Help with Migrains
My father gets migraines almost ever day of the month and has Chronic migraines he has been living with them for about 4 Years now and he is 42. He doesn't have any medicine that helps him and he's been to so many doctors it's hard to count now. He had 3 children but he usually is in bed for 18 Hours a day because of how bad the migraines have been. There almost daily and it is rare if he doesn't have one. Sometimes I hear him saying things like "I can't keep living like this" Or "My life is meaningless". He usually can't go places with his family or even go out to get medicine because of his migraines. Sometimes going to the Gas station to get a soda is a challenge for him and he can't do it. If you have any advice on how to prevent or make migraines less frequent I would be very grateful all the "Specialist" he goes too can't help him and just give him useless medicine that doesn't help him. He doesn't deserve it and has always tried to help his family, and I can't remember the last time my dad could go through a week without a migraine.
Hi Alexander Bennett,
Thank you for reaching out to us in regards to your father. I'm sorry he is having such a difficult time. Let's see what information I can provide you that may be helpful.
First let me say that all "specialists" are not created equal . What I mean by that is many doctors claim to be "headache specialists" but in fact are not. A true migraine/headache expert is a doctor, who may or may not be a neurologist, who is board certified in headache medicine. Having this certification is different from being certified in neurology. And it's not that neurologists aren't good doctors, its that they have a hard time being experts in one area because they treat so many different conditions such a multiple sclerosis, stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson's and others. A true migraine/headache expert treats one condition all day, every day - migraine and headache. Does that make sense? Let me share these articles with you about how these doctors are so different and how to find one: http://migraine.com/blog/how-are-migraine-specialists-different/ and https://migraine.com/blog/really-find-headache-specialist/.
Just as important as having a doctor who will be a partner in our health care, is to identify and manage our migraine triggers. Some we can avoid, some we can't like the weather. The best way to figure out what our triggers are is to keep a detailed migraine diary for at least three months. Here is information on how to keep a migraine diary and migraine triggers; https://migraine.com/blog/keeping-migraine-diary-basics/ and https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-management-essential-trigger-management/.
I'll let you digest that. Let me know if you have more questions,
Nancy
