Wow, I think you are amazing if you are able to eat after 3 weeks. It took me two months before I could even drink liquid. A couple of suggestions about the pain. There are many different types of pain. For muscular pain and most surgeries the narcotics you are taking work fairly well. It is a matter of trying to take enough to stay out of pain but not so much that you are out of it all together. One thing I might suggest is that you back off of hard foods and stick to various kinds of soups at first. I found that as long as I could incorporate ground beef or some protein in the soup I healed much faster. Also, you might ask your doc about other types of pain meds. There are many nerves inside your mouth and this radiated area. Some of your pain may be coming from that. My doc recently put me on something called neurotin which is usually used as an anti-convulsant drug but they have found that it is very helpful in chronic pain situations as well. What it does is slow down the speed with which the body processes nerve impulses. It might be worth a try if your doc says its a good idea. Don't get discouraged, the pain will go away but it will take a long time. I was on Tylenol 3 for over a year after my radiation. Good luck. Keep the faith.

In 1994 I found a 3cm tumor on my right tonsil. After 3 rounds of chemo, I underwent a radical neck dissection with a peck flap. I had a reoccurance which required twice a day radiation treatments and then had 19 years cancer free. I then found a very small tumor on my right tonsil. It was removed. Then I found a 1 cm mass near the base of my tongue on the left side. I had two partial glossectomys with bad margins and then then underwent Brachytherapy.