A tiresome lesson

I learned a very important tidbit about myself yesterday. Contrary to what my cardiologist told me in 1998, I am very much sensitive to caffeine! Now I haven't been stupid about caffeine, but I'll have a cup of regular coffee or a glass of diet coke every now and then before bed (horrid habit, I know) without a problem, but I'm not someone who drinks a pot of coffee just because I can...

But on Tuesday, I especially felt that a cup of coffee would go well with my evening plans of relaxing and reading. So, I wandered to my pantry and saw the package of coffee my parents had given me from their recent East Coast trip. When they first gave it to me I noticed it was decaf. Perfect! I started the coffee pot and promptly had 8 cups of the most delightful coffee I've had in a long time. I proceeded to drink ALL of it. At about 2am, it finally dawned on me that maybe the package of coffee I'd opened (my parents gave me two of them) had not been decaf. At 5am when my alarm clock went off after finally dozing at 4am (yes, only 1 hour of sleep!), I stumbled downstairs and saw that sure enough...I'd had the full coffeepot of regular coffee. I managed to survive driving 60 miles roundtrip and a full day at the hospital, but was in bed by 7pm for a blissful 12 hours of sleep. Ahhhhhh...

On a different note, I had a wonderful, albeit sleepy, day at the hospital. I really do love OB. I didn't get to do much as both my patients were antepartum (meaning neither were in labor) and were doing ok, but I just loved the ambiance and the nurses and even the docs. One of the docs sat me down and explained in detail how the fetal heart rate monitor is read and what are good and bad signs to look for. Love it! and I'm sure I'll be writing more when I get to watch my first C-section and see my first "American" birth. :-)