1939 My Crazy Migraine Journey (Part 5) All About Keeping a Record

DISCLAIMER, THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE, PLEASE SEEK OUT PROFESSIONAL HELP. FOR ANY OF THE METHODS OF RELIEF I TALK ABOUT TODAY ONLY TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK AND SPEAK TO A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL BEFORE TRYING THEM.

Just a third little note, this post may not make complete sense if you haven’t read the previous parts. I will leave the links for you to go back and read in just a few seconds.

Here are the links

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

If you are not interested in reading the first and second chapters, then here is a rough idea of what it said. Part 1: I started getting migraines at the age of 11, I tried many methods of medication and relief. They randomly stopped happening frequently and they in only got 4 over the space of 7-8 years. Part 2: A few headaches throughout the years, sinus infections and ended up in the hospital once. Then had a killer migraine in August 2020. Click the above links to find out more. Part 3: All about the mega migraine I had in October 2020 and what lead to me starting a new daily medication. Part 4: This is all about the different triggers that can cause migraines.

To kick start you might be thinking “Keeping a record of what”, “What are you going on about now” etc. So, I shall share with you, that there are many different aspects of your life that by keeping a record of them you might be able to reduce and or stop the migraines you are experiencing. You can keep a record of anything from the weather, the food you eat, the places you go, the migraine you have, and any other information you think is relevant to your life that might help you with your migraines.

In my opinion, the two main ones you want to focus on are keeping a track of the migraines you get and the food and drink you are consuming. If you do this and have no answers, then you might want to look at some of the other options.

As you know from my previous posts (which you can find links to above), I struggled with migraines a lot earlier in my life, however, back then smartphones and apps were not a huge thing. So, the way you kept a record was either using a pen and paper or using a word document on a computer. Luckily, I found an app called Migraine Buddy and I highly recommend it and have got other people using it. I will try and show some screenshots of the information you can track on this app because I love the amount of detail you can enter. I will leave a link at the bottom of the post to the website for Migraine Buddy.

I am going to show you the most common thing I use the app for, which is tracking my migraines. If you have not been following my other posts, you won’t know but migraines have been KICKING my BUTT hard! Not fun. If you suffer from migraines, you will also know that the last thing you want to do is concentrate, this app takes most of the concentration out of your head because it asks the questions for you.

If you have not downloaded the app yet, pause for a minute and go and download it. If you have continued reading. On the home screen, it is a little bit like a Facebook timeline. It shares current information and gives you shortcuts to the main features of the app.

A cool feature is by scrolling on the home screen you can add your doctor appointments, I have never used this option. Moving on to tracking a migraine, towards the bottom of the screen you have an orange ‘Record+’ button, click on it to start adding a migraine to your record. Don’t worry you can delete it later, but I want to take you through how to use the app to record your current or past migraine. Anyone who can record a future migraine, please let me know how you do this.

I will warn you, that there are 13 questions involved in each record of the migraine. It seems like a lot of things to ask but as you will see in the screenshots it gives you most of the answers and for the ones, it doesn’t have you can add yourself. I found that I only needed to add medication and one or two symptoms. It has the main ones built in.

QUESTIONS

Question 1: The first question it asks you is the time the migraine started and the time it finished (don’t panic you can amend the times later if you need to). As you can see there are a few options but if you are still experiencing the migraine fill in the start time and click skip. When the migraine has finished, we can enter the time later.

Question 2: This one asks about the type of attack; you can see the options it gives you in the image, but I have added some myself. Don’t worry if your screen looks different to mine, you can add and delete any of the options and customise it for yourself. I should investigate more of what the different types are and how to decide which one it is.

Question 3: This one is quite a simple one. All you must do is rate your pain out of 10. O is no pain and of course, that means 10 is the worst pain. They even give the numbers a little note so you can easily pick which one is most appropriate.

I have left an overview of the scoring and what the app thinks is an appropriate description of each number. I find the notes helpful. As everyone has a different pain tolerance so the scale method doesn’t always work.

• 10 and 9 – Hurts worst, excruciating, unable to do any activities because of pain.

• 8 and 7 – Hurts a lot, unable to do most activities

• 6 and 5 – Hurts more, unable to do some activities

• 4 and 3 – Hurts a little more, can do most activities

• 2 and 1 – Hurts a little, pain is present but does not limit activity

• 0 – No pain

Question 4: This is a GREAT question, the level of detail you can go in to ask it is a valuable question. What they have done is split the front and back of your head into a grid format (see the pictures and it will make much more sense).

This question will help determine if you are always getting your migraines in the same place, do they move etc. Where they are can help find the right medication to help you. You can colour in/highlight as many seconds as you need.

Question 5: Here you can tell the app any medication you have taken for your headache or migraine. It makes it easier to keep track of and show you what worked so you don’t waste time on your next “attack”. Like most of the other questions, they have some standard answers built-in, but you add, delete, and rearrange as many times as you like. You can even use it as a timer, so you know when you are due your next dose (handy right).

Question 6: Now you can choose any relief or alternative treatment methods you have used. Again, they give you some standard ones which you can pick from, but you can also add your own and rearrange them. This is also quite helpful, as it will make it easier to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t have much of an effect. The main one for me is darkness.

Question 7: This question asks you all about the kind of symptoms you are experiencing, like sensitivity to light or noise etc. It does list the main and most common ones, but you can also add your own. You can click on as many as you want and unclick one if you click the wrong thing etc.

Question 8: Okay, so this one doesn’t do much for me because lately, I have been waking up with them, therefore, I am not experiencing any ‘warning signs that you might when you are getting on during your waking hours. However, this question asks you for any warning signs that you notice, feeling sick, seeing an aura etc.

Question 9: You are almost there is this point, only a few questions left. This one asks you about what activities in your daily life your migraine is impacting. It can be anything from being slow, feeling sleepy, waking up or not being able to get to sleep etc.

Question 10: I think this is possibly the simplest and the easiest. All you must do is answer where you were when the migraine started. Like always you can add your own, but the standard built-in ones include work, home, and school, I think.

Question 11: This can be a tricky one because it is hard to know what is causing your migraines. This question just asks you to take a guess and some of the things that might be contributing to your migraines were suddenly hot weather etc.

Question 12: This is a question that is very feminine based, so for Women, it asks if it is your time of the month. Yes, migraines can be linked to your monthly cycle due to the change in hormones and the changes your body goes through.

Question 13: This is the last official question. It isn’t a question. The App allows you to write any notes that you think are worth keeping. You can add any medications you have taken and the time you took them and just write how you are feeling with your migraine.

The last step for now (when you are migraine free, you can go back and add any details) but if you are filling this out during a migraine then the last bit will show you an overview of the questions in a table format. Anything in orange needs to be completed and anything in the teal colour has been filled out, but you can add to any section at any point.

The questions aren’t the only feature of the app, you can do all sorts, track your sleep, track any triggers, find safe chat groups relating to your experience, gives links to studies that have been carried out etc. I find it very useful; I do not use the app to its full potential, and there are many features I haven’t even looked at. The feature I have been looking at more recently is the reports. It brilliantly summarises all the information you have provided. To find the report click features (bottom right) and then reports (toppish right).

The amount of information shown in this simple, easy-to-follow report is crazy. You can see anything from the number of attacks, where they commonly start, how long they last, average pain level and much more.

Now we have spoken about keeping track of your migraines, let’s move on to some of the other useful diaries/trackers you can use. The next most common one is food diaries. Food can be a big trigger. But do you know what a food diary is?

You might be thinking, “what is a food diary going to do” or you might be thinking “oh no, I don’t want to do a food diary” but honest to god, a food diary could make your life a whole lot easier. It is super easy to fake it, lie in it or change it but please don’t. When it comes to migraines, we are not here to judge the person who eats 3 chocolates after dinner, 2 bowls of ice cream, and too many takeaways. A food diary is about finding a pattern.

Depending on how often you get your migraines. If you get weekly, do a food diary for a couple of weeks, if you get them once a month, annoyingly you might have to keep a food diary for maybe 3 months. Once you have got your food diary and your migraine tracker you can compare them and see if there is any food or drink you are consistently consuming the day off or the day before you get a migraine.

Once you find that pattern, you can potentially eliminate this item from your diet (or if it is something you love, plan to eat it on your day off) and hopefully, you can then stop or at least reduce your migraines. It doesn’t mean you can’t ever eat, or drink said item, but you can plan if you are going to eat it, wait for the migraine to start and take the medications or something.

There is an option there for you if you wish to analyse your diet. But that is 100% your choice. There is no pressure or judgement, at least in my experience. It is meant to be a tool to help you not shame you. There are other diaries you can keep, sleep, medication for women your monthly cycle a lot of this you can use migraine buddy (the App) but it is up to you if you want to write it down on a piece of paper or keep it on an app in your phone.

If you can be bothered, you can always enter the information into a spreadsheet. This will be the easiest way to see what you are eating a lot of and what you are eating the day before leading up to getting a migraine. Once you find something that you eat and shortly after you are getting a migraine, the trick is to stop eating, drinking, or doing said trigger and hopefully you will then become migraine free. You might find it is a combination of things that cause your migraine, maybe you can eat your favourite chocolate bar if you are not going to sleep straight away etc.