I have had this pain on the right side of my neck and face it is cyclic and flares vary in intensity. Fairs are very classic they usually begin with sore thorat cancer sores on the affected side neck, ear, jaw, temporal artery pain that extends from the front tempal across the side of the head over the ear and down the back of the head and neck on that side. I also get ear pain like a very bad earache. My doctor put me on prednisone. It worked wonderfully at doses of 40-60mg but when he tried to lower the dose (during a flare period) the symptoms would return. I did try NSAIDS but got no relief at all. I've heard Methyltrexate can be helpful. I am currently having a flare up of symptoms, if my symptoms recur during the steriod taper I am going to insist on trying the Methyltrexate. Between flares I do have periods that I forget that I have this "pain in my neck" and boy is it ever. I'm not sure if it will ever go away but I will say that when I get the flare under control the symptoms do seem to resolve to a faint funny feeling on that side of my head. Kind of like you know something is not right but it really doesn't hurt at that moment. My first bout with the symptoms was the longest I think it lasted several months. Flare ups seem to have a predromal syndrome of about a weeks worth of symptoms and then the head/neck/ear pain begins. I have tried Migraine medicine for the pain ( I have a history of severe migraines) because the symptoms are similar (unilateral head pain, light&noise sensitivity)but I find that it dulls the pain doesn't help resolve it. I have tried muscle rubs (tiger balm) again, some temporary symptomatic relief. I wish I had more information for you. My doctor doesn't believe in the diagnosis he refers to carotidynia as a "symptom" but he really hasn't done any testing aside from SED rate to see what else it could be. Other symptoms during really bad flares are: puffiness/swelling on the affected side of my face, runny nose on that side, I have short term memory problems when the flares occur, and sometimes dyslexia (or it seems like dyslexia I have a hard time writing words correctly and dialing the telephone numbers in correct sequence. Sometimes I've had to try and dial a phone number as many as 7 or 8 times. I can be very frustrating. You tell your brain what you want your body to do but it just seems to do it's own thing. I hope this is helpful.