Hello, I'm fairly new to this message board as well but found it very helpful when I did post a message. I'm sorry to hear about your mum's death.
I suffer from daily chronic migraines and depression. It's difficult to identify the cause and effect relationship, though I was diagnosed with migraines long before depression. Both run in my family.
Your symptoms are very similar to my migraines, pain on one side, throbbing pain, located in my temple, down my neck and behind my ear. I also suffer from tension headaches. I'm a worrier and I have taken all sorts of pain killers with little or no relief. I have no medical training so just because my symptoms are similar doesn't mean they are the same.
A neurologist, psychologist in partnership with my family doctor have been my path to relief though not quite the solution yet. I take a few medications to prevent the migraines, nadolol (a beta blocker) reduces the throbbing, an anti-depressent reduces the depression and the underlying daily headache I suffer from and we're working on finding an anti-epileptic that will increase the threshold at which my migraines are triggered. I was on neurontin (anti-epileptic) and now I'm on topamax (another anti-epileptic) and I'm having some nasty side effects. I also get botox injections every three months to numb the muscles in my forehead which reduce the tension triggered migraines. For those really bad migraines there are triptan medications (Zomig, Imitrex, Amerge) that are more effective than pain killers.
I have learned that pain killers can be the worst (i.e. Tylenol, Paracetamol, Codeine, Aspirin), they can cause rebound headaches, liver damage and stomach problems. I spend a lot of time weening off pain killers which is very painful. My advice if you are diagnosed with chronic migraines is to use things like relaxation exercises to overcome worrying, exercise (even if it causes headaches they'll eventually get better), avoiding food triggers, lifestyle changes and preventative medications. It will save a lot of pain in the long run.
Good luck with the neurologist.