Some folks have asked what our schedule is for Monday. Here it is.

• Up at 4 a.m.
• 4:30, leave home to make sure we are there on time - they have said if we're late they will cancel the surgery.
• 5 .m., check in at Washington Hospital Center - why so early? I don't know!
• 7 a.m., go to nuclear medicine to have the radioactive dye injected so they can look for the sentinel node(s).
• When that's over, take the pictures and go to the ambulatory surgery center to meet Dr. Boisvert and Dr. Convit.
• 9 a.m., surgery starts.
• Dr. Convit (the plastic surgeon) says the surgery will take between 90 minutes and 3 hours, depending on how long it takes them to actually find the sentinel nodes.
• at least one hour in recovery after the surgery is over - so it could be after 1 p.m. before we come home.

Robert will have a "mummy bandage" on his head covering the skin graft for about eight days. I don't know what kind of dressing he'll have on the donor site, but I understand that often takes longer to heal. Some people have numbness around the graft site for a while afterwards. Some surgeons apply a hard cap over the bandage, held on with a chin strap, to keep pressure on the wound site.

We may not want to talk with anyone except Allison and Loren on Monday, so please don't be worried if we don't answer any of our phones. My mother has promised to worry enough for everyone, being the worrier-in-chief. We're going to be fine, but we will likely be tired and grumpy on Monday. Sorry!

I'll post something here as soon as I can after the surgery - maybe while he's in recovery, if my iPad works OK with this website. (That remains to be seen. I've tested but didn't much like the results because I can't use the WYSIWYG buttons.) Otherwise, it will be later in the day.