办公室访问：让我们谈谈偏头痛
For the best care, be prepared to tell your doctor all about your migraines.
If you have频繁的头痛和您或您的初级保健医生怀疑您患有慢性偏头痛，您可能会被引用至神经科医生 - 一名专门从事大脑和神经系统疾病的医生。由于医生将根据您的症状和头痛的模式诊断慢性偏头痛，因此您的大部分初始预约将包括谈话，而不是进行详细的体检。
Of course, as in almost all office visits, someone will record your blood pressure and weight, and ask about any pain or discomfort you have. Following are a few other things you can expect when you go to the doctor, as well as some steps you can take to make the most of your appointment.
如何准备访问
You’ll be better able to help your doctor help you if you thoroughly plan for your visit. Juliette Preston, M.D., director of the headache center at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, suggests that you make the following lists and bring them to your appointment:
All the medications you are currently taking
有助于缓解头痛的药物
你试过的药物没有帮助你的头痛
All of the people in your family who you know have or had migraine; be sure to include the relationship of each to you.
Things you want to know
Dr. Preston also suggests keeping a headache diary and bringing it to your appointment. It is very helpful for your doctor to know as much as possible about your symptoms—details such as when each episode started, how long it lasted, what you were doing just before it began, and what helped it, as well as what made it worse. Here are a few questions to consider:
每一集开始前几个小时和时间在做什么？记下你吃的任何食物或你所做的活动。
在每次攻击前的日子里，是否有任何生命压力会增加？
在疼痛开始之前有没有症状？
If so, be as specific as you can in describing them.
房间里考试
“At first, we just chat a little, get to know each other,” Dr. Preston says of a typical visit with her. “I’ll want to know what brought you in, about the stresses in your life, what you eat, how well you sleep, how much exercise you get, and what your lifestyle is like.”
Before the visit, Dr. Preston—like many doctors—provides her patients with a questionnaire. If your doctor gives you something similar, fill it in as accurately and with as much detail as possible. This will save time at your appointment, allowing you and your doctor to discuss your information in greater depth and giving you both more time for follow-up questions.
测试期待
您的医生不太可能订购许多实验室测试。“我所做的任何测试都是排除其他事情，”伯明翰医院阿拉巴马大学神经科神经科副教授的罗伯特·珍珠议员说。“不经常，但在某些情况下，我可能会订购大脑扫描 - 例如，如果患者以前从未头疼，并且头痛突然开始，或者如果头痛伴随着弱点。将进行这些测试以排除可能导致头痛，如肿瘤或鼻窦问题的各种东西。“
Scans your doctor might order would likely be CT (computed tomography) or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). But don’t be concerned if your doctor sees no need for brain scans. The likelihood that your headaches are caused by a tumor is slim, and your doctor will know which symptoms indicate that a brain scan is necessary. “Most people who have brain tumors have headaches, but most people with headaches do not have brain tumors,” Dr. Preston explains. So try not to let yourself jump to thoughts of cancer.
Your doctor may order some blood tests to check for infection, and in rare cases, may want to examine some spinal fluid, which is taken by inserting a thin needle between two of the vertebrae in your lower back. This can be done as an outpatient. Like the brain scans, these tests are performed in order to rule out other possible but unlikely conditions that might be causing your symptoms.
Ask Your Doctor…
What exactly do I have?确保您了解您的诊断是什么以及它的意思。“有200多个头痛，”普雷斯顿博士解释说，“有时候人们在不知道他们的诊断或理解诊断手段的情况下离开他们的医生办公室。”
What can I do to reduce the frequency of my headaches?预防性药物旨在降低您拥有的攻击次数，所以如果有任何可能是您的选择，请询问您的医生。另外，询问是否有任何有效的改变可以有所帮助。普雷斯顿博士建议避免偏头痛触发器（酒精和发酵食品是一些常见的食物）和练习压力减少技术，如正念冥想。
How often will I need to see you?由于e migraine is an ongoing illness, you will probably need to see your doctor regularly, so ask how often you should expect to have appointments. Dr. Preston sees her patients every two months until they are stable; after that, they check in once a year to make sure things are still going well and to address any new issues that may have arisen.
How do I explain migraine to my family and boss?Managing family life and a job is hard enough without needing to manage migraine as well. But it will be much easier if the people in your life understand your illness and what you are going through. Your doctor may be able to give you some tips on how best to explain to others what migraine is and how it affects you.
