[Chelee]

Pam,
I'm so sorry to hear about your femur. I can relate to you being scared and mad. In cancerland it never stops it seems! If possible make sure you have an Orthopedic Onc doing the surgery that has experience in this. Might be good to have it biopsied too.

I was told 3 or 4 days in the hospital too but it ended up being 6 days total. My surgery turned out to be much more involved because the mass was so big. My surgery went well but I had more blood loss then they planned on. But my Ortho said they have to do alot of digging and scrapping in there. You will probably have a rod from top of femur to knee placed like mine it sounds like? I will be honest with you...it is pretty painful post-op. But while your in the hospital they "will" take care of your pain rather well. It's when you go home you want to make "sure" you have something more then vicodin. I had more pain then I expected once I was home moving around on my walker. I have steps all over in my house which didn't help.

But like alot of things...you may do just great and have very little pain unlike me? Look at some of us that are incapacitated during chemo, and then those that are going to work and feel ok. Everyone is so different. I think the worse for me was the post-op pain and the down time of being stuck to the walker. I was back down starting chemo in 15 days post-op. It's really good you had it checked out and caught it before it broke. That's a good thing in your favor even if it doesn't feel like it now. If you have any questions I can help you with just ask. But hang in there Pam...your a real trooper...you will get thur this.

Chelee