Infusions & caffiene | Arthritis Information

Why do they want you to limit your caffiene intake the day before and of your infusion?

The new Remicade nurse is a real stickler for that rule. I drank sweet tea with my lunch the day of my infusion, normally I would drink coke-cola, but I know you are to limit your caffiene intake. I would have drank water, but I cannot stand to drink tap water, I can literally taste everything in the water and sometimes I believe I can taste like mildew in some tap water. So... I only drink bottle water or none or tap water with some type of flavoring.

Joonie, I am going to guess that because caffeine constricts your blood vessels is the reason.

I wouldn't swear to it, but it makes sense.
Don't they have trouble finding a vein on you? Seems like you've said you've had trouble in the past and maybe they're just trying to head off trouble. I have my usual 2 cups of french roast before I head to the hospital, so I have no idea why they're telling you to not have caffeine.No, I do think they have trouble finding a vein on me as much as they have about jabbing thru one side to the other of the vein. I never had trouble with people finding veins on me. They like to blow them that is for sure.

The Remicade nurse before this one, NEVER had trouble getting my vein on the first try, except once... that was when she did to big of a stick and went thru one side and out the other and hit my bone and blew the vein. She knew I drank coke-cola before my infusions. But she never seemed to care that I did. She just cared that I was hydrated enough to find a vein.

They have a sign up in the infusion room and the waiting room that says to limit caffiene intake... it says for the Remicade, Boniva, and Orencia patients.

Caffeine is a dehydrator....which isn't good for people like you and I when it comes to crappy veins.......As Debrakay mentioned, caffeine dehydrates you and it's very important to be fully hydrated, with any type of infusion. In fact, being hydrated might even help prevent the headaches you've been experiencing. It made a huge difference with my Orencia infusions! My first Orencia infusion gave me the worst headache I've ever had. Before my second infusion, I drank six glasses of water, before I got to the infusion center, and they added a bag of fluids to my Orencia. It made a huge difference and I ended up with no adverse side effects at all. Goodbye headache!!!

Hydration also makes your veins plumper (if that's even a word - lol), therefore, making it easier for nurses to put in the IV. If you have a port, it doesn't matter. If your veins have been giving you problems, you might want to consider getting a port. Mine has been a Godsend!

Thanks for the answers everyone! Did not know caffiene was a dehydrator. I do not drink much caffiene when at home. I mostly drink cokes and tea while eating out or at the in-laws and sometimes at my moms.

Like I said it is just so hard for me to drink tap water from a restuarant.... I would try to drink sprite or sierra mist, but it always tastes like it has mildew in it too. And not just at the one place we eat from, but from just about every restuarant we eat from, even Ruby Tuesdays! One time I could even taste something funny in the coke at one restuarant.

I have a weird thing... I can taste stuff.... weird stuff. Like the other day... I could actually taste the moth balls that hubby put out. I tasted as though I licked a moth ball. And I could taste moth ball for hours! Even after drinking water and plenty of it.

Then I remember when we went to california... we went to disneyland and rode soring over california. It is a ride where you sit and during the ride they release "fragrances" to help you smell certain things. Well... when we got to the "forest" part they released a pine tree fragrance and I was tasting pine trees for hours! Even my dinner tasted like pine trees.

I do not know why I do this... never thought about asking a Dr about it. Been doing it for years. Do not think much about it being anything wrong with it, because I can also smell things others cannot smell... even with sinus problems. I would just hate to see how well I smell if I ever get my sinus problem fixed. I would probably die from smell overload LMAO!

HA HA! For years I couldn't smell anything for whatever reason. My brother had lost his sense of smell due to a fall from a 3 story bldg. onto a concrete surface and maybe I had sympathy loss of smell. It used to bother me- oh I cannot smell the Christmas tree! What perfume? Etc. Etc. Then came RA. Suddenly my sense of smell came back full force and guess what? Now it's like ewww whose feet do I smell? PU who farted? Oh... my hubby thinks I am a freaking loon because I can smell & taste things like I stated above. But FIL does the same thing, except he has false sense of smell. When he says he smells stuff like a rotten potatoe in the house, there never is one and I never smell it and no one ever smells it or finds what he is smelling. But they will always find what I am smelling.

I hate it. I just wish I did not smell and taste things like I do. It gets annoying to say the very least.

Oh and I can taste and smell the wood that they used to make my moms room. I came into her room some time last year and said it smells in here, like weird smelling wood. No one could smell it. Then recently I went to visit her, and she told me she caught a smell of the weird wood smell I was talking about that one time. I said well I do not smell it now. I just smell old people smell LMAO! She said I will give you old people smell. I said well... it is not really old people smell so much as it is like a rubber glove smell now... which for some reason I relate that to old people smell. She said oh and laughed at me.

You are too much!I have rolling small veins. I like coffee. grrrr I have to force myself to not drink coffee when I am getting anything stuck in me. I despise water I mean I really hate it. but.. I have found that I enjoy regular Aqua Fina if its really really really cold. so the day I have anyone do anything to my veins I drink at least a liter. shudder.

you'd be amazed where they hide caffiene.