Migraine Swelling: Precursor Before an Attack and at Onset Determination of Degree and Duration

If you get migraines there may be another precursor to the onset and it could determine, once the pain has begun, the degree and duration before the pain will start to subside. The symptom is swelling.

Make sure your doctor has ruled out tumors, blockages, clots or some other serious ailment that could cause swelling of the head.

Not everyone who has migraines may have swelling. Some might have minor swelling to considerable swelling which is enough to be noticed. Pressure inside the head can be felt days before a migraine. Some may notice it as a feeling of my head doesn't feel right or I feel spaced out. While the overall feeling may be that you don't feel 100 percent at your peak swelling could be occurring.

With the pain of a migraine the pressure of blood pulsing and pumping through arteries & veins of the head can just about be counted but it usually hurts too bad to keep count. This squeeze of pounding pressure is what may cause swelling.

Since migraines typically hurt on one side more than the other to start with or throughout the duration often taking place behind an eye or at the bottom left or right back of the head just above the neck you'll have a starting point in which to check for swelling.

Take a hand and gently touch the back of the head or above the eye on the eyebrow or cusp-cup the hand and place it over the eye so that it will touch around the eye area. You may be able to look at the eye in a mirror and see swelling around it.

Swelling may begin before the pain of migraine hits days before. If there is swelling during a migraine attack feel for how much the swelling has risen; feel for the height of the swelling. The more swelling there is the more intense the pain will be. As the swelling continues to grow the pain will intensify but will lessen and subside as the swelling decreases.

The swelling can be a checkpoint for determining the degree and duration. The rise of the swelling can tell you to what degree of pain you have when the swelling starts to go down its duration.

Swelling can occur only on one side or both sides and it can occur where there is more swelling on one side or on both sides equally.

Swelling may play a factor in why aspirin may not work well on migraines. Although large doses of aspirin might work to kill pain in some people large doses are not recommended and may cause internal bleeding. It is recommended that aspirin be taken according to the directions.

"Ibuprofen" might prove more effective for migraines because it seems to reduce inflammation much better than what aspirin could while "Acetaminophen" may be more effective for pain.