Gary, also I can't tell for sure what the inflammation is caused by, but can offer my experience also.

First surgry on left side, I was just numb from the ear down to the collar bone. That was in late last August, and I"m still numb. To make matters more interesting, PET scan showed infammation on the whole muscle on that side, leading one to think, at first look, that the cancer had spread to the whole muscle, even though there were no lymph nodes present. ON follow up PET a month later, it didn't show up as bad, now leading the docs to think it's more due to irritation from the radiation.

However, second time around, on the right side, sometimes my ear and head in that are feel like they dropped my off the operating table and I landed on my head and ear! Sometimes popping noises, sometimes earache, tender to the touch, you name it. Complained to the ENT surgeon, his reply was, "You ever see the movie "Face Off?"--enough said.

Remember, we might just have the one scar, but the docs are removing tissue several inches above and below that scar, so we do get "skinned" so to speak. A lot of stuff gets displaced and moved around during surgery, it all heals back together, but not all that quickly apparently.
Bob