Ajovy review: How tracking migraines showed me if it’s working

For three weeks, every time I opened the fridge door, the Ajovy box stared back at me like an unwanted houseguest. I kept cancelling my GP follow-ups, pushing the calendar reminder forward, avoiding the inevitable. Another drug trial. Another “will it work for me?”

My ongoing bumpy road, searching for a solution for far-too-frequent headaches and migraines continues.

Tracking these starts and stops, the good days and the “down and out” ones, has become the only way I can make sense of it all. Without notes to look back on, it just feel like chaos. This first entry in the Headwell Journal is about my first week on Ajovy – and how it’s played out for me.

Day 0 | I’m doing this

In the hope of finding last minute emotional support, I reached out to the Migraine community on Facebook Groups. It comes through like an efficient meetup of my very own guardian angels. The online community for headache and migraine sufferers is super loyal. It can be a little too intense to engage with at times as many are suffering, far more than me. The empathy is real through. Their responses help to get me to the starting blocks.

I grab the Ajovy ‘dessert’ box out of the fridge after dinner. iPhone timer set… I take a deep breath – *stab* – the first EpiPen of migraine medical wizardry rushes into my bloodstream.

Day 1 | Post-injection

Fast forward to 9.30am the next morning. Exactly 12 hours after the self-stabbing incident. I’m feeling a little hungover, without having had an alcoholic beverage for over 5 years. I feel weirdly protected. Like I should be experiencing more groundhog morning headache-y symptoms before I head out for my regular 10am caffeine hit – a legal (sometimes) headache minimiser.

The day continues and I’m not symptom free, but the sensations are more bruise-like, heading too far south and letting me get on with it. Who would have thought being able to make it through a 9-5 without medication could be so satisfying. Worth noting down – if this pattern repeats, that’s a story my Neurologist and GP can actually use.

Day 4 | Saturday wake-up

Usually, this is when my body lets down the guard of having to perform for the client dollar and serves me up a head banger to kick off the weekend celebrations. Today though, there’s a bruised, light pain in my forehead, but I’m able to start the day without reaching for the Triptans. The past 3 days have been a similar – feeling an extra layer of security – my threshold to ‘going down and out’ raised. Tracking is helping and being able to look back gives me more clarity and confidence. Early days I know, but I’m cautiously, quietly allowing a glimmer of hope to enter my headspace.

Day 5 | Busy work day challenge

What is going on. I’ve hung a few paintings in the house, went out for lunch, went clothes shopping, played the piano, spoke to two friends on the phone, and I’ve just cooked dinner which is simmering away whilst I type. That would be my 5th day without medication, besides of course the Ajovy. Another quiet, calm win. Seeing five days lined up in my tracking spreadsheet without extra medication makes it real. I even walked past my local yoga studio and considered returning for a class… something I miss dearly.

Full disclosure, I am also on 20mg/day of Nortriptyline. I’ve been on it now for 5 months now. My Neurologist Dr Catherine Stark, a migraine specialist in Melbourne Australia recommended I stay on it and see how the Ajovy goes. If the waters are smoothish sailing, then she will consider taking me off the Anti-depressant. One step at a time right?

Day 6 | Post-gardening flare-up

It’a 6.00am and there’s pain radiating from my neck up to just behind my left eyeball. Clearly this is a result of digging in the garden the day before! I lay there, contemplating what would normally follow, a feeling of uncertainty, soon followed by having to down either some aspirin or ibuprofen, then a Triptan to minimise the onset of a migraine. This morning was different though. I got up, did my regular yoga and meditation and just sat with it, no medication taken. By 11am it had settled into a dullness that I’m ok to work with. Another quiet win in the bank for week one. Another reminder in the spreadsheet that gives me a clearer picture of my progress.

Day 7 | Clear blue skies

6.30am wake up with a clear head. So that’s 7 days in the bank with zero pain medication. I just scrolled back through my tracking spreadsheet to March of this year – there hasn’t been a free-of-medication week recorded in over 6 months. It’s still too early to jump too high for joy, but I’m most most grateful for this first impression. Ajovy could actually be working for me…

Just a note here on tracking my journey – the inspiration for this blog. I want to share my journey to living my best possible life with a chromic condition with others to connect with my community. I also want to share the story of creating the Headwell App for tracking and supporting our migraines and headaches. I know there are already tools out there, but I find them either way too detailed, or they produce reports that my medical support crew don’t really find useful in the short window of time they have to see me. So, I’m on a mission to make this better for all of us.

My tracking spreadsheet

Below is a screenshot from my headache and migraine tracking spreadsheet showing days before and after starting Ajovy. I track intensity of symptoms three times a day – Morning, Midday and Evening. I also track meds. You can see a clear reduction in the intensity of my headaches and migraine frequency, and medication use, post my first injection on 12th August. It is still early days, but feeling quietly positive for what lies ahead.

Looking back on this first week, the story isn’t just that Ajovy might finally be helping. It’s that I can see it happening. By tracking the bruised mornings, the clear-headed times, the moments where I didn’t reach for extra medication – I can step back and actually see a pattern forming.

So here it is: my first logged week. Not perfect, not pain-free — but for the first time in months, there’s hope, and it’s documented.

It’s now day 11 as I push this live and I wanted to add that I went out for dinner last night and had my first accompanying glass of wine in I’d say 5 years. I didn’t over think it. It just felt natural. And yes, it was the perfect match to the meal, the fine company and the 3 hours of chat that went with it.

Thank you for reading. I’d love to hear from you so feel free to email me directly. Please share any comments about this or your own Ajovy journey below.