Thursday Thirteen

1. My husband is really not a bad patient. Now that he is feeling more like himself, off the medications and such, he is doing more for himself, too. He is back to fixing his coffee. I strongly suspect this is because I fix bad coffee as much as anything, but whatever.

2. I remember that fixing coffee was a requirement in one of my first jobs. After the first week, I was informed I need not fix coffee anymore.  I am not sure how I manage to mess up coffee, but I don't drink it so I wouldn't know a good cup if it splashed me in the face.

3. The last cup of coffee I drank was really good, and that evening I had a gallbladder attack that sent me to the ER.

4. Once I went to Buchanan to interview a fellow who was walking the length of the USA for some cause or the other. He insisted on buying me a cup of coffee while we did the interview at the local drugstore. I felt like I had to drink it.

5. Back in the early 2000s, I went through a spell where I attempted to drink coffee because a study said it was good for you. I think it lasted about three cups. I am simply not a coffee drinker.

6. Tea, however, is another story. I drink a cup of hot tea every morning. That is all I drink, though. The rest of the day I drink water.

7. There was a time when I sucked down sweet tea constantly, but those days are long gone. I would come home from school and have tea and crackers. It made me feel very British.

8. When I was a teenager, my soda of choice was Dr. Pepper. Later I switched to Coke. But I don't drink soda at all now and haven't for 20 years. Occasionally I will have a root beer but it has been months since I had one of those.

9. Acid reflux and ulcers will force you to change your diet, even if you don't want to. So will aging. Or maybe acid reflux comes with aging. Or maybe the American diet creates acid reflux. I'm not sure which.

10. My acid reflux pill of choice is Zantac, which has been removed from the market. I have enough here to last me about a year if I want to ignore the possibilities of cancer, which seem so minute in the stories I've read as to be worth the risk.

11. Even so, today I picked up a bottle of generic Pepcid. I haven't tried this drug to see if it helps but I am currently taking a prescription one (Protonix) and would like to step it down a bit if I can.

12. Coming off of an acid reflux prohibitor drug is difficult. It takes a lot of Gaviscon to do that.

13. And going all the way back to #1, I will say that my husband is not causing me acid reflux. His coffee might, but he's doing very well.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 633rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.