Free my Brain from Migraine Pain: The Weirdest Migraine Trigger Ever

It's April Fool's Day, but this is not a hoax. I do want to have a little fun though. I had a very weird event trigger a migraine the other day. I'm going to tell you about mine, but I'm also going to ask you to tell me about your weirdest migraine trigger ever. Then we'll have a contest - I'm working on recruiting the judges right now. I will publish our judges' picks for the 3 weirdest migraine triggers on Free my Brain. And there will be prizes! Maybe we can't stop the pain, but at least we can have a little fun in the meantime.

Here's my weird trigger:
What is that a picture of? Well, I had to drive my daughter to an appointment in the evening in the pouring rain. We're talking buckets here! And suddenly as I drove along the passenger-side windshield wiper started flapping loose. It was flailing and rotating so wildly it looked like it would smack into and break the other wiper. The little bracket that holds the blade to the arm had broken, as I discovered when I stepped out in a huge puddle to try to fix the thing. I fiddled with it in the pouring rain and the already broken bracket snapped in two. So I took the blade off and got back in the car.

Now you may be wondering about the Triple A sticker on the windshield - why didn't I just call them? We live in a somewhat rural area and it takes them a long time to get to us. We had this appointment to get to. So I started up the car and watched this little metal hook at the end of the wiper arm passing back and forth - it wasn't contacting the windshield so I figured we were okay.

I took my daughter to her appointment and on the way back the metal hook started scratching the windshield. A faint squeak at first, getting louder and louder, until it became this loud squealing scratching noise. After about 5 minutes I could see a scratch in the windshield where the hook was rubbing against it. We're driving along, it's a few miles to the nearest gas station. I'm worrying about my windshield breaking. It's dark and it's pouring. And there's this hideous loud noise. I can't think and the headache is starting.

My brilliant daughter suggests I tie one of her socks around the hook. I stop and find an old ragged piece of towel in the back of the car. On the roof rack were some pieces of twine from when the Christmas tree was on top (let's hear it for bad housekeeping - a tidy person would not have had these useful items!). I ripped a piece of towel, tied it on with twine and finished it up with the Scotch tape that was in my purse for some reason. That's what you see in the picture, the brilliant solution that saved my windshield. And enabled me to get all the way home before the migraine hit!

Now we all know that migraine was probably triggered by loud noise and bad weather, with a hefty dose of stress pushing it over the edge. But when I ask you for your weirdest migraine trigger ever, I'm not asking for the technical official triggers. I want your stories of a pile of weird circumstances or coincidences that came together to trigger a migraine. Want to play?

Just send me an email by April 30th with your weirdest migraine trigger story through the "Email Me" link at the top of my About Me page (Click here for About Me). Winning entries will be posted in early May. Happy Spring!

- Megan Oltman
Hoping all your storms are on the outside of your head.

4 Comments

Oh you can, without a doubt, DEFINITELY count me in on this one. This is actually one of my favorite days actually. I've already rigged my house for everyone. But I'm glad I've a few days to think of the weirdest triggers I've had, I've had some doozies. It shouldn't be too hard.

Posted by: deborah | April 01, 2008 at 02:55 PM