Migraines and the Senses

I hadn’t had a migraine for over a week until last Friday. Thursday, I added a bit of curry powder to our meal, and had a migraine Friday. It wasn’t too severe, and it went away late in the day. At least I knew what it was this time. Since then, I’ve had a couple more unexplained migraines.

Generally, when one has a migraine, one is sensitive to light. So, whenever I have been asked by health professionals if I am sensitive to light during that time, I say no. I tell them I am sensitive to smell. They find that curious and almost always comment such a sensitivity is rare. But then, I really throw them for a loop. I discovered while I was in the music industry that I just could not work when I had a migraine. Even if it wasn’t too bad when I went into work, any amount of time doing critical listening would have me nauseous pretty quickly. There were more than a few panicked jaunts to the restroom in the middle of a session before I just stayed home.

The health care professionals I have told this to have always been dumbfounded. To a one, they had never heard of another case of migraines getting worse with critical listening. However, I pointed out to them, how many people would actually be doing critical listening when they have a migraine? Or would even notice they didn’t play music when they suffered? It is my opinion that because hearing is almost autonomic (done without conscious thought), people don’t pay that much attention to a change in their behaviour. You would have to survey all the audio engineers in the world who suffer from migraines to see if there was an actual pattern. I can’t be the only one.

As to the sense of smell, this has meant the hubby has to cook his own meals sometimes when I have a migraine, and sometimes, I have to bury my head under the blankets until the smell has dissipated. Usually, just being in a different room is enough. I discovered in this latest round, however, that even the smell of lilacs bothers me. Our Miniature Korean Lilac is in full bloom right now in the front flowerbed. With the beautiful weather, I’ve had the windows and front door open. The pungent smell of lilac was quite strong, and with the migraine, was making me nauseous. I found that very sad. I love the smell of lilacs and look forward to their blooming season. As my migraine improved, I found the character of the fragrance seemed to change. Obviously, what changed was how my mind perceived the aroma. Whatever had been aggravating my nausea seemed to lessen and the beautiful full fragrance returned for me to enjoy again.

I guess there is nothing but observation in this. I just found it curious, and interesting that I had never realized this before. I guess I’ve never had a migraine before while the lilacs were blooming. The things you learn…

Until next time, be sure to stop and smell the roses, or whatever is blooming in your part of the world…