sadly i know the feeling of being misdiagnosed. I was told from november 09 to march of 10 that i didn't have cancer, no way it could be cancer cuz i was too young, and it didn't look a thing like cancer. Sure enough when i put my foot down and made them do the biopsy it came back as stage 3. I am in the process of malpractice suit, which i suggest you look into if you are intersted. 3 years is a lot longer then i had to endure, and my lawyer is almost guaranteeing me things from this suit. i am not sure if I am going to go through with it, but my family wants me to.
it's not fair that doctors do this to people, and we are the ones who suffer in the end. If they would have got mine in november when i found it, i may have not had to go through radiation, and may not have had to have the neck dissection, but who really knows.

As for pain, when I was going through radiation, I was in severe pain, until they put me on a fentanyl patch and oxycodone, so if you are still in some pretty bad pain, tell that to your docs, they are supposed to have your pain under control!! I also had to have a peg tube, because 3rd week in i was no longer able to take anything by mouth because of all of the sores. Magic mouth wash and lidocaine did nothing for me.

One thing that worked nicely, if you are developing sores, redness or peeling on ur neck/face area, try using a warm wet wash cloth on the area for like 30 mins, and then take that off and put on some aquaphore!! That worked wonders for my neck and chin. I tore a normal hand towel in half, and would get it nice, warm and wet, and wrap it around my whole neck. I left mine on for almost an hour cuz it felt good. It would take off dead skin, and any scabbing. And then i would smother my neck in aquaphore. I did this probably 3 times a day, maybe more when it was really bad. So maybe give that a try if your skin starts peeling and developing sores.

Wishing you luck with your treatment, and hoping the rest goes as smoothly as possible!!