If you couldn't drink coffee for one day, would you . . . ?

[Shalom]

Tonight begins the fast day of Tisha B'Av, the Jewish national day of mourning. We do not eat/drink, wash, anoint ourselves, wear leather shoes, or engage in (ahem) marital relations. Nor do we sit on chairs, as a sign of mourning, until midday.

One of the things we do not drink is coffee.

Note that caffeine is a very addictive substance, for many people. Withdrawal symptoms include wicked headaches.

So what to do about this?

Well, yesterday I sold a tremendous amount of caffeine suppositories. These are not commercially available, we have to make them up ourselves. I wasn't the one who compounded them, so I haven't got the actual recipe in front of me, but I think they contain about one grain of caffeine each (64.8mg in modern measurement). We also sold even more that had both caffeine and acetaminophen (paracetamol in UK terminology) in them.

Personally, I think that if I ever got so addicted to any substance that if I couldn't take it by mouth I'd shove it up my fundament instead, I'd stop using that substance, but that's just me...

[bhskittykatt]

I live in the Pacific NW. We drink a lot of coffee. (My city has the most drive-thru espresso stands per capita in the state.) I'll do red eyes, black eyes, dead eyes...in class today we decided that a large coffee with 4 shots of espresso should be called a "barfight". I also order my smoothies with added caffeine to them when I get them as breakfast on the way to work.

I would never do a caffeine suppository. That's just desperate and wrong. Caffeine headaches suck, but I'd rather suffer through them than be that desperate.

[Tama]

There are headache pills with caffeine in them...etc...I guess one couldn't use those?

[MoonCat]

If it was only for one day, I would manage without caffeine. A week could be difficult, but suppositories?? NO WAY!!

[dalesys]

Suppositories *are* one of the traditional methods of tobacco use...

[Jay 2K Winger]

I don't drink coffee, and man, from the horror stories I've read about caffeine coffee addicts and how they behave if they're kept away from their drug of choice? I'm glad.

If I have to get up earlier than usual, or if I'm tired, I'll grab a 5-Hour Energy shot or a can of Monster. If it works, great. If it doesn't, I'll deal.

[Tama]

I am a soda drinker--I never got past the nasty bitter taste of most coffee-and I could deal with it. I'd just be very tired and have to take headache pills.

So, yeah, uh, avoid caffeine if possible. It's a demanding monkey.

[Marmalady]

Tonight begins the fast day of Tisha B'Av, the Jewish national day of mourning.

Now you've reminded me of a book I used to love, called 'Magnolia Street'* where the day of wailing is mentioned... I'm going to have to go find a copy and read that again.

*a street set in a suburb of a city in England, where the houses on one side are occupied all by Jews, and the other side all by Gentiles.

[Gilhelmi]

I think if suppositories had existed (on a widely used basis) when the Torah and Tanakh were written. I believe it would have included a bit about not taking caffeinated suppositories as well.

I am not sure "Caffeine addiction" is a legitimate medical condition.

[icmedia]

Yeah, I agree; I think the whole "not drinking coffee" thing was about the caffeine, not the flavor or color of the water, anyways. That would mean the suppositories were still verboten, under the spirit of the abstinence.

[pzychobitch]

I don't drink coffee, I take my caffeine in another way.

Mountain Dew.

I can deal without for a day or two, but a week? I'd go homicidal.

[MoonCat]

I don't drink coffee, and man, from the horror stories I've read about caffeine coffee addicts and how they behave if they're kept away from their drug of choice? I'm glad.

If I have to get up earlier than usual, or if I'm tired, I'll grab a 5-Hour Energy shot or a can of Monster. If it works, great. If it doesn't, I'll deal.

I love coffee, and I joke about the caffeine keeping me going, but the truth is caffeine doesn't affect me much. I can fall asleep just fine after coffee, tea or cola. "Non-drowsy" pills that contain caffeine knock me out because the caffeine doesn't keep me awake. I'm immune and the coffee fairy is my friend.

[Kittish]

I say coffee is the elixir of life. People tend to think I'm joking, but I'm serious. Coffee is my beverage of choice, at all times. I know I'm addicted to the caffeine, I also know how to wean myself off it if I've got advance notice (a week or so) that I'm going to have to be without my beloved elixir for a few days so that I don't spend two or three days trying to convince my boyfriend to please please cut my head off so it'll stop hurting. But I can't imagine being so desperate for caffeine that I'd be willing to use it in suppository form. The withdrawals aren't THAT bad.

[Shalom]

I should point out that there's no ban on coffee, per se. The ban is on drinking, period. Coffee is just the most visible beverage to abstain from, so to speak. Note that there's a minimum amount which is legally considered drinking, which is half a mouthful (i.e. enough to bulge out one cheek) per nine minutes. Less than that quantity is inconsequential, in case of medical necessity.

The ban is also on eating. Swallowing tablets whole is not considered eating per Jewish law, because that's not the normal way that people eat: this is why we are allowed to take medications in capsules, which are almost always made from non-kosher gelatin. If you can swallow a No-Doz or Vivarin without water, that's legitimately OK even on a fast, but many people can't, especially late in a fast when your throat is dry.

So my wife called me late in the day at the store. We were both fasting, but I'm heavy, so I have stored reserves; she is not, and she does not. She was getting a migraine (well, a unilateral headache: might not have been an actual migraine per the definition, which includes phonophobia, photophobia and nausea and/or vomiting), and wanted to know what to do about it; she had some Excedrin in the house, but needed to know what to do with them. I told her to call the Rabbi and ask him how to proceed. His "psak" (religious decision) was to take it with less than a tablespoon (15ml) of water, which she did, and the migraine went away. I did offer to bring home one suppository for her, and her response was,

HELL. NO.

Now she never swears.

Oh, and here's something to bring this into EW territory, or at least demonstrate what we like to refer to as "chutzpah".

Someone came into the store on Friday and asked us to compound her Fioricet into suppositories for her. I have no idea whether or how well they work by the rectal route, but whatever, that's between her head and her butt. What bothers me about this whole thing is, she didn't get them from us in the first place.

That's right. She went and got them filled at some other pharmacy, where she has all her prescriptions filled, and only comes to us when she wants something special done that takes time and isn't all that profitable.

We get this kind of thing a lot: people calling us to ask about their meds, which they got somewhere else. One of my bosses had the following conversation:

Customer: blah blah my medications blah blah can I take blah how much blah blah
Boss (looks in computer) I don't see these medications here?
Customer: Oh I got them over at Other Pharmacy.
Boss: So why don't you ask them then?
Customer: They're too busy.
Boss: So are we.

I used to freely discuss any medication question with anyone who asked (obviously subject to HIPAA), but lately I've started asking them if they're our customers first. We've had that conversation many times with various customers, and lately I've been telling them that I can't really discuss medications they got elsewhere, because I don't have the whole list in front of me.

I was going to keep on ranting, but now I think I'm gonna continue this rant in Sickbay, or maybe in Fratching if it gets ranty enough. It's getting busy here.

(oh, and I'm still waiting for someone to ask me if they can fill up a Fleet enema bottle with coffee. Nobody seems to have thought of that yet.)

[notalwaysright]

I normally drink 1-2 cups of coffee per day. These are actual 8 ounce cups, not the giant sized travel mugs I see so commonly. About once a year I do a little cleanse thing. It's not to lose weight, it's just a "you don't need all that processed crap!" type deal. I only let myself drink stuff like herbal tea. I seriously think it's the ritual of my morning cup-a-joe, because I never get any withdrawal symptoms.

I have to say, people around here are maniacs about coffee and water. They tote around one or the other like it's their wallet. Now, I know drinking enough water is important, but seriously I get mine BETWEEN shopping trips.