Finding Out When Your Migraines Come

Finding Out When Your Migraines Come

A migraine takes the day, and once it passes even the day itself goes vague. Which is why it is hard to say anything more precise than “they've been frequent lately.” A record built one tap at a time remembers the vague part for you.

Memory undercounts the bad days

How many days did you have a migraine last month? Most people answer low. The severe days stay sharp and the mild ones get written over. But the mild ones are often what makes the pattern.

A record keeps a severe day and a mild day as the same single line. That is what makes it different from memory.

The time it started matters most

The most useful thing in a migraine record is not the severity. It is the time it started. Once the times pile up, days of the week and hours of the day begin to show: whether they cluster on Monday mornings, whether they always begin in the late afternoon.

TapDiary stamps the time when you tap the button, so all you have to remember is one tap at the start.

Keep notes short, but write them every time

You can leave a note after tapping. It does not need to be long. Enough that you can read it back later is enough.

• “Left temple, 6/10”
• “Four hours of sleep last night”
• “Right after the meeting”
• “Before the rain”

Thirty short notes show a pattern better than three long ones.

A short note goes on the record itself

If you get an aura, give it its own button

Some people get a shimmer in their vision or a stiff neck before a migraine arrives. If that happens regularly, make a separate button for it. You will find out whether the gap between the aura and the headache is consistent, and whether there were days the aura came and the headache never did.

Record the painkillers the same way

Add one more button for the medication and the number of days you took it in a month adds itself up. Taking headache medication often is known to be able to bring on headaches of its own, so it is a number doctors ask about. How much counts as often differs from person to person, though, so leave that judgement to your doctor.

Each button can have its own reset cycle, so setting the medication button to monthly puts this month's count right on the home screen.

A month is enough to see the outline

A few days of records mean nothing. Around four weeks in, the day-of-week distribution starts to be visible on the statistics screen. Two months and it gets fairly clear.

Until then, treat it as still gathering and just tap. The reading can wait.

Around four weeks in, the days start to show

A record is not a diagnosis

What a record can tell you is when and how often, and that is where it stops. What is causing it and what treatment fits are for a doctor to judge. The record's job is to make that conversation more precise.

If a headache arrives that is unlike your usual ones, keeps getting worse, or comes with other symptoms, see a doctor rather than collecting more records.