I want to track my migraines before seei

Tonight, before you unwind: open the one-page diary below and fill in one row per attack — even the old ones you can still remember, even the incomplete ones. Five minutes now is what turns the visit from a guess into a reviewable record, and you do not have to do anything else tonight.

Here is the sheet, ready to print or screenshot: migraine-diary-onepager-2026-10-21-87129a73.pdf

1. What you have already tried vs. what actually helps

You said you have been guessing at the visit. Guessing has the opposite of the effect you want here: in the room, everything blends together ("I get headaches a lot"), and the clinician cannot see the pattern you already live with.

The swap is not more effort, it is less guesswork. The same five minutes, recorded the same way every time, gives the doctor the things they actually ask for: how many attacks, how long each lasted, whether the pattern has changed, how many days you reach for a painkiller, and whether anything in your ordinary week lines up.

A public NHS page makes the same point — "It can help to keep a migraine diary to help you work out what might trigger your migraine attacks" (nhs.uk/conditions/migraine, checked 21 Oct 2026). And a diary is also the fastest way to answer your own "is this normal?" question at 2 a.m.: one look tells you whether tonight is your usual attack or something that has never happened before.

The 60-second version (do this on the kitchen notepad or your phone, in the same spot every time):
start time · worst pain 0–10 · sick yes/no · wanted to lie still or pace · what you already took (name only) · what helped · end time.

The full row (the one-page sheet has every field): add how it built — seconds, minutes or hours — which side, what made it worse, aura and how long, meals and whether you skipped one, sleep hours, water, caffeine, alcohol, cycle day, stress 0–10, weather and screen hours, who covered the school run that evening.

That last field is the caregiver one: whoever was on the evening shift writes down what you could not remember. Four words — "covered homework, slept 1:30" — is worth more than a blank row.

Two totals the doctor asks for, count only, do not set a home limit: attacks per month, and days in the last month you took a painkiller at all. The "more than about two days a week" line on that NHS page is a reason to raise it at the visit — it is not a quota to police tonight, and I am not putting it in your hands as a rule.

2. Constraints and the avoid list

• No new medicine, and no change to any existing one. Diary only. The doctor decides anything about treatment.
• Name only what you already take, plus the time. Leave the amount on the bottle, where the label is.
• No borrowed migraine tablets, no opioids, no prescription bought online, no mystery powders — nothing added on a week when you are the most tired you will ever be.
• Do not dose anyone else from this sheet — not the child, the elder, the pet. Their medicines are their prescriber's business.
• Do not treat a child, sibling, or elder with the same assumption. A headache that is new after age 50, with jaw pain on chewing or a tender temple, is a different door — see section 3.
• Do not use "skip meals / stop caffeine / go to bed early" as a treatment. Eat and drink normally, at normal times; that is diary evidence, not a cure.
• Do not keep a drowsy person in bed "to see how they are in the morning."
• Do not drive yourself to an emergency department with a worrying headache.

Tonight, while the diary runs: eat at a normal time, keep water within reach of wherever you are, keep the room dim and quiet for the next attack, and use only the pain relief already advised for you. Nothing extra.

Two scripts worth screenshotting:

To the other adult — *"Can you write one line tonight if I get one? Start time, worst 0–10, did I take anything, what helped, when it stopped. I'll fill the rest tomorrow."*

To the surgery — *"I'd like an appointment for recurring migraines. I've kept a headache diary for the last few weeks and I'd like to bring it. Could I also ask for a medication review — I'm using painkillers on more days than I'd like."*

3. Decision tree — when to stop the diary and get help

Right now, or today, do not use the diary as the plan — get medical help if any of these is true:

• The pain peaked within seconds — the worst headache of your life, at full force almost at once.
• New weakness or numbness on one side, or trouble speaking or remembering.
• Vision lost, blurred or doubled; a red eye with rainbow rings around lights; vision flickering in one eye for a few minutes.
• A seizure, or confusion, drowsiness, or not making sense.
• Fever together with the headache, a stiff neck, or not being rousable.
• Pregnant, or in the days after birth, with a severe headache or visual change.
• A head injury in the last days, and the person is getting sleepier.
• Everyone in the house has headache and nausea at once — get everyone into fresh air, and treat it as an emergency, not a flu.

I am not printing a country's emergency digits at you — the one that works is the number where you live: call your local emergency number now if any line above is ticked, and do not drive yourself.

Book a clinician appointment (not urgent, but do book it) if: the attacks are more frequent, more severe, or longer than they used to be, painkillers are not working as well as before, or you are reaching for them on more days than you want to. That is exactly what the diary is for — bring it and bring the bottles, including anything bought without a prescription, and ask the three questions printed at the bottom of the sheet.

Stay at home, diary mode, dark quiet room only if it is genuinely your usual attack in a person who is otherwise well: same pattern you know, one-sided or familiar, you want to lie still, no fever, no vision change, no weakness, no confusion. Then record it and let it run its course.

If the diary is for someone else and not you — a child with a headache that wakes them, is there on waking with vomiting, is worse on coughing or bending, or is a new pattern — that is same-day, not diary-week.

What success looks like in 24 hours

What I can't do: I cannot diagnose your migraines, tell you what is causing them, or say whether a medicine or a dose is right for you. This page is record-keeping only, and it changes nothing in your treatment.

Nothing here promises fewer migraines, and it can't — only the doctor can say what your pattern is. Success tonight is small and concrete: the sheet exists, one row is filled for your last two or three attacks (rough is fine, gaps are fine), the covering adult knows the one-line job, the surgery appointment is requested, and you have written down exactly what to say at the door. That is what a clinician can work with, and guessing at the visit was never going to give them.

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Reference checked this turn: nhs.uk/conditions/migraine (official UK public page, read 21 Oct 2026) — for the diary point, the listed urgent and emergency features, and the note that painkillers used on many days can itself worsen headache.
Not covered here: any dose, any pill name to try, any frequency limit to police at home, and your local emergency number.