Diane,

I completely understand how you feel. My husband recovered from surgery without hardly any need for pain meds. Only two weeks after surgery (lt modified radical neck dissection) he drove us all the way from Alabama to Colorado to visit with family.
Well that was certainly only a honeymoon. Almost exactly 5 weeks after surgery he was in excruciating pain. Shooting pains running along his jaw and up his temple. It was so bad it put his BP thru the roof and he was admitted in the hospital so they could try to manage his BP. After 3 days in the hospital with no relief of his pain. (they were only giving him high doses of hydrocodone) I demanded something else. I suspected this was nerve related and hydrocodone does nothing for that! I asked for neurontin. Luckily our Dr. is the sort that actually listens and agreed and put him on Lyrica. Pretty similar to neurontin but newer. within 36 hours he was feeling so much better and his BP went down to almost normal (go figure!)
He thought he was gonna go crazy too and was so worried. He couldn't understand why he was in so much pain and was worried as heck that the cancer was coming back with a vengeance. Thankfully it was only the nerves waking up. thankfully? well not that he was having such serious pain but that it wasn't the cancer returning. He still has pain and twinges and headaches from it. But the Lyrica really helps control it now. And as a consequence he has been taken off all the BP meds he was on. He didn't need them after all. His high BP was all due to the pain.
His Dr. explained he could have nerve pain for yrs. that as time passed it would come and go and eventually (not always tho) it should go away for good.
If they have mentioned that it is probably the nerves waking up you may want to ask for something that will directly treat the nerve pain. Most importantly don't wait till the pain is sooo bad that you finally take something. Start with the minimum frequency and dosage ordered by the dr. Stick to it! and increase it if needed up to but not over the maximum frequency and dosage ordered by the dr.
For example: if he ordered 5-10ml every 4-6 hrs. then start taking the pain meds 5ml every 6 hrs. If that is not managing the pain then take 10ml every 6 hrs. If your still not finding relief then take 10mls every 4 hrs. It is very important to manage the pain so you can heal. Plus only taking pain meds here and there really just makes the pain more intense each time you go too long before taking another dose.
I hope I made sense. and don't be hesitant to ask for something else or something stronger if yur still not managing the pain. Different meds work better for different people and you need to let them know if your one of those your current meds are not working for.
All my best, ~Ija~