Everybody who gets migraines has a slightly different set of triggers and symptoms. One of the patterns that I follow is what’s called the “let-down headache.” I tend to get a headache after the stress has passed, rather than during, or in anticipation of, a stressor. For myself, deadline pressure is the killer: grief, emotional turmoil, don’t have the same migraine-triggering capacity as a simple deadline, or even a period of intense activity with a definitive endpoint.

I hadn’t even left the neighborhood this morning before I felt the migraine coming on. After a week of activity leading up to leaving for this trip, as soon as I was in the van and on my way, I relaxed enough for the boom to hit. Fortunately it never got too bad, and a couple of ibuprofen on the road, a triptan and a nap once we got here, and I was good to go.

When I was in high school, long before I was diagnosed with migraine, I had what I called my “Saturday headaches.” I probably woke up with a headache every Saturday throughout high school, and the syndrome would reappear any time I worked a standard Monday to Friday job of any intensity. I tried getting up at the same time and having my coffee at the same time, but it didn’t matter: I’d get up at 6:30am every day, but only on Saturday would I wake up in pain.

In later years, I learned to manage it with some degree of success. I tend to throw myself into my work, so I would have to consciously Cease to Give a Shit after lunch on Thursday. I would continue to do my work, but that last day and a half of the week, I would cultivate as much indifference as my perfectionistic, enthusiastic nature would allow. Then I would forego alcohol on Friday night, and take aspirin before bed.

I’m crossing my fingers that this is the only migraine I get on this trip.