What to drink at work? A tough question if you can't have coffee but don't want to advertise the fact you're on a medical diet. Sipping hot water tends to invite prying questions from the curious, and sometimes you just don't want to discuss your diet or your bladder with everyone in the office.

One lady I know uses an insulated travel mug for her herb tea or honey-tinged hot water at work. It keeps coworkers who aren't close friends guessing as to what she's drinking, she says. Most just assume its coffee and she manages to avoid explaining the embarrassing details of her illness to everyone passing by her cubicle. Another IC patient buys cheap tea bags, shakes out the tea, and puts in her own blend of herbs-- including marshmallow root and brown sugar. Then she staples the bag shut with a mini-stapler she found at an office supply store (if you don't want a metal staple, close it with a quick stitch of white cotton thread).

There are a variety of coffee substitutes on the market these days. Postum is probably the oldest brand and the most well-known. Taste-wise, I prefer the Roma brand. Almost all are grain-based and totally caffeine free. Some IC people report excellent results using them, while others say they trigger as much pain as genuine coffee (possibly from acidity or less likely, a food allergy to the grain). There's just no way to predict if coffee substitutes are right for your

For disguising what one's drinking, or simply to enjoy a hot soothing drink on the commute home, a wide variety of insulated travel mugs are on the market (with an equally wide variety of prices). Recently, the Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Welsh compared several brands from for several hours and how well they prevented leaks and spills, among other things. The top-rated mug turned out to be the "Drive Time" model made by Trudeau and available for $24.95 (plus shipping) through fairly warm. After three hours it was still a respectable 125 degrees F. The container was also virtually spill-proof when properly closed. Another interesting use for a warm and (hopefully) spill-proof travel mug... warming the bladder area in the car. I'll let your imagination figure out how that might work.