The right thing to do.

Bottom line: Surgery went fine. They did find more cancer so I lost one little muscle (Not sure of its name) so it was the right thing to do. Because of that, however, I did not get the new graft of my own skin and will have to have another operation after the first of the year. Instead, I have a synthetic graft. Meanwhile, I will probably get to go back to Colorado on Tuesday!

It was a short night with very little sleep for either me or Bill. It was nice to be in the hotel attached to the hospital though because we got up at 4:55 AM and were there for my 5:15 check in. It\'s quite a large place. I was in operating room 15 of 30.

According to Bill, they found several small "infiltrations" of cancer cells in the adjacent muscle tissue. The procedure in the O.R. is to send "frozen samples" to pathology for a quick assessment. They continue to cut until there is no evidence of remaining cancer cells, "A safe margin."  However, a full pathology report takes up to two weeks to be (more) certain that they got it all. This is why they did not complete the full graft today. Instead, a PriMatrix synthetic material is used as a scaffold to improve re-vascularization of the damaged tissue. After the pathology comes back, assuming that it's clear, I can get the same kind of graft I had last time. That's a partial skin graft taken from my upper thigh. That would happen after the first of the year. Or, if the pathology shows that there are more bad cells, they would remove more tissue at that time.

There  are two muscles on the top of my forearm. Both can be recruited for the same motion. He took out the smaller of the two. I'll have some PT/OT work to do but right now I'm in a cast.

Logistically, I may be released as soon as tomorrow but I'll have to stay in Houston until at least Monday. I'll see the plastic  surgeon who will change the dressing, and give me a splint and sling. We think, then, I'll be free to return to Colorado. But, the one thing that is evident from the last several months, is that this too is likely to change.