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Hi Greeneyes, Headaches, in general, can be difficult to diagnose at times. I'll explain about my headaches, and see if my descriptions help you at all. First off, migraines run in my family, and I've had them off and on all my life. I typically would get hammered by them during times of stress (marital breakup, etc.) but then go into remission for years. Until 2007. Dec 31, 2006, 10:00 pm I get a headache. Don't think a lot of it, but it is still around the next day (had a quiet New Year's at home that year, didn't drink). A few days later, still have the headache. I get a migraine within a few days. Migraine lasting 3-7 days was not unusual for me, but this one lasted only a couple. Then I get this horrific headache beyond description that lasted an hour or so, then was gone. All the while, I still have the background headache that started on Dec 31st. Eventually I haul myself in to see my GP and am diagnosed with Chronic Daily Headaches and Cluster Headaches (plus the already documented migraines). That one, single headache lasted 7 months! It finally started to break up a bit in July, and more in Aug and September. This whole period was punctuated with nearly weekly migraines, and one or two cluster headaches a week. During this first year, my clusters were like clock work. Every Tuesday at 7:20 pm, and they'd last 1-2 hours of extreme pain. One particular attack felt like someone had hit me, hard, in the forehead with a baseball bat. Then, slammed a heavy crowbar into the crack in my skull and began splitting my skull open. I could feel the crowbar work back and forth, prying the bones apart. All the time, my eye was a ball of fire. Then, after a few minutes, the crowbar would be removed and the crack would begin to painfully heal itself. Then the crowbar would return. This lasted at least 30 minutes, and the pain was off my shockingly high pain threshold. Sometimes my clusters would come on gradually, with a 1-2 hour headache preceding them. But normally, it is like being hit in the face with a baseball bat. The pain is usually a blinding, cold, white light. Sometimes burning hot, sometimes bitter cold. Always in one eye and on one side of the forehead. Although, that said, I have had 2 cluster attacks over the years that were bi-lateral. So either they were odd balls, or I had 2 attacks at the same time. Either way, I don't recommend it. After the attack, I would always have a 20-30 minute post traumatic attack which involved intense crying and rocking back and forth. It is believed the hypothalamus triggers cluster headaches because it controls the body's clock, and is why you can almost set your watch by cluster attacks. They hypothalamus also controls our body temperature, and during these post attacks, my body temp would swing from hot to cold, and back again. A lot of attacks feel like a red hot poker, or spike is being driven into your eye. If you've ever had brain freeze, cluster attacks tend to be in the exact same spot, in that inner part of the eye just at the base of the nose. This is because when you eat something cold, the pain refers up the Trigeminal nerve to this point, and this is where clusters often attack. But a cluster is like brain freeze times 1000 and lasts 1-3 hours. Another way I think of them is like a muscle cramp. Have you ever had your calf muscle sudden cramp up? You're in absolute agony for 1-3 minutes, and the pain consumes your every thought, your every action. That is a cluster headache, just increase that pain 10 fold and put it in your eyeball for 1-3 hours. Another thing a lot of CHers report are Shadows. Some find shadows actually painful, like a normal headache the precedes an attack. They can come before, or after an attack, and hang around for days or weeks. To me, shadows are sense of foreboding, a heaviness in my mind and can actually take the image of a shadow in my thoughts. It's a demon just waiting for you to walk around the corner of the house and then pounce! When a cluster is gone, it's gone. No pain. there might be a lingering headache, but the cluster itself only lasts a few hours. Keeping a diary isn't important. It's vital. It is the most vital thing you can do (in my humble opinion). I've kept one of every headache I've had and every pain killer I've taken since 2010. This diary has helped me identify my triggers (lack of sleep, stress (to much and I get a migraine, to little and I get a cluster), getting to hungry, cold, etc.). The diary shows me that in 2010 I had 63 migraines and 42 in 2011. But after starting on the remedies you'll learn about on this site, in 2012 I had 3. In 2011 I had 257 cluster attacks, and that dropped to 169 in 2012. I can even project things forward, and predict that I'll have 51 cluster attacks this year. Ideas of things to track in your diary: Date/Time of the following events When you have a headache, and the pain level on a scale of 1-10 What you eat and drink What pain killers or other remedies you take for the headaches What preventatives you take Your stress level on a scale of 1-10 Your sleep (hours slept and how well you slept) Hope that helps. MG