Migraine JournalCaregiving
Supporting someone with migraines
Almost everything written about migraine is written for the person having one. These are for the partner, parent, adult child, friend, or manager — the person standing outside the bedroom door with a glass of water, not sure whether going in helps.
All caregiving guides
Migraine Aura or Stroke? A Timing Test for the Person Watching
Migraine aura or stroke? You usually can't tell by looking. The tie-breaker is timing: aura spreads over minutes, stroke lands at once. Unsure means call.
What to Text Someone With a Migraine (Copy-Paste Ready)
What to text someone with a migraine, phase by phase: copy-paste messages for mid-attack and the day after, and why a text that needs no reply helps most.
Helping an Elderly Parent With Migraines, From a Distance
She says it's nothing, again. Helping an elderly parent with migraines without taking over: the one red flag that needs a doctor, and what helps from afar.
Migraine Caregiver Burnout: The Job Nobody Names
Migraine caregiver burnout doesn't look like collapse. It looks like forecast-watching, quiet cancellations, and a resentment you're ashamed of. What helps.
School Migraine Plan Template (Free Letter + Plan)
Two pages: a letter to send three days before the meeting, and a one-page plan the adult on duty in November can read in fifteen seconds.
Signs of Migraine in a Young Child, Including No Headache
In young children attacks are shorter, often on both sides, and sometimes have no head pain at all — recurrent tummy ache instead. What to notice and record.
When to Go to the ER for a Migraine: Red Flags to Act On
Go to the ER for a migraine when it hits full force in under a minute, arrives with fever and a stiff neck, or brings any new stroke-like sign.
How to Talk to Your Child's School About Migraines
The nurse's office is not a plan. How to talk to your child's school about migraines, what to ask for in writing, and a letter to send before the meeting.
How to Explain Migraines to Someone Who Doesn't Get It
Why the usual analogies fail, and what to say instead. Scripts for explaining migraines to family, a boss, or a friend who thinks it's just a bad headache.
How to Help a Teenager With Migraines Without Hovering
Your teenager gets migraines and you can't always tell how bad it is. What helps at home, what to fix at school, and what to hand over to them.
How to Support a Partner With Chronic Migraines
The attack is the easy part. Supporting a partner with chronic migraines is about cancelled plans, invisible admin, and resentment nobody admits to.
Living With Someone Who Has Migraines: What to Change
Room-by-room changes that make a home easier to have migraines in — lighting, noise, cooking smells, and the shared routines that cause avoidable attacks.
What Not to Say to Someone With Chronic Migraines
The worst things to say to someone with chronic migraines are usually the kindest-sounding. Why nine common phrases land badly, and what to say instead.
What to Put in a Migraine Kit (and Where to Keep It)
A migraine kit only works if it's within reach when the attack starts. What to put in one for someone else, where to keep it, and what never gets used.
Settle it on a good day
The single most useful thing a household can do is write down, in advance, what's wanted during an attack — so nobody has to ask, and nobody has to answer. The action plan card takes ten minutes to fill in and removes the whole negotiation.
Download the action plan (PDF)If you're the one who notices
Over months, the person having the attacks is often the worst-placed person to see the shape of them, because their memory of each one is compressed by pain. You're the one who might notice the bad ones cluster after short nights, or before a deadline, or when the weather turns.
That observation is worth writing down rather than remembering. How to track migraine triggers covers what's worth recording and what to ignore, and the free printables are there if you'd rather start on paper.
Everything about building that record properly is in tracking migraines — written for whoever ends up holding the diary, which is often not the person having the attacks.
Nothing here is medical advice. If attacks are becoming more frequent or the pattern changes, that's a conversation with their GP or neurologist.
The person who notices is often the one who installs it
Migraine Journal logs an attack in under a minute, records the pressure change automatically, and prints a summary they can hand to their neurologist.