Tagged As: Headache Diary
Question:
Anyone got example of what and how they record in a headache diary? I want to provide something useful for by Dr and Neurologist and assess patterns myself. Any suggestions?
Answer:
Yes. I can't bear to fuss over it, after so many years, so I find I keep better track if it's extremely easy. I make an spreadsheet on my computer (but it could easily be by hand) with the days of the month across the top and the months down the left side. Each day that I have a headache I color-code with its intensity: yellow for mild (1-3), peach for moderate (4-6), light orange for severe (7-8), dark orange for dreadful (9-10, and a horrid blood color for unresponsive. By hand, I guess I'd use numbers rather than mess about with colors, but I really can't discriminate more than five degrees. Then I mark whether or not I took a triptan, my usual medication. On the right, when the month is over, I count up two columns: one for headache-free days (a more interesting measure, for me, than the number of headaches I had) and the other for number of times I had to resort to a triptan. This stays on my computer desktop where I make my best possible effort to keep it accurate and up to date. When I travel, I print it out and mark it by hand to enter when I get home. There are other kinds of diaries that meet different needs. For example, if you're still trying to identify triggers, you will want to use a more complicated one where you record what you ate, how you felt, if anything stressful happened, etc., during the preceding day or two. (I do sometimes note particular stressors, just so I know in looking back whether I had that run of bad ones after minor surgery, or during a vacation with rug-rats, and so forth.) If you're struggling with whether you might be in rebound, you'd want to keep much more extensive records of medications and other substances (that six-pack, for example!) that might be implicated. So, it all depends.... But I think it's an excellent tool for dealing with medical people, and educational for the patient, as well.
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