From omens to recovery
If you’ve never had a migraine before, you probably can’t imagine the complaints that a patient experiences. If you are regularly plagued by an attack, you will unfortunately know this. Some migraine sufferers even feel an attack coming a few days in advance.
Migraine attacks consist of a number of phases that do not have to be present in everyone to the same extent. A distinction is made between the warning phase, aura phase, headache phase and recovery phase. In addition, there is the period between attacks.
Warning phase
In about one in five migraine patients, the attack announces itself well in advance. The signals can differ greatly per person, but if you suffer from migraine, the signs are almost always the same for you. Sometimes you already suffer from complaints days before the attack, but it is also possible that signals announcing an attack only arise just in advance. If you know which signs indicate a migraine in you and you learn to recognize them, you can take action in time.
Several hours to days in advance, you may experience:
- retaining fluids or urinating less
- runny nose or nose cold
- excessive production of saliva
- mood changes
- vomiting or diarrhea
Signs that occur two to three hours before a seizure include:
- hypersensitivity to stimuli such as light, sound and smell
- being very cold
- feeling of hunger, false hunger or bloated stomach
- need for rest
- feeling overly fit
Shortly before the attack, patients often experience:
- extreme tiredness or yawning
- changes in the eyes such as red eyes or blurred vision
- changes in heart rate
- turn white or look pale
- fluid loss
- sensory hypersensitivity (smell, taste, hearing)
aura phase
About 30 percent of migraine patients suffer from aura symptoms during, or rather just before an attack. The aura concerns short-term neurological symptoms that often develop gradually and last between 10 and 60 minutes. They disappear as soon as the headache sets in.
More than 80 percent of aura phenomena are visual. In a visual aura you see flashes of light, spots or stars. Sometimes part of the image can also be lost. Usually the symptoms start small and get bigger as time goes on.
Characteristics of an aura are:
- seeing flashes of light, spots or stars
- visual field loss
- tingling on one side of the body
- loss of strength in an arm or leg
- speech disorders
- loss of sensation in certain parts of the body
Headache phase
In this phase, the name says it all, the throbbing or throbbing headache so typical of migraine occurs. The pain may gradually get worse, but it can also be very severe right away. Sometimes the headache is accompanied by nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and hypersensitivity to light, noise and smells. The headache phase usually lasts (untreated) 4 to 72 hours.
Recovery phase
When the headache gradually decreases, we speak of the recovery phase. Often you fall asleep and wake up afterwards with a mild headache. Those headaches can last for several days. It also happens that migraine patients are tired or irritable more quickly after an attack. Recovery generally takes 1 to 2 days. However, some patients still need a week to recover.
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