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Weird Migraine Trigger Winners

May 9th, 2008

It was a tough call, but our judges Kerrie of The Daily Headache and Diana of Somebody Heal Me have selected our winners in the Weirdest Migraine Triggers Ever contest (with yours truly called in as a
tie-breaker).

Remember, these triggers were all weird enough to beat my pouring-down-rain-with-wiper-arm-scratching-windshield trigger!

And a drumroll please, the winners are:

1st Place to Koryn for the Crayon Dilemma (note – no gold crayon used in photo):

The weirdest trigger that I’ve ever came across was one of my step aunts. Since
a very young age, the gold crayon in her crayon box would induce a migraine. No
other gold colored other stuff, or real gold its self does anything, but just
the gold crayon. Strangeness.  All my step aunt had to do was look at her gold
crayon. Poor thing couldn’t color with it at all. Her mom ended up going through
her crayon box each year when they bought her new ones for school and take the
gold crayon out. Her teacher watched in class if the projects used crayons. Very
strange trigger.

2nd place to MJ (of Rhymes with Migraine) for the Exhaust Fan Mystery:

The last apartment DBF and I lived in was a studio, with only one large-ish
window that opened onto a courtyard. Our apartment was wedged into the corner,
which meant we had hardly any air circulation at all, especially in the summer.
This particular apartment building also had a high turnover rate among tenants,
so our neighbors changed relatively frequently.

About two months before we moved out of that apartment, I discovered a new trigger. One afternoon after work, DBF and I were minding our own business when all of a sudden this stench, an unbelievable (and unidentifiable) stench came – not wafting – but pumping into our only window. I had a migraine within seconds, as my eyes teared up and I looked desperately to
DBF, begging him to close the window. Mind you, this was the summer and our apartment did not have A/C. Neither of us could stand this stench though so he closed the window without complaint.

We complained to the leasing office the very next day, but of course when they came to check it out, no cause could be found, as there was no trace of the stench.

Unfortunately for both of us, every evening after work, like clockwork, this stench would be pumped into our apartment and we’d have to close our window. We quickly became wise to the stench’s ways and closed the window when we came home from work. We continued to complain to the leasing office, telling them we had to leave our only window closed, but they were mostly useless. They claimed the woman in the apartment below us had left for vacation
without cleaning her fridge, and her food had spoiled, which had caused the stench. But the stench continued after this problem had been cleaned up, so I was skeptical of this explanation.

Fortunately, DBF and I both have backgrounds in architecture, so we decided to investigate the source of this stench for ourselves. We noticed the exhaust vent for our downstairs neighbor’s
apartment was directly outside our window. Ah ha! At least once a day, the vent fan inside this apartment would cycle on, venting the apartment, and pumping the stench into our window. The stench would disappear again when the fan cycled off.

That same week we figured this out (this had been going on well over a month now) we dragged the apartment manager into the courtyard. We pointed out the exhaust vent and told her our theory. She got her maintenance guy and went to the woman’s apartment – which, apparently, smelled so bad that our apartment manager was gagging in the hallway. (She got no sympathy from me!) Here’s where the story gets even better. Our apartment manager, after discovering the source of the problem we had been complaining about for over a month, started to
politely request that the woman in the stinky apartment clean up her mess. The
woman did not clean up her mess. The manager was unwilling to do anything other
than knock on the woman’s door, so DBF finally taped the exhaust vent closed so
we could open our window again.

We found out later that this stench was cat funk. This awful woman
refused to clean up after her poor cat, and had been keeping its filthy
litterbox under the exhaust fan. So, I’ve now added “cat funk from rude and
filthy neighbor” to my list of triggers.

Third Place to Deborah (of Weathering Migraine Storms)  for the Dehydrate-Rehydrate-Run Conundrum (note – you can read the entire story at Weathering Migraine Storms at the link above – I have excerpted it here):

I have found a unique little trigger I gave myself while I was trying to alleviate the woes of the migraine blues. I found myself going round and round in a battle of “Catch 22” with fluids.

A word of caution – if you are in the midst of migraine and are looking to
hydrate or re-hydrate, be very cautious of the ingredients in your bottled
fluids. If they contain “sucralose” or “sucrose syrup” you may think twice before drinking twice. Why? Your body just doesn’t absorb them thar ingredients, thus you just poo them in liquid-like form, rapidly, if you continue to drink and drink and drink them.

Case in point, Moi: The first week of the month, I end up at infusion with the monster. I’m the usual squinting, “headachy” nauseaous self. (for lack of words right now), I have two bottlesof said syrupy water with me. oh yummo. Start infusion a little later. drink drink. Notice after a few days, and oh four bottles of the stuff a day, lots of diarrhea. hmmm, sometimes that
happens with migraine.

Two weeks go by, OH, WAIT! I had also started Melatonin to get some MUCH-needed
sleep. Whew, almost forgot that. so anyhoo, I’m sleeping, I’m drinking more of the water because the weather was actually getting pretty nice here. The sun was, whoa, shining, and, AND, the weather was warm. I don’t care much for water, it makes me gag, and gagging is a precursor for barfing, which will in itself is just gross, so I like the taste of the lemony syrupy
vitamin water that I was drinking. Plus, I felt I was getting all kinds of oober benifits with the added B vitamins. blah blah blah. drink more tastey syrupy water.

In the meantime, I’m noticing a need to, well, go to the “office” a little more often. than usual. Me poo has started to um loosten. By the end of the week, loosten had come to a full-on explosion. Every few hours. Which, naturally made me drink more. Didn’t want to DEHYDRATE! Each time I’d eat, my food would slide into home within 1 1/2 hours. I was running like A-rod,
faster, faster, faster each time. God forbid if I was in public!!!

Naturally, another storm hit me in the skull. The more I “liquidated my assets,” the more I drank. For fear of becoming dehydrated, it’s all I could do, drink more of my yummy water; and it hit me – like the brick that hit my head, maybe it’s the vitamins in the water doing it!! So I took myself off the water for a week.

But I was still having the. problem. So I thought, maybe the Melatonin?? I took myself off that. We decided, maybe there was something else going on; we called my internist. They had me in that day, did all kinds of blood work, and I had to (give a sample), to which I apologized for! Oh the questions the questions I was asked. When the blood work came back ok, Deb and
I were talking about the water; and I read to her the ingredients – AHA! It was the sucralose. I cannot absorb it so my body just – gets rid of it and everything else with it. I’ll say.

*(By the way, I have been informed that Glaceau Vitamin Water, pictured on the truck above, contains no sucralose or aspartame.  I didn’t mean to implicate them, I just love a pretty picture.)

And an Honorable Mention to Laura for a lengthy list of triggers, including the Antihistamine-Pollen Paradox:

• jalepenos
• sun/ heat
• too much sleep, not enough
• Alcohol (especially red wine)
• salt
• cheese
• salami/ preserved meats*
• change in air pressure
• change in altitude <- i hate that one!
• soups*
• Chinese food*
• stress letdown
• pms
• Claritin <-AGH!
• dehydration

I tell you, I live in an area where the pollen is horrible and most allergy meds
give me a severe migraine.  It’s miserable.

*(Little editorial note – wondering if the starred items all have MSG in common?  MSG is a pretty common trigger.)

Thanks to the judges and all the entrants for playing along.  And dear readers, if you have a weird trigger to share, you can leave it in the comments below.

For more about triggers, and how to avoid them, come join the discussion: Migraine Management Coaching: Know and Reduce Your Triggers.  For more on Managing your Life with Migraine, register for our e-course in the upper right corner of this page.

– Megan Oltman

Now don’t get trigger-happy!

Crayon Image courtesy of Ed Schipol, Exhaust Fan image courtesy of cito/John, Vitamin Water image courtesy of Wendy Seltzer, Bee image courtesy of Adrian Campfield

Tags: Dehydration, Managing, migraine, Odors, Pollen, Trigger
Posted in Managing, Silliness, Weblogs | Comments (5)