Donna, the graft this time was different -- On the previous one, they took the tissue from my wrist and then took skin from my thigh, covering that spot with the cheese-grater snap-and-crackle gauze -- This time they sliced my thigh open for about a foot and dug deep to harvest from inside -- When they were finished, they just closed up the slice with about 40 wire staples and no snap gauze.

I'm not exactly running up and down stairs (I live on second floor), but am pleasantly surprised at how little movement restriction has resulted from that trauma. Some decades ago, I had a ladder leg fold up on me, resulting in a short fall to the ground and a broken face -- Part of the repair required cutting into my hip and harvesting some bone marrow to "seed" the egg-shell fracture in my right orbit -- That small trapdoor into my hip caused a lot more problems than this long, meaty slice.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who posted or PM'd your support and prayers for my latest bout with OC. I found the group waaaay back when I was being nuked for the first time, so I was essentially alone in terms of actual cancer victims -- I find that it really does make a difference knowing that a whole bunch of people whom I haven't met face-to-face are behind me, as a sort of shadow Verizon <g>.