Student President's Blog | Migraine Awareness - Talking to Your GP
Talking to your doctor about migraines is either the easiest thing in the world or the hardest thing in the world. It can be easy if you know the exact symptoms/warning signs or they run in your family and your doctor knows that. but it can be extremely hard because you don’t have anything physical to show them like you would with a cut on your hand or a broken bone.
I’ve been there myself, I remember one of my doctors thinking that I was making a mountain out of a molehill and I was just suffering from “A normal headache, everyone gets those so I don’t see why you’re wasting my time” they clearly weren’t interested, I also felt embarrassed having to keep going back time and time again to talk to different doctors who would give me different answers and different medication to try and ultimately, I felt like my doctor couldn’t anything for me.
The way that I approach talking to my doctor is with the 3 D’s, Document, Discuss and Don’t give up!
Document anything you think is relevant, so using a headache diary that you can document frequency of occurrence, other symptoms, pain level, pain location, date/time, something small that you can carry so if a migraine comes on spontaneously, you can note it down immediately
Discuss follows on from document, discuss anything you think will be helpful- your migraines come on after you eat a ham and cheese sandwich? Talk to your doctor about it! Even if you don’t note it down and you just remember it when you’re in the appointment, mention it, it will help immensely
And lastly don’t give up, no matter how hard it seems and no matter how far away treatment is, don't give up. You'll get the help that you deserve soon, I promise.
