Day 24 Migraine Awareness Month Blog Challenge #MHAMBC

I've unfortunately had to miss the last several days of this blog challenge. My husband and I are house hunting so I've been wrapped up in the tasks, exhaustion and resulting pain. Today I'm back on track and addressing the prompt: Each time you try a new treatment you take a risk. How do you initiate a discussion with your doctor so you can make an educated decision about trying it as a team?

I wish it felt like a team. My doctor is very methodical and whenever one preventative drug fails (as they all have) he is ready with the name of another one. In the same breath he will tell me what kind of a drug it is and what the usual side effects are. By the time he's finished the only questions I usually have are questions he can't answer: will it work for me, will those scary side effects happen to me.

Under the strong influence of both desperation for relief and desire to be a "good" patient I've taken everything he suggested until this last time. It didn't feel like I was deciding, or even part of the decision making process. It was like each suggestion was wrapped in hope. Any one of them could have helped me. So I took them. They just didn't end up delivering on their potential.

Here I am, 7 years later, wanting to partner with a doctor to find good practitioners of alternative medicine and nutrition. Knowing full well that my super conservative, Mayo migraine specialist will know nothing about it and won't be willing to step outside his wheelhouse to partner with me.

I'm asking myself now if there was something more I could have done to at least feel like I was part of the decision making. There probably was, but the ultimate conclusion I've come to is that I'm glad I did it the way I did for one simple reason. I would have always wondered if one of those medications would have worked - that's just the way I am. With my curiosity satisfied, I'm ready to move forward and explore the alternative approaches to symptom management. My fingers will remain crossed that someday a good preventative medication will be developed specifically for chronic migraines.

June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project ofFightingHeadacheDisorders.com.