Migraine Awareness Month Blogging Challenge #22: "The Game Changer"

Today's prompt is:

Migraine Awareness Month Blogging Challenge #22: "The Game Changer" Tell us about a time your plans changed due either to an unexpected Migraine or an unexpected Migraine free experience.

Today I'm going to blog with two posts.  One about a ruined day which you can find at Migraine.com, and this post about a remarkable, wonderful week...

Two Weddings in a Week

Both my kids were engaged and to be married a week apart.  Crazy - right?  It was actually planned that way so out of state friends and family could plan vacation time and make it for both weddings.  

I knew it could be a real disaster.  You see, not only am I a Migraineur, but so are both my kids and their fiancee's.

We knew we needed to stack the deck in our favor.  In our house there is a saying:  "Plan for the worst.  Hope for the best."  So, we did.

• I bought new glasses a month before the ceremonies, minimizing light issues.

• We bought dozens of umbrellas to escape the sun  

• Had cold drinks planned for everyone to escape the heat and stay hydrated

• The first wedding was planned for the evening in a wooded park - completely under the canopy of huge trees.  Reception was at night and lit almost entirely by about 1000 unscented candles

• The second wedding was planned for an evening indoors in air conditioning, where the only light was either (unscented) candlelight or twinkling white Christmas lights.  

• I had food planned for the entire week - all trigger free and easy to prep ahead of time.  

• We had lots of help scheduled, in case I was out of commission.

• The almanac said we were having the ceremony in about the only rain free time of the summer.

The night before my daughter's wedding there was a terrible thunderstorm. She was Migraining all night long, and I had one kick up about 2am.  She had forgotten her meds, so in the middle of the night I drove 2 1/2 hrs to pick her up at her house, give her the Frova, then get her back home in her own bed away from the wedding chaos, despite my own Migrainey brain. 

The storm stopped just a few hours before her wedding time, as did my Migraine, so we went ahead and had it outdoors with a one hour rain delay.  (Hey, if a baseball game can do it, why can't we?!)  Yes, there was a lot of mud...

But there was little sun and it was cool (in the 70's), which meant two of my biggest triggers were suddenly GONE!  This meant - no hiding behind sunglasses or umbrellas!!!!!

We had plenty of wedding day drama, including a parade of unexpected hot air balloons above us, missing decorations and having to ask guests for help when our scheduled help didn't show, but in the end, it was beautiful and things worked out okay.  I felt so blessed to have that one wonderful day to celebrate the most important day of her life with her, without a Migraine.  

So, what about wedding #2?

The following week was chaos, but we managed wonderfully.  I think most of us had Migraines leading up to the rehearsal dinner and decorating party, and of course the requisite drama one has at these things.  However, when it came to the wedding day, everything went off beautifully.  We got to help our new daughter in law have the wedding of her dreams, and nobody was waylaid by a Migraine attack - not even one person!  

I thank God every day for giving me those two precious days without a Migraine to ruin it.  Don't get me wrong... I still got a prescription of steroids just in case, and was on my indomethacin and about everything else I could think of to keep things under control.  But that's okay.  I still consider it two of my favorite days ever.  

National Migraine Awareness Month is initiated by the National Headache Foundation. The Blogger’s Challenge is initiated by www.FightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

To help raise awareness about Migraine, please Tweet this post with the hash tags #NMAM and #NMAMBC and share it on your Facebook page. Thank you!