How to track migraines for your neurologist

What neurologists may ask you to track

The details your clinician needs depend on your symptoms and treatment. These categories make it easier to describe what has changed since your last visit:

• Headache frequency: Mark each calendar day with any headache, not only the most severe attacks. If a headache crosses midnight, count each day affected. ICHD-3 describes chronic migraine using headache on 15 or more days per month for over three months, including migraine-feature headache on at least eight days; that is a diagnostic criterion for clinicians, not a self-diagnosis rule. ICHD-3 chronic migraine criteria.
• Attack details: Note start and end time, severity, pain location, aura or other symptoms, and whether symptoms changed during the episode.
• Acute medication days: Record each date you used a rescue/acute medicine, the medicine name, dose, time, any repeat dose, and whether it helped or caused side effects. Count the calendar days of use as well as individual doses; they are not the same measure. The American Migraine Foundation recommends tracking headache days, severity, medicine, dose/time, and effect when discussing medication use.
• Possible triggers and context: Record factors you suspect, such as sleep changes, meals, stress, weather, cycle timing, or sensory exposures. A factor appearing near an attack is a clue to discuss, not proof that it caused the attack.
• Disability and impact: Note missed or reduced work/school, household tasks, and social or family activities. Your clinician may ask you to complete a validated measure such as MIDAS or HIT-6; a diary entry is not a substitute for those questionnaires.

Sources: American Migraine Foundation headache journal guide · NHS headache guidance · ICHD-3.

How to bring a report to your visit

1. Choose a date range that covers the period you and your clinician want to review.
2. Bring a concise summary plus your medication list and any separate headache-day or acute-medication-day tally your clinician requested.
3. Point out what is missing or uncertain rather than filling gaps from memory as if they were exact.
4. Ask the clinic whether it prefers a printed copy, a secure patient portal, or another format. Avoid sending sensitive health information through an unapproved channel.

What CalmGrid's export includes—and what it does not

CalmGrid can create a shareable PDF for a selected 30-day, 90-day, or custom date range. The report includes total logged attacks, average severity and duration, a peak time summary, ranked triggers and symptoms, medication effectiveness summaries, and detailed attack entries with timing, severity, triggers, symptoms, medication dose/time/effectiveness, and relief methods. A separate JSON export contains the underlying attack records and lists.

Important limitation: this report summarizes logged attacks. It does not calculate monthly headache days (MHD), count acute-medication-use days, or calculate MIDAS/HIT-6. If your clinician needs those measures, add a separate calendar tally or use the questionnaire provided by the clinic. CalmGrid's PDF export is a record to support a conversation, not a diagnosis or medical recommendation.

The PDF export is behind the app's Pro access gate. After exporting, the file is shared through your device's sharing options; you control where you send or store it.