Let’s Be Proactive for a 2012 with
Better Managed Migraines and Headaches
As we begin a new year, there’s never going to be a better time to take charge of our health, our health care, and our Migraine and headache management. Whether you want to call it a resolution, a goal, or a promise we make to ourselves and those who care about us, now is the perfect time. Maybe last year wasn’t a stellar success, but we can choose to make this year better.
Let’s look at some ways to approach better Migraine and headache management:
Our Health Care Team:
Let’s start with some questions to evaluate our health care team:
- Is our health care team up to the challenge?
- Does our doctor:
- answer our questions?
- outline our options and make a decision with us instead of for us?
- help us with a plan for times when we have a Migraine and our primary treatment fails?
- help us with a plan for times when we need help with a Migraine and his or her office is closed?
- have enough experience in "headache medicine" and knowledge in the field to help us?
- Is our doctor’s staff:
- professional and courteous?
- responsive to our needs?
- knowledgeable enough about Migraine and other headache disorders to perform their duties?
If the answer to any of these questions is, “No,” it’s time to discuss them with our doctors and, if necessary, find another doctor. Issues with a doctor’s staff can sometimes be overlooked if they don’t negatively impact our relationship with our doctor or our care. If a new doctor is in order, it may well be time to seek care with a headache and Migraine specialist. It’s important to keep in mind that neurologists aren’t necessarily headache and Migraine specialists, and headache and Migraine specialists aren’t necessarily neurologists. To help you find health care professionals trained in “headache medicine” check our Find a Health Care Professional page.
Our Triggers:
If you’re a Migraineur, do you know what your Migraine triggers are? If not, it’s time to find out! Knowing our triggers is essential. Some of them may be avoidable, so knowing and avoiding them can result in fewer Migraines. One of the best ways to identify triggers is to keep a Migraine diary. You can download your choice of diaries from our Headache Diaries page. If you don’t know what can trigger Migraines, take a look at Common Migraine Triggers.
Our Treatment Regimen:
Treatment regimens don’t have a chance of working if we don’t adhere to them. If there’s a reason we can’t follow our regimen, we shouldn’t just stop taking our medications or following the plan we agreed to. We need to discuss the “whys” with our doctors. It can actually be potentially harmful to discontinue some medications abruptly, so if we’re taking medications on a daily basis, we shouldn’t discontinue them without consulting our doctors. Were side effects an issue? Some side effects can diminish as our bodies become accustomed to a medication. If side effects are severe or frightening, we should contact our doctors. Did we feel the medications weren’t working? Medications prescribed for Migraine and headache prevention often take up to three months to take effect. If we stop taking them too soon, we may stop a treatment that would have worked for us. The bottom line here is to fully discuss our treatment regimen with our doctors and ask any questions we may have before we leave the doctor’s office. Once we agree to the regimen and leave the office, we need to follow the regimen or talk with our doctors about any modifications that need to be made to it.
MOST IMPORTANTLY
We Must Be Proactive
We all want this year to be better than last year when it comes to our Migraines or headaches. Right? So, here’s the bottom line…
For that to happen, we must be proactive about our health and our health care.
Ultimately, our health is our responsibility, not our doctor’s. That’s right. Our responsibility. It’s unrealistic to expect to walk into a doctor’s office and walk out with a prescription that will somehow make it all better. This is real life, not a movie of the week, and it simply doesn’t work that way in real life.
We must proactively…
- choose our health care team.
- educate ourselves about our Migraines or other headache disorder,
- ask questions about our disorder, medications and treatments so we understand them and can be partners in our treatment.
- expect our doctors to outline treatment options and make decisions with us as treatment partners.
- work on lifestyle issues that impact our Migraines or headaches – sleep, nutrition, exercise, managing avoidable triggers.
The Bottom Line:
Managing Migraines and headaches isn’t a passive activity. We must be fully invested and proactive if we want to be as healthy as possible and realize a high quality of life. Part of this comes down to our outlook and attitude. Everyone is entitled to an occasional “pity party,” but then we have to get proactive, take charge, and do something to make things get better. We can sit back and let Migraines and headaches rule our lives, or we can take charge. Let’s choose to take charge!
Here are some links to other material to help you be more proactive:
Written by Teri Robert. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Medical Review by John Claude Krusz, PhD, MD. Last updated January 1, 2012.