I’m baa-aaaack! Welcome to 2025 (can you believe we are already 1/24th of the way through the year!!) I hope that everyone’s year is going as great as can be so far – I missed you all!
I finished last year with a reference to a bygone Christmas Day which landed me in hospital, so it seems only fitting that I should start the new year blogging with another reference to Christmas Day – only this time, it’s about the one just gone.
I am thrilled to announce that I did NOT get a migraine on Christmas Day 2024 – woo hoo!!
In fact, Christmas was an absolute pearler of a day. My two daughters opened their presents, my parents came to lunch and ate a slow-cooked lamb that my beloved husband had been preparing since 8am, and then I spoke to my far-away sisters and their children via a zoom meeting (which included a niece who is studying in China). [Picture me blowing a “chef’s kiss” in celebration.]
A few days before hand, we hosted lunch with my husband’s side of the family… so we caught up with all the relos, and over the next few weeks, we made our way through our nearest and dearest with a variety of get-togethers… so that’s one BIG contented sigh from me… AHHHH.
I’ve mentioned elsewhere that there needs to be a little bit of darkness for us to appreciate the light, and this special Christmas Day was no different. For all the joy and laughter there was one glitch on the day… I lost my mouthguard. [Now imagine me with slumped shoulders delivering an exaggerated not-so-contended sigh… UGH.]
During my worst ever migraine, I broke three teeth, and ever since, I’ve worn a mouthguard every night to protect the three porcelain crowns I had installed. A custom-made mouthguard doesn’t come cheap, so I have a specific routine for where I keep it to make sure that it doesn’t get lost. I (almost) ALWAYS keep it in a box in my bedside table. Very occasionally, I place it in the top drawer under the bathroom sink, and even less often, I place it on the shelf of my wardrobe if I’m looking for clothes to walk the dogs at some ridiculously early hour of an Australian-summer-dawn.
That’s it – three places.
Only, when I went to go to bed on Christmas night… the mouthguard wasn’t in any of those three places… I was tempted to SCREECH in dismay, but I was feeling blissful and pudding-full, so I ferreted around in my sock drawer for my gnarly old ancient mouthguard which I had kept for just such an emergency. I gave it a good rinse and climbed into bed.
I didn’t have the best sleep, so the next day I decided to track down the ‘real’ mouthguard, even if that meant spending the whole public-holiday of the 26th of December cleaning out wardrobes. After re-checking the standard places, I tried to think about what was different on Christmas morning that might have caused me to misplace the mouthguard… and then I remembered… I had got up pre-dawn to run into the street in my pajamas to give the garbage collector a box of chocolates. He would probably prefer a bottle of bubbly, but he’d also risk losing his job if he had alcohol in his truck, so sweet treats are my go-to gift each year!
Did I run into the street with my mouthguard in? I hope not. (Although I have been known to put pajamas on inside out or back to front if I was sick the night before, so running into the street wearing a mouthguard is not impossible). I’m pretty sure, however, that I was dignified… or as dignified as you can be when you’re running out the door waving a box of chocolates at a garbage truck!
My PJs don’t have pockets, and “my teeth” (as I call them) weren’t on the sideboard near the front door… so I started the process of reorganizing the top drawer of the bathroom vanity in the hope of finding them, and ended up cleaning out all the drawers… and throwing out cosmetics which had been sitting there unused for the last two and a half years that I have had daily migraine pain. (I normally give things to my girls rather than toss them, but I remembered that the last time I had used one of the lipsticks it had made my lips tingle – which can’t be good!)
Next, I started to refold all the clothes in my wardrobe in case my teeth had got jumbled up in my tshirts. Still no luck.
Trying to practice my mindful breathing, I told myself to “stay calm” and decided to take a break from cleaning and have a cup of tea. As I was walking out of the bedroom, there they were… my teeth… just sitting on a little table near the door, disguised by the very-unmindful-clutter around them. Why do so many objects seem to breed in the night? How does such a small table end up with so many hairbrushes and elastics, pens, paper, a month-old to do list, and an expensive mouthguard? [Imagine me yet again working through my repertoire of sighs, this time with a long, drawn-out, exasperated sigh…. hmmmm.]
Anyway – if you’re new to the Mindful Migraine Blog and my way of writing – surprise! Things rarely go to plan, and where I start is often not where I end up. I usually get around to offering up tips and tricks for how to heal your chronic pain and motivate you to make the most of the life that you find yourself in… but sometimes I distract myself and end up revealing too much about the more clumsy, albeit authentic version of myself!
“Life is like a box of chocolates” – Forrest Gump (1994) – sometimes you run down the street to celebrate the garbage man without any drama, and sometimes you end up losing your teeth despite your best intentions!!
On the bright side – I’m pleased to say that the rest of 2024 went well, and the beginning of 2025 has also gone off with minimal hitches… which as any chronic pain person knows, is a big win.
Here’s to a fabulous year ahead for all of us – I am super excited to be sharing my healing journey with you – and can’t wait to get to know you all better!
Take care taking care, Linda xx
The Mindful Migraine 
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