Hello Everyone,
Sara created a great post and I'm moving it to it's own because of what a great tool it is - the Headache Diary. My neurologist has me keep one and it lets us see trends (i.e medications that work, don't work, days of the week that I get medications and / or times of the day) and it shows any doctor that I'm not a medication seeker but a chronic headache sufferer. It also lets me differentiate between migraines and rebound headaches.
My neurologist provided me with the diary he prefers and I rate my headaches on a scale of 1 to 3 - 1 minor, 2 moderate and 3 debilitating. 3 are migraines, 1 and 2 are generally rebound or tension headaches. I've included a sample at the end of the message.
Even though it may seem cumbersome to record all of the information, it really can help you and your doctor figure things out. I've included a copy of my headache diary at the end. I have it saved as an Excel Spreadsheet. Feel free to email me using the left icon under my name if you would like a copy.
Following is Sara's original post with a lot more valuable information. Check out the links, some of them have more information about
how important it is to keep a headache diary. I just found an interesting site...its
www.myheadachediary.com you have to register to use it, but when you have a headache you input some information like the date and time, what type of headache you have, how much sleep you had the day prior to the headache, what you ate before the onset, pain intensity, warning signs and symptoms, possible triggers, treatment and how the treatment worked on a 1-10 scale, you then submit the information and it calculates the data.
I created a few test entries so I could see what the reports look like. They are great. They show pie charts with what percentage is highest for each...for example it said that 66% of the time irregular sleep patterns trigger migraines for me and that 100% of the time fatigue and mood changes were signs of a migraine to come...
I think the only INCONVENIENT thing is that I don't feel like being on the computer most of the time when I am in the midst of the a migraine!
Just thought you all might want to check this out...I have a few other great headache diaries too...
Post Edited By Moderator (Admin) : 10/7/2005 9:13:18 AM (GMT-6)