A primary care provider is the first—and often only—doctor a person sees for migraine treatment. While primary care providers can provide excellent treatment, studies show that not all of them have up-to-date migraine knowledge. Here are some ways to maximize your first appointment with your primary care provider:

Answer these questions ahead of time (take notes!) so you can give your doctor a complete history: 

• When did the headaches start? (How old were you?)
• How long have you been experiencing headaches like this?
• How often do you have headaches?
• How severe is the pain on a scale of 0-10?
• What does the pain feel like?
• Where is the pain located?
• Is the pain worse when you move?
• Do you have nausea during a headache? Vomiting?
• Are you sensitive to light, sound, touch, or odors during a headache?
• Do you experience visual changes (either before the headache begins or during it)?
• Do you experience mood changes during the headaches?
• Who else in your family has headaches?
• Do you have symptoms between headaches or only during the headache?
• How has your work/school or personal life been affected by the headaches?
• Do the headaches seem to happen randomly or can you tie them to some sort of event? (Like stress or the release of stress, eating certain foods, drinking alcohol or caffeine, or certain weather conditions, etc.)

Keep a detailed headache diary: The more information you can provide your doctor, the better. Try to make notes about every headache you have for at least two weeks before your initial appointment. Choose a place where you're most likely to take notes (on a calendar, in your notes app on your phone, sending yourself an email, in a notebook...) and record:

• When each headache comes on
• How long it lasts
• The pain level
• Where the pain is located
• What the pain feels like
• What medication you took (if any) and whether or not it helped 
• What other things feel different in your body (this is a wide-ranging category—record anything that feels "off" to you, like nausea, vomiting, irritability, inability to concentrate, sensitivity to sensory input, 
• If you have any visual changes before or during the headache
• If the pain gets worse when you move

Educate yourself about possible treatments before the appointment: These articles will give you a good basic understanding of possible treatments:

• Seeing a Doctor for Migraine: Treatments to Discuss in Your First Appointment
• How do you treat migraine?

Take a list of questions: In the weeks before your appointment, make note of any questions that occur to you. Having them written down makes it far more likely you'll remember to ask them when you're inundated with information at the appointment. 

Take an advocate: You'll be giving the doctor a lot of information and they'll, hopefully, be giving you a lot, too. Take along a sympathetic relative or friend who can help you absorb all the information and can ask questions if you're not up for it.