Michelle,

Best of luck with your mom's upcoming surgery. Can I ask why the surgeon is waiting three weeks before he operates on your mom?

Some of your questions are better answered by her doctors. One thing I've noticed is your listing of the skin graph - and you possibly omitted it due to simplicity sake - being taken from her forearm. I also had skin from my forearm removed (this area closely matches the blood vessels, etc, inside your mouth) but then, in addition, I had skin removed from my upper thigh to replace the forearm skin.

As far as having the cure be worse than the disease - being given an 85% cure rate is awesome! I wouldn't do anything, other than what they tell you to do, to jeopardize that! After my first re-occurrence I was given a 25% chance of survival. However, I assumed the doctors gave me that percentage based upon historical data - they did not take into consideration the power of prayer. I believe that prayer has helped me get to the point I'm at today. After my last PET scan (last week), my MO told me I had "defied the odds" - I could't have been given a more positive test result - especially after nearly 3 years of hearing nothing but negative results.

If I was your mom, I'd hold onto that 85% and have it be one of my motivations to see this through to "cured"!