Thank you all for the information and good wishes. You are helping me to feel more confident about this. There is much technical information available from the simplest to the most medicaly descriptive but these forums are wonderful for the practical advice from soldiers who have been in the trenches.

This is another "missing Minnie" moment. She was so positive and funny in her posts about the after effects. This reply from her on another thread is one of the factors which helped me decide to go ahead with the free flap reconstruction:
My leg issues come from the donor leg being slightly weaker than my other leg. Make sense since they have taken some of it's support bone away. I CAN run if I want to, but would rather not as it puts alot of pressure on that leg. I also find that I can't raise it up as high as the "good" leg if I don't concentrate. I have a new dog and put up some gates to keep her confined to the family room until I have her housebroken. The first time I stepped over the gate I took quite a tumble. I led with my good leg and my donor leg didn't raise up high enough to clear the gate........and over I went. Now I lead with my donor leg and dont have any issues.

Pete - I realized that I will have a cast on my leg for a while and I will not be able to put weight on the leg right away so I won't be able to get in a tub for a bath or shower for a while so it will have to be those awful sponge baths or stink. I an abide those better than I can the waterless shampoo.

Debbie - Thanks for the good idea. You forgot OUCH!! I bougth an erasable board to attach to my clipboard but don't think I will need it if I do as you suggest. Last time I just wrote on index cards and a tablet but I like your idea of having ready mades and then I could use the index cards or note paper if needed for other communication. (My clipboard is the kind that opens up to hold stuff.)
I did very well with the trach and was speaking much sooner and clearer than expected. My d-i-l said that the nurses were amazed at how quickly I was able to get rid of that thing.

One issue I haven't noticed on the boards is the importance of respiratory therapy. I remember now that I was under an oxygen tank, had respiratory therapy throughout my hospitalization and was given a breathing exerciser to use for awhile at home. (I have no recollection of the time frame of any of this).
Malka