Knee Pad and other Car Toolbox Items

How many different toolboxes do you have? I feel that we need different toolboxes depending on where we are.

I think most of us have heard of the Migraine toolbox we use at home. It's also useful if we have a different toolbox when we are at work because this toolbox would probably need some different items than the one at home contains. I had asked a question a while back on MyMigraineConnection (MMC) about what tools other people have in their work toolbox after posting here about a day I could not miss at work.

One more area I feel we could use another toolbox and sometimes it may be more of a preventive toolbox, is in our cars. I found myself pulling out one of my old tools when I had a long drive this week.

I left the hotel early in the morning and drove Southwest. You can only imagine where the sun was during most of this trip. You probably guessed it, beaming through the drivers side window. Not only that, but the sun managed to position itself between the end of my window visor and the door frame.

Luckily for me, the very first leg of my week long trip, was to bring my son back to college. You're probably wondering why this was a good thing. As usual, when I bring my son back to school, I bring back all of his clean clothes and enough food to feed the football team; or at least the ones he rooms with. This meant that I needed to clean out my trunk. It also meant I found one of the Migraine tools I used to use when I drove a little more so I threw it in the back seat for my trip - just in case.

As I got tired of trying to position myself so the sun wouldn't keep hitting me from the side, I suddenly remembered my knee pad! It fit PERFECTLY over the end of the visor to complete that gap to the door frame. The sun was never able to infiltrate my knee pad for the rest of my trip. Yea!

I have built up a few tools in my "car toolbox" that I wouldn't do without and should ALWAYS keep accessible - not locked in my truck. I was lucky I bumped into this tool BEFORE my trip. It would not have been very pleasant without it. From where the sun was coming through the side window, sunglasses would not help and a hat's visor would block the whole view of my left side. The knee pad blocked everything I needed it to and I could still see out the drivers side window as well as it still rolled up and down as needed.

I first asked the question What alterations/accommodations have you made to your car for your Migraines on MMC while offering one tool I used for my windshield and then added on my knee pad idea at the end of the comments I received about two months later.

The first response I received from this post is what started me down the path of researching and ultimately having my car windows legally tinted. I have posted three times on the tinting of my car. The first time, To Tint or Not to Tint, was when I was trying to find out if anyone else had tinted their windows for their Migraines and to share some of the preliminary research I had found.

My second posting was because I couldn't believe how quickly my state medical exemption was approved and I was able to add some of the additional research facts I found along with a visual of a spectrum of different tinting levels. The third posting was a little less fortunate. Even though I could tell the sun-screening on my windshield had helped, I could only tell this after my windshield broke and needed to be replaced. I did not have this second windshield sun-screened which is why I could tell it had helped immediately after I drove with the new windshield.

There were a few ideas that other Migraineurs shared that could be added into our car toolboxes which I would like to pass on to you. Some of these you may not want to try while driving while others are perfect for driving:

> grey plastic pieces that adhere to the side windows and can be removed at night
> dark sunglasses
> double visor on drivers side - regular visor pulls down onto windshield with a second plastic front visor that pulls out and extends to the drivers side window which also blocks the front corner
> firm pillow for neck support
> small blanket and/or socks to keep warm
> large flannel pillowcase to cover eyes
> keep car scent/smoke free
> bottled water
> small towel rolled up behind rearview mirror which blocks gap between visors in front windshield
> knee pad
> tinting car windows - not necessarily a toolbox item; more of a preventative

Do you have a car toolbox? If so, what items do you keep in it? If not yet, what items should you put into it?

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