What is Migraine Pain?
When thinking about migraine pain, the first thing that comes to mind is headache. This pain, severe enough to intercept daily life, work, rest and having fun, can sometimes affect the whole head, forehead, nape and the top of the head although it is usually on the temple, the head and around the eye on one-side.
It is really a headache, this much is true but it is also hard to describe. Mostly used expressions are throbbing, stabbing, pressing, drilling etc. It is so severe that patients might even want to take their head off during the attacks.
Migraine headache can last up to 1 or 3 days and usually stops at the end of day 3. Also, it gets severe over time. There are only a few other things that cause this much pain so it is hard to understand for people who have never experienced it.
What to Do to Stop the Pain?
Some pain killers might stop the pain if taken at the beginning of the attacks. Vasoconstrictor drugs specific to migraine may be effective as well. But once the pain reaches its peak, even morphine becomes insufficient. Because at this level veins are dilated, tissues have edema and basically, it is a chaos.
Also applying massage and cold compress, or compressing the head might work. Our mothers were using scarves to compress their heads but now, cold wraps are on the market. There are also people putting potatoes, cloves and pepper on their head but one should be careful for not harming the skin during these processes. Although headache is the most common complaint, there might be migraine attacks without it. Because migraine is not just a headache, it is a disease.