the can opener headache

[CrimsonMaiden]

Did you know an electric can opener can cause a headache? I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. I kid you not.

As some of you may know, a few years back, I was in a pretty nasty car wreck. About 7 or 8 months afterwards, I started having weird stuff happen with my head. It would feel like something was buzzing around inside it or even so much as feeling as though someone was trying to pull the two halves apart. Anyway, the diagnosis was nerve damage. They never really specified where... just said, "You've got nerve damage." For about a year and a half, the weird stuff was constant, and then finally, it started to fade and now only pops up once in a blue moon. Last night was one of those times.


Hubby got a can of vegetables out of the cabinet and used the can opener. As soon as the motor started grinding, my head started buzzing, and it felt like my brain flipped over. Whammo! Instant headache (which is still around, btw.)

When I told him later that using the can opener had given me a headache, he looked at me like I was insane. Isn't it funny how the ones closest to you who are supposed to show you support are the first ones to act like you're a total nutjob??

Hey! Why are you looking at me like that?!

 

[Weird Harold]

Did you know an electric can opener can cause a headache? I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. I kid you not.

I've never had it happen quite that quickly -- and I dont own an electric can-opener, but I've had similar sounds trigger headaches and/or overall tension for most of my life.

MY current apartment has one exhaust fan that I can't use for more than a few minutes because it makes that kind of noise.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Did you know an electric can opener can cause a headache? I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. I kid you not.

As some of you may know, a few years back, I was in a pretty nasty car wreck. About 7 or 8 months afterwards, I started having weird stuff happen with my head. It would feel like something was buzzing around inside it or even so much as feeling as though someone was trying to pull the two halves apart. Anyway, the diagnosis was nerve damage. They never really specified where... just said, "You've got nerve damage." For about a year and a half, the weird stuff was constant, and then finally, it started to fade and now only pops up once in a blue moon. Last night was one of those times.


Hubby got a can of vegetables out of the cabinet and used the can opener. As soon as the motor started grinding, my head started buzzing, and it felt like my brain flipped over. Whammo! Instant headache (which is still around, btw.)

When I told him later that using the can opener had given me a headache, he looked at me like I was insane. Isn't it funny how the ones closest to you who are supposed to show you support are the first ones to act like you're a total nutjob??

Hey! Why are you looking at me like that?!

I hope this never happens to me because I'm madly in love with my retro pink electric can opener, lol. I know exactly what you mean about your loved ones acting like you're crazy. Riding in the car at night with the dome light on makes me dizzy and nauseous and my SO will never believe me. I had some visual problems as a kid, so I'm sure this has something to do with it.

 

[Guest]

 

[Colleen Thomas]

A jackhammer has the same effect on my head Crim. Volume is not a factor, it's just the staccatto sound of one that will set me off. I think harold is probably right, Some sounds just grate on us and they raise the tension level and that can trigger a head ache.

 

[rgraham666]

It's ripping paper for me.

Something about it just make me grind my teeth.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

It's weird that I've run the can opener many times and it's not bothered me. Who knows?

 

[Stella_Omega]

It's weird that I've run the can opener many times and it's not bothered me. Who knows?

Maybe a bearing is starting to wear down inside it. That could change the sound just enough to turn it from benign to harmful...

 

[Weepingguitar]

This is making my think of the fingernail issue. I am one of those people that can just skip along and scrape my fingernails across a black board and it doesn't bother me at all. However, when a work mate of mine is leafing through a stack of papers, she doesn't just use her finger and thumb to turn the page...she somehow manages to scrape her fingernail across the paper in a fasion that just drives me insane. It is now my mission to cut off her nails...

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Maybe a bearing is starting to wear down inside it. That could change the sound just enough to turn it from benign to harmful...

Hmm, I guess that's possible. It is a few years old.

 

[Weird Harold]

Maybe a bearing is starting to wear down inside it. That could change the sound just enough to turn it from benign to harmful...

Hmm, I guess that's possible. It is a few years old.

It could also be the can-opener vibrating something else on the counter and setting up a harmonic resonance.

You'll have to experiment -- and risk another headache -- to determine whether this is something that is going to be an ongoing problem. I suspect it's probably not going to be that easy to figure out; It's probably a combination of where the can-opener was sitting when it was used, what was on/under the counter and how susceptible you were to a headache at just that time.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

It's an under the cabinet type of can opener, so all the stuff that's on/in the counter is stuff that is normally there.

 

[neonlyte]

Certain perfumes do it for me, not just 'ladies scents' but also detergents. Instant wham-O headache, tightened chest. I carry anti-histimines instead of headache pills.

Hope yours gets better Crim, either that or cut out the tinned veggies.

 

[kendo1]

Looks like you've opened a can of worms with it.

 

[Guest]

Certain perfumes do it for me, not just 'ladies scents' but also detergents. Instant wham-O headache, tightened chest. I carry ant-histimines instead of headache pills.

Hope yours gets better Crim, either that or cut out the tinned veggies.

Haven't found many sounds that bother me, but flourescent light makes me cranky, and overhead lighting really bothers me -- I can't see clearly. I use task lighting everywhere and my husband calls me "mole woman". I'm light sensitive.

I'm like that with smells, too. There's some chemical used commonly now in candles (Particularly the Yankee candles) air fresheners, and some perfumes that sends a knife through my skull. Recently, even high quality perfumes seem to have it. Oils, soaps and perfumes made with natural oils don't bother me at all. Fabreze doesn't bother me (so far and i hope it never does -- love that stuff).

We just got a (new to us) van from my MIL. She had left one of those pine tree shaped air fresheners in it. I didn't even think about it until we'd been in the car about 10 minutes and I thought I was going to vomit, and my head was throbbing. The "freshener" smelled disgusting. My dear husband, who accomodates my problem without understanding it, pulled the tree thing down and put it on HIS side of the car -- like this would help, somehow. He wouldn't toss it out the window because he's a boyscout, and he waited (too long -- I was ready to kill except moving made me dizzy) until he found a place he liked to toss it into a garbage can.

He doesn't know yet how close to death he came.

 

[chris 44]

Hi Kendo

Long time no talk. Hope life remains rosy, if rather damp and chilly...
Chris

 

[kendo1]

Evening Chris. Good to see you again.
Life's okay.

*Note to self*
Don't let the wife near a can opener, cut down on the headaches.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Looks like you've opened a can of worms with it.

Umm... huh?

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Certain perfumes do it for me, not just 'ladies scents' but also detergents. Instant wham-O headache, tightened chest. I carry anti-histimines instead of headache pills.

Hope yours gets better Crim, either that or cut out the tinned veggies.

Yeah, perfumes do it to me too. That's why I don't wear it.

Headache's still around. It got slightly better for awhile today when I took some extra strength Tylenol, but now that the medicine has worn off, it's gotten worse. I knew I forgot to pick up something when I was at Wally World.

 

[Guest]

heyas crim~
there are some sounds that will trigger my migrains but they are few and far between. i never know what itll be. sometimes its a screaming child. sometimes its that damn train whistle out back... mostly for me, its stress. oh yeah... and this funky blood disorder i have. im doomed.

btw,
i LOVE that av. tres sexy!

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

heyas crim~
there are some sounds that will trigger my migrains but they are few and far between. i never know what itll be. sometimes its a screaming child. sometimes its that damn train whistle out back... mostly for me, its stress. oh yeah... and this funky blood disorder i have. im doomed.

btw,
i LOVE that av. tres sexy!

Thanks dahling!

I rarely had headaches before the wreck. Now I get them often, and when I get them, they last awhile. I guess that's what happens when your forehead and face slams into a windshield when the car was doing at least 50mph.

 

[Guest]

Thanks dahling!

I rarely had headaches before the wreck. Now I get them often, and when I get them, they last awhile. I guess that's what happens when your forehead and face slams into a windshield when the car was doing at least 50mph.

i totally understand. two years ago i had a car accident and dislocated my shoulder. every now and then it pops out of joint and i have to literally hang from a door jamb to pop it back in. cars are a menace.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

i totally understand. two years ago i had a car accident and dislocated my shoulder. every now and then it pops out of joint and i have to literally hang from a door jamb to pop it back in. cars are a menace.

Ouch

Cars are definitely a menace when they are driven by little old ladies older than 80.

 

[SeaCat]

Did you know an electric can opener can cause a headache? I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. I kid you not.

As some of you may know, a few years back, I was in a pretty nasty car wreck. About 7 or 8 months afterwards, I started having weird stuff happen with my head. It would feel like something was buzzing around inside it or even so much as feeling as though someone was trying to pull the two halves apart. Anyway, the diagnosis was nerve damage. They never really specified where... just said, "You've got nerve damage." For about a year and a half, the weird stuff was constant, and then finally, it started to fade and now only pops up once in a blue moon. Last night was one of those times.


Hubby got a can of vegetables out of the cabinet and used the can opener. As soon as the motor started grinding, my head started buzzing, and it felt like my brain flipped over. Whammo! Instant headache (which is still around, btw.)

When I told him later that using the can opener had given me a headache, he looked at me like I was insane. Isn't it funny how the ones closest to you who are supposed to show you support are the first ones to act like you're a total nutjob??

Hey! Why are you looking at me like that?!

Stranger things have been known.

The squeeking of styrofoam will get me going. Makes my teeth hurt for hours after. (My wife is used to this.)

Cat

 

[yui]

Thanks dahling!

I rarely had headaches before the wreck. Now I get them often, and when I get them, they last awhile. I guess that's what happens when your forehead and face slams into a windshield when the car was doing at least 50mph.

Oy! Poor, Crim. So very glad you survived to tell the tale. I don't have headaches, but sorta related in an odd way, if not a painful way, my vision actually improved for about a year after head injuries sustained in a car accident.

Sorry for your pain. I wish you much, much luck.