- Talking
- Gum popping
- Feet shuffling
- Two TVs blaring
- Pagers beeping & vibrating against tables
- Six people typing
- Dialing on speakerphone
- Phones ringing
- Printers printing
- Automatic doors clunking
- An automatic stapler thunking
- Sniffing
This is the cacophony I sat with for 45 minutes in a hospital waiting room this morning. The ear plugs that I always, always carry with me? Nope, not in my bag. Fortunately, I only had a migraine hangover, so I wasn’t as extra-super-sensitive as in the pain phase. Still, negotiating the world with migraine is hard enough without getting caught without necessary supplies. I restocked the ear plug supply in my bag immediately upon returning home.
LOVE your advice!!! Really great!
Thanks, Mary. 🙂
Kerrie
Oh yes! I have 2 pairs in my purse, a pair in the diaper bag & an extra in the car! I buy them in bulk! haha I’ve always been uber sensitive to sounds. They didn’t trigger migraines, but I found certain noises very irritating. Looking back I wonder if that was a sign…
Mindy, I absolutely think sensitivity to sounds is an early indication of a the hyper-reactive nervous system that characterizes migraine. Similarly, my niece had a super-sensitive scalp when she was little and I wondered if she’d wind up with migraine. She was diagnosed with chronic migraine when she was 11.
Kerrie
Your comment was so fascinating I had to call my mom right away! We both had very sensitive scalps as children & I also always needed a very dark room to sleep. If there was any slit of light, it would drive me nuts even w/ my eyes shut. My mom is 61 & suffered w/ migraines over half her life. She never went chronic thankfully, but I’d say at times she was close. Now she has fewer migraines but suffers from fibromyalgia.
That’s really interesting, Mindy. I definitely think our sensory systems are very sensitive. I wonder if that’s connected to fibromyalgia as well. There’s some research on sensory processing sensitivity that you might be interested in. You can learn more at: http://www.hsperson.com/.
Take care,
Kerrie
I use these for sleeping and my wife using them for migraines. http://www.macksearplugs.com/details/noise-ear-plugs/safe-sound-ultra-soft-foam-earplugs
Thanks for the suggestion, Pete.
Kerrie