a day (my dietician was fine with it). I cut out all soda.

Going from tons of caffeine a day to just one glass of tea was horrible. I had the worst headaches for 4 days. Then, after that 4th day, no more headaches, no more agitation either.

I believe it just takes a few to several days to get it out of your system, and once you can get past those days, you will be okay.

Advice for what it's worth: Just quit cold turkey.

Edited December 22, 20169 yr by mylighthouse

Drink lots of Water, it helps flush the system, and sometimes the headaches are from both the caffeine withdrawal and from mild dehydration. Take some ibuprofen or other pain reliever if you aren't prohibited for some medical reason, and just hang on, it gets better.

"Excedrin mild headache" it must me this version. It contains a small amount of caffeine and is allowed for surgery because the main ingredient is what Tylenol is made of. This means it's not a blood thinner. I was a big regular coke drinker and the first few days without it sucks but with this medicine I was able to overcome it

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Thank you so much everyone.. I will try to go cold turkey and drink lots of Water and take Excedrin. I never realized how much it has a hold of me till I needed to quit.

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Be sure of which version of Excedrin... most contain aspirin which is a blood thinner.

Be sure of which version of Excedrin... most contain aspirin which is a blood thinner.

Every excedrin has aspirin except "mild headache" so you just have to look at the ingredients and make sure you get that one.

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Talk to your dr.

I flat out told my Dr I was not giving up caffeine. It doesn't make me hungry it does the opposite actually and I find it helpful for concentration for work.

My Dr agreed with me and didn't make me give it up. Before I could drink coffee post-op, I just took caffeine pills until 6 weeks. The I started with coffee.

I will be having surgery in a few weeks and in having the hardest time kicking caffeine. I am a tea drinker. I don't drink soda. Besides the awful headaches I feel like I can choke someone by the end of the day.. Any ideals how to cut it out?

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I was hooked on diet pepsi. Now there's days I don't have any! What I did was gradually decrease the amount everyday. You will or at least I did get headaches at first. Good luck

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Talk to your dr.

I flat out told my Dr I was not giving up caffeine. It doesn't make me hungry it does the opposite actually and I find it helpful for concentration for work.

My Dr agreed with me and didn't make me give it up. Before I could drink coffee post-op, I just took caffeine pills until 6 weeks. The I started with coffee.

I wonder if the answer from your doctor would have been different if you drank carbonated drinks instead of coffee. I'm curious.

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Talk to your dr.

I flat out told my Dr I was not giving up caffeine. It doesn't make me hungry it does the opposite actually and I find it helpful for concentration for work.

My Dr agreed with me and didn't make me give it up. Before I could drink coffee post-op, I just took caffeine pills until 6 weeks. The I started with coffee.

They told me I can have caffeine again just after 6 months.. If I could get over the headaches and the nutty feelings I think I would be ok. Thank you I will talk to them again.

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Talk to your dr.

I flat out told my Dr I was not giving up caffeine. It doesn't make me hungry it does the opposite actually and I find it helpful for concentration for work.

My Dr agreed with me and didn't make me give it up. Before I could drink coffee post-op, I just took caffeine pills until 6 weeks. The I started with coffee.

I wonder if the answer from your doctor would have been different if you drank carbonated drinks instead of coffee. I'm curious.

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Probably. I don't drink soda. Haven't in years. Just coffee and tea. I totally get the acid in coffee thing. Early on your tummy can't handle the acid in coffee, but if you have cold brew it can.

I'm almost 1.5 years out and since I am freezing this winter I basically drink black coffee all day, we'll for about 8 hours then I switch to hot water. The first 9 month I only had cold brew because of the acid. You can warm cold brew up, but the cold brewing process doesn't produce the acid

I also want add that I never get caffeine withdrawal headaches. Most of the time when people think they are getting caffeine withdrawal headaches they are just dehydrated because they don't replace their normal caffeine liquids with water at the same amount.

Also another reason they say no caffeine is because they think most people load their caffeine with calories. You have to read between the lines, when I talked to my Dr about it, it is more about calories and appetite than it is about actual caffeine as a drug. When I convinced him that I don't add excessive calories to my caffeine drinks he was like okay.

Edited December 22, 20169 yr by OutsideMatchInside

I did a week of half coffee and half decaf. And then I went to decaf. It was hard. But I'm so glad now that I got that monkey off my back. Just one more benefit. And one less thing to worry about.

Decaf worked for me for about a week. I went back to caffeinated, however I don't barely drink a cup of coffee a day. Its strange after surgery!

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This is something I'm worried about too... I'm a Mt Dew addict. I know I have to give up soda... but I'm struggling because not only does less soda result in headaches, I also get anxiety and if I drink more water I suffer from dry mouth. I have 3 weeks till I start my liver shrinking diet, and that means I need to give up the soda by then. Tomorrow I'm going to limit myself to 3 and do that for a few days then drop myself to 2 for a few days and then just one. Crossing my fingers it works for me!

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This is something I'm worried about too... I'm a Mt Dew addict. I know I have to give up soda... but I'm struggling because not only does less soda result in headaches, I also get anxiety and if I drink more water I suffer from dry mouth. I have 3 weeks till I start my liver shrinking diet, and that means I need to give up the soda by then. Tomorrow I'm going to limit myself to 3 and do that for a few days then drop myself to 2 for a few days and then just one. Crossing my fingers it works for me!

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Good luck

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