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Chapter 3: Develop a Medical History and Personal Action Plan
Creating a comprehensive medical history that details your headache journey is essential for effective encounters with your healthcare providers in office, clinic, hospital, or Emergency department.
By outlining how your headache impacts your daily life, you can provide a clearer picture of your experience, which will be helpful during appointments.
- Start by gathering key information about your headache, including the month and year when they began, location(s) of the headache, how often (frequency), how long they last (duration), is there an aura (flashing lights), nausea/vomiting, dizziness/imbalance, light sensitivity (photophobia), sound sensitivity (phonophobia). Does exertion or movement make the headache worse, are you having trouble concentrating, feeling lightheaded or dizzy, are there other symptoms?
- Do you have any contributing factors? Changes in weather, eating, hydration, alcohol use, sleep, stress or other life changes can be contributing factors to headache.
- Document your treatment history, medications you’ve tried and their effectiveness, as well as any non-drug therapies you have explored, like mindfulness, meditation, neuromodulation—using either a manual diary/journal or one of the VA recommended apps.
- What Are Your Options? There are many different treatments for headache including pills, injections, and non-medicine options. It is important to share with your healthcare provider how headache affects your home, work, and life.
- At home steps to ease a headache, things to do at home while waiting for your appointment.
VA recommended apps — Free on iPhone and Android.
- Migraine Monitor -Track your headache attacks and share the information with your provider.
- Migraine Buddy - Learn and communicate about your condition.
- Health Storylines - Store and track information on your medications, symptoms, mood, weight, blood pressure and more.
Actual Provider/Clinic Appointment—Recommended questions:
- What type of headache do I have? What is my diagnosis? Type of Headache (page 2)
- What are my treatment options for the type of headache I have?
- If I prefer non-medication options, what other treatments are available?
- What can I do on my own to manage my headache?
- When should I contact you or another healthcare provider about my headache?
- Could changes in my diet help my headache?
- Do I need an MRI, CT scan, or another sort of imaging to help diagnose my headache attacks?
- If I need to go to Urgent Care or Emergency, what should the staff do there to help me?