Travelling with migraine is like signing up a for a voluntary torture session, which is why I’ve only been enduring it when I absolutely have to.

Even with every trick and potion known to mankind, just the 5 minute car journey into town manages to make me feel spectacularly sick and triggers a stonking migraine that wipes me out for several days after.

Any vehicle does it, bus, train or car. I always travelled better as a driver than as a passenger, so having to surrender my driving licence due to the migraine-associated vertigo back in January was a double blow.

So I’ve been limited to one town trip a week for as long as I can remember (fortunately I do good stuff when I’m there which makes it worthwhile, but if someone invented a magic machine that meant I could get to places without having to do the travelling in between I’d be insanely happy)

Being stuck at home all the time isn’t much fun so we’ve been trying to come up with alternatives for ages, but the migraines seemed to thwart us at every turn. Walk? Too dizzy. Cycle? Can’t balance. Great glass elevator? Not yet invented in real life – come on Willy Wonka (and if you could invent a migraine-defying lollipop at the same time that would be awesome, thanks!)

But then some conversations between my mum, my husband and an eco-friendly friend led to the revelation that there is such an invention as the adult trike, which might just solve the transport/balance issues.

And our wonderful eco-friendly friend just happened to have one I could borrow for a bit 🙂

So I’m very pleased to introduce my new (borrowed) wheels…

I’ve got some funny looks and it’s started a lot of conversations with random strangers but the trike, combined with our excellent local canal/cycle paths, has given me more freedom and independence than I’ve had in a very long time.

I literally feel as excited as I did when I passed my driving test – I can’t even put into words how good it is to feel free after feeling trapped for so long, or how pleased I am to have made enough progress with the treatments to even consider riding the couple of miles into town and back.

I’ve found my freedom again and it’s very, very good.

Turns out there’s a solution to every problem if you think creatively enough!