I woke up in recovery in the Post-Acute Care (PAC) facility at MGH here. Disoriented of course. My throat was dry and my arms hurt. Not a lot of pain in the leg because of the nerve block. SLC stopped by and told me that the lesion was benign and therefore they just scraped the lesion and put a metal cap over the  area, screwed into the bone. Maureen and Miranda came in and stayed with me for about an hour. She said I looked pale. Nurses were great, stopping in every few minutes to check up on me. Relieved of course that it was benign and that they didn’t need to cut any bone out. SLC says it would be very unusual if the lesion on the right leg was any different to what was on the left leg. It’s still going to be a major surgery.

Moved from the PAC into a regular ward. I have a bed in a double next to the windows where I can look out on a mass of grey pipework and air conditioning units. The occasional sparrow flies up to the window. I can see a small tree fluttering in the wind, growing on what I think must be a balcony above. The nurses in the ward are, for the most part responsive, although there was an initial problem with my call button. The room is a bit stuffy.

The first day I had a roommate who was only here for a few hours. He left without completing the discharge. Followed the next day by another patient. I don’t know what he was in for as he was quiet and wanted the door closed, which made it even more stuffy in the room. The temperature in Boston has been in the 80s. After he was discharged, and later in the evening of the second day here, I got a third roommate—young guy—sounds like  they’re going for some major spinal surgery.

Watched two games of the World Cup so far. The first one, USA versus Paraguay, I watched on my phone. The US exceeded my expectations with a 4-1 win. I then started a Fubo subscription to watch Scotland versus Haiti on my laptop. Scotland were lucky to win, I think. Haiti came so close to scoring in the second half.

They’re still working on identifying this specific malignant cancer. There are two possibilities:  Chondrosarcoma, for which no chemo will be needed. The second Chondroblastic Osteosarcoma for which chemo will probably be needed.

I wrote an update “One step at a time”  about my first surgery to send out to friends and family.