^sounds like you had/have the dreaded "sinusitis" - an option definitely manageble in the short term w/MDMA as it is also a vasodilator.
clusters are a diff. bag altogether. fizzacyst, i can relate well.
what happens, to the best of current functional MR imaging ability (real time MRI) is severe vasodilation and actual physical changes in the hypothalamus causing trigeminal bundle compression, w/accompanying serotonin, histamine and, of course, substance P dump. thus MDMA is totally counterindicated w/clusters.
here, in my case anyway, i go from pain level zero, to what feels like a spiked, heated metal bone composed of raw nerve tissue being driven through the left eye socket to the back of the skull and back again while being repeatedly broken in the process (ie to way off the chartable scale) - within roughly 2 minutes.
there is no auras, nausea or warning symptoms, same time, same place, 8:30 P.M. on the dot, adjusted for daylight savings.
you cannot breathe, the eye shuts swelling closed in 10 minutes while there is massive lacrimonious and nasal discharge (Horners), lying down is impossible as you have to keep changing position, darkness does not help, speech is impossible, you break several sweats, the muscles go into spasms and only conscious effort, hard at this point makes you inhale.
this lasts getting progressively worse until the oncoming waves of pain and madness cease as abruptly as they came (45 minutes to 2 hours without O2), perhaps only to be repeated hours later.
this can go on for many months daily, putting a rather blunt dent in one's social calendar among many other side effects. the worse thing is the psycholgical dread of the next attack, making you wonder if you will make it. sucks if it hits while i am driving.
obviously, pain meds are of no use, since when most kick in, its waaay too late. melatonin did nothing for me, btw. and the methysergide type antiserotonergic vasoconstrictors, which act alot faster also did nothing beside depleting my wallet. will not venture into progesterone land.
I WILL REPEAT, OXYGEN WORKS EVERY TIME WITH NO SIDE EFFECTS WITHIN MINUTES. you might want to give it a go if nothing else helps.
an acute dose of psylocybin or LSD just might do the trick, but why was, in this case, was DMT not effective as it is also a 5HT2a ligand?