Misery may love company, but there is indeed nothing to love about having a migraine. What may make you feel slightly better when you feel that migraine coming on, however, is having the knowledge to properly use your local Emergency Room to your advantage. There are many kinds of headaches to look out for that don't result from other diseases. The tension-type begins with a dull, squeezing pain in the forehead, back of the neck or on either side of the head that can be mild to moderate and last at least 30 minutes. The migraine without an aura usually starts with a throbbing, pulsating pain on one side of the head, forehead or temples and can be occasional or chronic lasting several hours to several days.
Most victims are sensitive to lights and sounds and experience nausea.
A migraine with an aura is characterized with the same pain and sensitivity to light and sound, but is usually preceded by a visual distortion such as blurred vision or zig-zag lights. Then, there's the dreaded cluster headache which makes itself known with a searing pain usually near the eyes or mid-face and which is often much more painful than a migraine. Most people who have experienced one of the migraine or cluster variety headaches know that there are triggers and warning signs before Dr. Michael Maxwell examines a patient in the Emergency Department. Maxwell says that knowing triggers and warning signs is the first line of defense against a migraine headache. Knowing your triggers and avoiding them is, of course, common sense.