I met with my surgeon at johns hopkins thursday. he wants to remove my right lower jaw and replace it with a bone in my leg. I will get implants as well. they are going to take skin, tissue and an artery from my leg and reconstruct my jaw. i need to get a pet scan to see if the cancer has spread and an MRA to make sure i have two arteries in my leg (can't take one if i only have one).

And they are taking skin my hip to cover the area on my leg. it said i will be limping for awhile and the swelling will go down in about 6 months.

The surgery is on the 26th and it will last all day apparently. i will be in the hospital for 7 days approx. i will have a g-tube for a few weeks. he said if everything goes well (and that is a big IF according to him) i should be able to return to work in approx 8 weeks.

Those are the highlights i think, it's all overwhelming for me. I don't know how to process all of this. So for now i am trying to maintain some sort of normal life, but i am struggling.

Gina