Announcing November 2011 Headache & Migraine Blog Carnival

The theme for the November 2011 Headache & Migraine Carnival is "Migraine Disease & Friendship: How has living with migraine disease or a headache disorder impacted your friendships? Has it shown you who your true friends are? Have you made friends or become closer to people because of your life with this disease? Please share your thoughts on friendship & chronic illness." As always, posts on any topic related to migraine disease or other headache disorders are also welcome.

Submissions are due by the end of the day on Friday, November 11, 2011, and will be posted here at Somebody Heal Me on Monday, November 14, 2011. Please email your submissions to me at somebodyhealme AT dianalee DOT net.


Please note: Unfortunately some of us have had problems with the submission form on the blogcarnival.com site from time to time, so I suggest you just avoid it. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience. 

For more information about the carnival visit the overview page here: Migraine Blog Carnival. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns or are interesting in hosting a future edition. I'm always looking for participants who are willing to volunteer as hosts. It's not only a great way to support the carnival, but also to drive new traffic to your blog!



Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme. 

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Migraine Chat Reminder

Just putting up a short post to remind all of you to join in the Migraine Chat I host every Wednesday evening from 6-7 pm CT. You can find the correct time for your time zone and other pertinent details, including a link to the Chatzy chat room, at this link: Weekly Wednesday Migraine Chat.

Feel free to post comments or email me through this site with any questions you may have. Hope to see you tonight!


Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme.

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Botox Ineffective for Neck Pain

Although Botox injections (botulinum toxin) are FDA approved for chronic migraine (15 or more days of migraine a month), according to a research study from this summer, they probably do not help with neck pain. Neck pain is a common feature / symptom of migraine disease, ranking up there with nausea, photophobia and phonophobia among the most frequently experienced symptoms.

According to this study, which was a review of existing research studies on this issue, Botox does not help relieve neck pain, nor does it increase the patient's ability to function or improve his / her quality of life. Researchers concluded the lackluster results were not worth the risk to patients of being exposed to botulinum toxin.

However, researchers did note that some of the studies they reviewed had serious limitations. For instance, some studies had not kept patients in the dark about whether they were receiving Botox or placebo. In other words, they were not blind studies, which is considered to be an essential feature of any worthwhile research study.

Researchers said that exercise is currently the best option for treatment of neck pain. They said injections of steroids or anesthetics can also help, though less significantly than exercise.

Source:
Does Botox Help Neck Pain?

Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme.

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Migraine 101: 3 Good Reasons to See a Headache Specialist

We all follow a slightly different journey on the path to diagnosis and treatment of migraine disease. Most of us start with our primary care physicians, but at some point at least consider seeing a specialist. Is it necessary? Is it worth the time and money? Yes, yes and yes. Here are 3 good reasons to see a headache specialist instead of relying solely on your primary care physician or a general neurologist.


5 Good Reasons to See a Headache Specialist

(1) A headache specialist has specialized knowledge and training in headache disorders. The average medical doctor receives something like a half day of education on treating patients with headache disorders. Even neurologists, who specialize in brain disorders, don't necessarily have much knowledge about them. According to one study 64% of neurology residency programs spent just five hours on training in headache disorders.

(2) They see more headache disorder patients so they have a larger knowledge base of how patients respond to certain medications and your likely needs to draw from. This includes not only prescription medications, but also herbs and supplements.

(3) They will spend more time with you. Migraine specialists understand the necessity of taking their time with each patient in order to properly diagnose and treat them and have structured their practices in a way that makes this possible.

These links will help you find a headache / migraine specialist in your area:

Doctors Certified in Headache Medicine via Migraine Research Foundation

Patient Recommended Migraine & Headache Specialists via Teri Robert & My Migraine Connection

Sources:
Headache in Medical Education


Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme. 

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Book Review & Giveaway: Your Medical Mind

Although most of you reading this blog face medical decisions both small and large all the time, the reality is that every single person will at some point be called up on to make decisions about how to handle a medical situation in their own lives or to consult on a decision for a loved one. Preparing yourself in advance with skills that can help make such decisions feel less random and out of your control is wise. The new book Your Medical Mind by Jerome Groopman, MD, and Pamela Hartzbrand, MD, is a great resource for this purpose.

Your Medical Mind is a concise book, but packed with examples of how other people have approached medical crises and important decisions about their care. Through these examples, the doctors help you make sense of statistics and learn how a percentage of risk reduction for a group applies to you personally. They describe how personality and emotions can influence how you make decisions. Through examples they show you how people with different values and preferences approach decisions about the same issues differently.

Groopman and Hartzbrand address the fundamental role selecting your doctor plays in coping with your diagnosis, the personal nature of such choices and how to know if you're making the right decision for you and your preferred level of autonomy in decision making. They also discuss the ever present doctor/patient communication gap and the role of communication in selecting a treatment provider. They also point out that sometimes the appearance of choice and control is an illusion when institutional policies and practices start to drive the train.

Of course, sometimes our ability to make decisions for ourselves is completely at risk. It is not uncommon for patients to become so incapacitated they must rely on their care providers and loved ones to make decisions for them. While we all know this is why we should have living wills and durable powers of attorney for health care decisions, there is great food for thought in this book about the balance of decision making between the medical team and families and the need to recognize that both have important roles to play when your own ability to make decisions is compromised.

Finally, in what was the most valuable section for me, the doctors talk candidly about regret and the consequences of decisions that don't work out the way we hoped they would. As someone who has experienced a high level of regret and remorse after accepting treatments that were unnecessary and unwarranted and left me worse off rather than better, I was pleased to see this issue addressed. While there are things you can do to try to avoid these outcomes, it is also true that sometimes things take on a life of their own and we end up feeling regret anyway. As the doctors wisely point out near the end of the book, humans can adapt much more readily to a wide variety of circumstances than we give ourselves credit for. I think my day-to-day existence is living proof this is true. With time the regret becomes less profound and it no longer dominates your every thought. You move on, take things as they are and use what you learned in future decision making.

This book is going on my reference shelf for future use. Although I don't anticipate any out of the ordinary medical decision-making any time soon, we never know when we or our loved ones will need help in facing difficult medical situations. You can never be prepared enough.

Giveaway

I'm giving away a copy of Groopman and Hartzbrand's new book, Your Medical Mind. To be entered to win, please answer this question: "What do you find most difficult about making decisions about trying treatments or medications?" in a comment below with an email address where I can contact you if you're chosen as the winner. The deadline for comments is midnight, Thursday, November 3, 2011, central time. Winners will be randomly chosen from all valid entries using Random.org.


Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme. 

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Guilt: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Managing the emotions that come along with living with chronic illness is not a straightforward process. Once you've done some work - gone to therapy, worked through some of your issues - it's tempting to think you've achieved a solid milestone and will only move forward from there. But it just doesn't work that way.

Though I'm dealing much better with my feelings of guilt today than I was five years ago, I'm perhaps not doing as well with them as I was six or nine months ago. That's a hard thing to admit.

I feel guilty about not being able to do very much around the house. It's not as organized or clean as I'd like, and I put the blame for that on myself.

I feel guilty for taking a nice vacation when I can't even support myself financially. Even though I know it was important for us to get away together, I don't feel like I deserve anything good or special like that in my life. What have I done to earn it?

I feel guilty for watching so much TV. Nevermind the fact that I read a lot and for the most part take care of everything that absolutely must be done. Would a person of worth spend this much time in front of the boob tube? Probably not.

Even though I feel great about being able to contribute a bit toward our household expenses every month, I still feel guilty about not working and earning a real adult professional salary like I once did. I don't blame myself for that like I used to, though. So that's a definite improvement.

What do you feel guilty about? Has it become any easier for you to deal with? If so, how?


Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme.

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Migraine Prevention: Is Exercise More Effective Than Medication?

You have probably seen the multitude of recent headlines asserting exercise is more effective than medication for migraine prevention. These stories are based on information from a 2009 study, but as is so often the case, the headlines don't tell the whole story.

Dr. Dawn Marcus recently wrote a piece about this research for Migraine.com (Expert Review: Exercise & Migraine). She provides a more comprehensive outline of what the research actually found than most news stories and shares some important take aways. The most significant of these in my mind is that we need to take a collaborative, integrative approach to migraine prevention. It's not about one single thing, such as only taking medication or starting an exercise program. In reality, it's about combining tactics. For example, medication, exercise and relaxation for a combined greater benefit over each approach individually. This kind of approach is what I mean when I speak of behavioral pain management.

I highly recommend you read Dr. Marcus's article for more information about the exercise and migraine study.

Expert Review: Exercise & Migraine

Related Posts:
Specific Indoor Exercise Program May Help Migraineurs

Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme. 

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Migraine Chat Tonight: Support & Understanding

Please join us tonight (Wednesday) from 6-7 pm CT for Migraine Chat. Talk live with fellow migraine patients about your issues, concerns & needs. We all need support from people who can understand what we're dealing with. Hope to see you there!

Weekly Wednesday Migraine Chat

Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme.

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Migraine 101: What to Include in Your Migraine Journal / Diary

This post is Part Three of a three-part series on the importance of keeping a migraine diary / journal.

Setting up a paper migraine journal or downloading the software and setting up a username and password are just the first steps. They won't do you a lick of good if you don't include the right information in your diary.

These are the basics for a migraine diary / journal:

• date

• time the migraine attack started

• time the migraine attack ended

• type of pain (Examples: sharp, stabbing, burning, radiating, stinging, aching, etc.)

• intensity of the pain on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the most excruciating pain you can imagine)

• location of the pain

• your symptoms

• medication(s) taken

• effectiveness of the medications taken

• side effects (if any) of medications taken

• any possible triggers you can think of (Examples: lack of sleep, food
consumption, exposure to perfume or cologne, etc.)


Related Posts:
Migraine 101: 5 Good Reasons to Keep a Migraine Journal
Migraine 101: Migraine Journal / Diary Options

Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme. 

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

October 2011 Migraine Carnival Posted

The October 2011 edition of the Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival on the theme of the scariest migraine you've experienced or witnessed is up at Falling Through Pain. Please check it out & spread the word!

October Migraine Blog Carnival

Many thanks to Sconesail for hosting this month and doing such a nice job at it.

Submissions for the November 2011 edition of the carnival will be due by midnight (the end of the day) on Friday, November 11, 2011. The theme is: "Migraine Disease & Friendship: How has living with migraine disease or a headache disorder impacted your friendships? Has it shown you who your true friends are? Have you made friends or become closer to people because of your life with this disease? Please share your thoughts on friendship & chronic illness." Send me your submissions by email to somebodyhealme AT dianalee DOT net. The carnival will be posted right here at Somebody Heal Me on Monday, November 14, 2011.



Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme. 

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

My Scariest Migraine Experience: Diana in Wonderland

In thinking about writing for this month's Headache & Migraine Blog Carnival theme of the scariest migraine I've experienced or witnessed, I struggled. I've had lots of embarrassing migraine experiences, but scary? Those are harder to come up with. I've never been someone to have especially dramatic attacks outwardly speaking. But when I was a kid sometimes it was really scary to be inside my migraine body with my migraine brain.

I can remember going about my normal school day and moving on to my regular after school activities (dance classes, piano lessons, 4-H, etc.), but somehow also not exactly know who I was or how I fit in to my current surroundings. It's very hard to describe, but I have to suspect I'm not the only migraineur out there who has ever felt that way. The closest thing I've ever seen written about it is Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, though that isn't quite what my experience was like.

Usually that just happened to me on regular days. School days. No big deal. But once it happened on a special day: the day I was supposed to be in a production of the Nutcracker. We had rehearsals all day on Saturday for a Saturday night performance. We were fitted for really awesome costumes and everything. I was so excited. Probably too excited, because that has been a migraine trigger for me over the course of my life. Often when I had these weird out of body experiences I don't remember having the pain of a migraine attack, but that day was different. I experienced all my regular migraine symptoms, too. I had to call my mom to come get me during rehearsals and take me home. I didn't get to be in the performance because I was too sick. To add insult to injury, my grandmother went to the performance anyway, which sort of killed my little heart. I still wish I could have that day back.


Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme. 

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Last Call: October 2011 Headache & Migraine Blog Carnival

Please don't forget tomorrow is the deadline for submissions to the October 2011 Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival. Our theme for October is "Scary Migraine Episodes: What is the scariest migraine attack you've ever suffered or witnessed?" As always, entries on topics that are particularly useful, educational or inspirational for headache and migraine sufferers are also welcome and encouraged.

Submit your blog article by emailing your submissions directly to me (somebodyhealme AT dianalee DOT net).

Entries are due by midnight (the end of the day) tomorrow, Friday, October 7, and the carnival will be posted by Sconesail at Falling Through Pain on Monday, October 10.

Please let me know if you are interested in hosting a future edition. Contact me any time with questions, suggestions or ideas for themes. I'm always looking for help with the carnival. Don't hesitate to post a comment or email me with questions.


Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme. 

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

How I Manage My Health Using iPhone Apps

One of the cool things about having a smart phone (and, I'll admit it, being so addicted to it I can't go anywhere without it) is the ability to use it to keep track of important health reminders and data. These are three (free) iPhone apps I rely on daily to keep track of my various medications, diabetes information and migraine attacks.

Glucose Buddy

I use Glucose Buddy to track my blood sugar (glucose) numbers, which I test at least four times a day. I also track my diabetes-related medications and injections using this program and always log my blood test results (A1c) when I get them from my doctor's office. This program makes the process of diabetes disease management much, much easier, which is awesome because it can be rather burdensome to do all the things you need to do to take good care of yourself each and every day.

Ubiqi

I've been using the Ubiqi iPhone app to log my migraine attacks for about nine months now, and I really like it. Although you can't edit your entries on the iPhone app, you can edit them on the Ubiqi website, which is the next best thing. You can also print out reports of your data to keep for your own records and to take to your doctors. Keeping a migraine diary / journal is incredibly important, and programs like this make it pretty easy.

Pillboxie

Pillboxie is a cool little app that sends you medication reminders according to your schedule and needs. I discussed it in a recent Found post, which you can read here: Found: Free Medication Reminder App for iPhone, iPad.


Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme.

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.

Migraine 101: Migraine Journal / Diary Options

In Part One of this three-part series on Migraine Journals / Diaries I discussed five good reasons to keep a migraine journal. In this second part, I will discuss an overview of the options available for keeping a migraine journal, including paper options to print, journaling apps, journaling websites and other, more customizable options.

Paper Migraine Journals:

There are more paper journal/diary options available just by Googling "migraine journal" or "migraine diary" than I could possibly discuss here, but I'll share a few links to options I like in case this is your preferred method of keeping a diary.

Help for Headaches Migraine & Headache Diary Workbook (Includes three different diary options) (PDF download)
Chesapeake Neurology Associates Migraine Diary
DIY Planning Migraine Journal
eMed TV Migraine Diary
Berkeley Migraine Journal (PDF download)

Tips: I recommend getting a three-ring binder to store your pages if this is the best way for you to keep track of your migraine attacks. It would be smart to make a photocopy of your pages in preparation for doctors appointments so you can keep the originals as your own record.

Migraine Journal Apps:

There are a surprising number of migraine journal applications for smart phones. I'm going to focus on the ones I've used and like instead of overwhelming you with all the options out there. I only have an iPhone, so I can't speak directly to other smart phone options, but I have included the link to the Ubiqi website, which offers its app for Android, BlackBerry and other smart phones, not just the iPhone/iPad. Scroll to the bottom of their homepage to see links to these options.

Migraine Meter iPhone/iPad App - An account with Migraine.com allows you to log your migraine attacks online using the Migraine.com website or on your iPhone using the new app. (Note: Though I work for them, they are not paying me to write this post or promote their journal.)

Ubiqi iPhone App - I'm a big fan of the Ubiqi app, and not just because I've come to know the founder a bit and grown to appreciate her advocacy efforts. It's an honest to goodness useful application. It works similarly to the Migraine Meter app in that you can track your attacks both on the Ubiqi website and on the app. You can also edit your entries on the website and print reports.

Headache Relief iPhone App - I've been a fan of this app developed by the New York Headache Center since I first did a review of useful iPhone apps for migraine and chronic pain patients last fall. The only real drawback in my mind is the lack of an affiliated website for ease of use and retrieval of data.

Tips: Consider relying on an app (like Migraine.com or Ubiqi's) that allows you access to a website where you can print out your data. If you can't get the information off your phone that makes it hard to share it with your doctors. Also, try the free apps before you pay for one. There are some awesome free applications out there, so it doesn't make much sense to me to pay for one.

Other Migraine Journal Options:

Free programs like Google Docs and Evernote are perfect for allowing you develop your own migraine journal or diary format based on your unique needs. This way you're able to customize the fields you include and draw on the good ideas of others who have made diaries that you want to combine into one. The best part about using one of these programs is that you can access the information from any computer or smart phone. You could also add a PDF or Word file of an existing diary format to these programs and maintain them in the program rather than on paper. (For Docs, you would simply need to upload the file. For Evernote you would simply need to open the file with the Evernote program.)

In Part Three of this three-part series I will discuss what to include in your migraine journal and ideas for how to organize your information regardless of the format you choose. So stayed tuned!

Related Posts:
Migraine 101: 5 Good Reasons to Keep a Migraine Journal
Migraines & iPhone Apps: Reviews & Recommendations

Subscribe to the Somebody Heal Me feed: Subscribe in a reader or subscribe by e-mail. Follow me on Twitter @somebodyhealme. 

Content by Diana E. Lee.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site constitutes medical or legal advice. I am a patient who is engaged and educated and enjoys sharing my experiences and news about migraines, pain and depression. Please consult your own health care providers for advice on your unique situation.