I can appreciate his concern for his walking - I had a 12 x 11.5 x 8 The size of a grapefruit)tumor in my calf - It was removed May 5th - along with the greater portion of my Soleus Muscle - Dr. Goulding was my surgeon. She did a phenomenal job I have progressed from a wheelchair to a walker to an Air Cast to walking with a good orthopedic shoe in 7 weeks - I can tell you that the team at Mayo did everything possible to preserve the integrity of my leg - I did 25 pronto radiation treatments and also participated in a clinical study for Physical Therapy for 5 weeks prior to surgery to strengthen my entire body to ready me for the challenges of not having full use of my leg for awhile - I was told it would be up to 4-6 months before I would be walking again and that would be fully assisted with a walker or cane- so I am thrilled at 7 weeks - the radiation killed off 30% of the tumor but the only option was surgery.