Traveling With Migraines

Traveling with migraines is always interesting. Traveling with my particular brand of migraines is a crap shoot. It makes for interesting vacations, trips, excursions, because I know that I always have pain, but i never know how bad the pain will be from hour to hour. Straying from my normal routine, foods, and environment can be enough to trigger one hell of a bad spell.

This week my kids and I decided to head south to the Chicago area to visit a good friend of mine and her family. Fortunately, she knows well about my particular problems, and was more than willing to help in any way she could. Of course, staying in a house is much easier than a hotel, simply because you do not have to worry about scent triggers, lingering stale smoke, and whatever else can lurk in the depths of a hotel. The other main advantage to staying at a house is that you have control over what you eat and drink, especially if you help cook! As far as the whole keeping routines similar thing went, we did well. And food was a non-issues as we cooked for ourselves.

The one thing you can never control is the weather. I was surprised on the drive from mine to hers with nasty weather. The kind of summer downpour that can sweep your car away. Fortunately for all of us, I made it down without terrible pain, but i was exhausted. All of the shopping around for a new car and getting exactly what i wanted paid off- no road glare, traction control and feeling in control kept me from grinding my teeth. Which is a big trigger for me- Grinding my teeth. Bad traffic, bad weather- both of those can set me off in the worst way. But none of it on that trip.

The other thing that helps so much is not having to worry about food. The friend that i stayed with is a great cook, and luckily for me, there wasn't a single food trigger that I could not avoid. And that is always a good thing! There were other things, like having help with my kids, keeping a good sleep schedule, and just being calm the whole time. It worked well. On other trips I have had to spend a few days in pain once I got there simply because of the stress of traveling and the road food. I thought ahead this time, and ate well, drank plenty of water, and generally kept things calm.

There are so many things that can trigger a migraine, and it is hard to avoid some of them. I did have one day of bad pain, but it was short lived, and easy to just sit around. And, I found that taking any medication I thought I might need was the best thing I could have done. It is really important to make sure when you do travel, you plan for any circumstance- bad pain, allergies triggering a migraine, you name it. For once I thought ahead and was comfortable.

All in all, the trip was a success. By planning ahead I had managed to keep a few major triggers away, and remembered to take the meds that I might need. There are always things that you can't avoid, but all in all, I was able to do that!

Do you have any tips or tricks for travelling with migraine? Talk about it in our message boards.