so long, ECRL

I was discharged from the hospital today, after demonstrating that I could keep food down by eating breakfast.  (Yesterday, I couldn't even keep water down!) Bill transferred me back to Rotary House, the hotel that's attached to the hospital by skybridge, and then left to fly home.  I'm here tonight and then when Shelly gets here tomorrow, we'll go together to the Modern B&B for the rest of our stay here in Houston.  I had a room service dinner and will probably retire after I'm done with this post.  Thanks to all of you who are emailing, FBing, and texting your support.  It's nice to be surrounded by the circle of life.

I saw Dr. Oates this a.m., the plastic surgeon.  He explained a little more about what happened yesterday and the game plan going forward. All of the diseased cells they found yesterday were in my extensor carpi radialis longus muscle, the ECRL.  This muscle allows me to raise my wrist, but there's another muscle that also does that job.  In fact sometimes he has taken this (or that other)muscle out to use elsewhere for a repair.  So, it seems like one that is relatively easy to sacrifice. Especially since I don't play racquet sports.

There are two reasons they didn't do the graft yesterday.  First, they wanted to wait for the final pathology report (10 days to two weeks) to make sure that, by taking the whole ECRL, they did in fact get a safe margin. They didn't want to do a graft, and then discover they had to go back, again.  Second, the tissue that's there still isn't completely healed from the radiation.  By using the synthetic material first, they will allow the site to heal so that a new graft is more likely to take. The synthetic, even left alone, would eventually provide the scaffolding for new skin to grow, even without a graft, but getting a graft will speed the process substantially.  However, it's still going to be at least six weeks in a cast (as he said, the same as a break would have been).  And there's some other near term fun, like the VAC machine that I'll have to wear when I get home 24/7 until the next surgery (apparently the size of a small purse).  I'll learn more about that and what the next several weeks entail when I see him Monday.