Headache and Migraine: Too many not seeing a doctor
… at least that’s the impression I get from our latest poll. I shouldn’t be surprised – but I was.
Let’s look at the results from the recent poll we ran here at Headache and Migraine News. An incredible 67% of visitors confessed that it was several years after their first attack before they saw a doctor! Now, perhaps some of those people had very few attacks, but still, that is incredible.
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13% said it was several months, and 10% said it was several weeks. 10% said they had had 5 or fewer attacks before seeing a doctor.
Why do we wait so long? This isn’t a matter of waiting before trying a new treatment (that’s another story), this is a matter of not even seeing a doctor or specialist once.
In my case, one reason I waited so long was because I didn’t realize what was going on. I was young and thought the symptoms I was experiencing were a normal part of life.
I would like to suggest that one of the biggest reasons people aren’t getting to a doctor or specialist is because our society tells us that headaches are normal. Everyone gets them, and so we should just deal with them.
There is one type of headache that is very common – tension type headache. TTH feels like a band of pressure around the head. It is a steady pain, rarely throbbing.
However, a headache can be a sign of something very serious. And if you’ve never seen a doctor qualified in headache treatment, how can you be sure what kind of headache you have?
Headaches are not normal, in the sense that you should just ignore them. Ignoring a headache could mean permanent damage. Ignoring a headache could mean it will be harder to treat down the road.
And remember – often, very often, those over-the-counter painkillers are not the best way to go.
So if you have any kind of head pain, let’s get it out of our heads that it’s just "normal" and you should just "put up with it". Don’t let your friends get away with saying "oh, don’t worry about me – it’s just a headache".
Go see a doctor – at least once – if you have a headache for the first time, or have new symptoms, or a worst-ever headache. You could be saving yourself a lot of pain in the future by acting now!
18 November 2008 @ 4:27 pm
I think society does feel that migraines and headaches are normal, so the lack of doctor visits doesn’t surprise me either. I get Migraines, but more often– chronic headaches and the triggers are so random. I’ve been to too many docs, but I probably didn’t start going until I noticed it being chronic after 1-2months. I read a study/theory that shows onset is usually not triggered by just one thing, but several building up. This makes it even harder to pinpoint direct causes. I just started working for a new research company and it provides a platform for migraine sufferers to share what causes/triggers the pain (you can openly see which causes are most common and new triggers you may not have realized). It also allows anyone to anonymously share variant symptoms and evaluate treatments: http://curetogether.com/Migraine/
We can all help each other,
From one migraineur to another,
Faren
18 November 2008 @ 8:19 pm
I know for me I saw my PCP for about 4 months… going in every 3 weeks complaining about my headaches. She just kept telling me it was stress. Finally she prescribed amitriptyline… which when my mom filled the script it freaked her out so she called my doctor to complain and it was then this i finally got the referral to see a neurologist. Unofrtuneatly the neurologist couldn’t find anything to help my headaches. However about 6 months later I left for school in a larger city with a teaching hospital. After getting a referral to the headache clinic there and a 3 month wait for an appt. I was diagnosed and my headaches were under control. Now I’m waiting to see a different dr for an occipital nerve stimulator and it’s a 4-5 months wait for an appt. with her.
For me at least it’s always just been an up hill battle w/ my PCP not taking my headaches sersiously and then having to wait to see the apporiate specialists.
19 November 2008 @ 8:58 am
There is no doubt it’s a HUGE problem finding a qualified specialist in the first place. Is that why people don’t see a doctor to being with though? Because they think the doctor won’t understand? That may be the case.
But at least when you see a doctor at the very beginning, you’ve given it a try, and you’re hopefully at the very least a little wiser. You’ve given a doctor a chance to at least rule out some serious causes for your pain. And hopefully you have a better idea what to do the next time you see a doctor.
The whole issue of trying to find someone who can really help is the topic for another post! But it can be very frustrating!
19 November 2008 @ 10:28 am
James- I think you hit the nail on the head. I was focusing on the fact that society felt it was normal.. but it also really does have to do with being taken seriously. I have considered going back to medical school so many times as I’ve just really lost faith in the medical community. It’s bleak, and I tend to be an optimist, but I’ve been to countless doctors and alternative therapists and was given nothing more than painkillers. So one does start to give up.
Faren
http://curetogether.com/Migraine/
24 November 2008 @ 6:35 am
Faren, I think patients can really change things by being knowledgeable about their own treatment, and also by not “putting up” with doctors who are not giving them proper treatment.
No, it’s not always the doctor’s fault… they’re often (I would like to say usually!) doing the best they can with the resources they have. But as patients we need to realize that we can make a big difference.
1 January 2013 @ 1:53 pm
Some of us have been to the doctor so many times with no relief (like me) we don’t feel the need to go any longer. I have also decided I will never go to the ER again. The result is the same. No relief and have to go to bed and sleep it off.
I have been to Neurologist, Ophthalmologist, Sleep Disorder Clinics, Family doctor,and the list goes on and on. I have been on every migraine med known to man, stopped eating all the foods listed as triggers, read every article on migraines and tried every post idea with no relief. Guess I will live with it as I already have.