I had a soft tissue sarcoma removed from my left thigh in 2021. It grew into a very large growth rather quickly once it broke the skin and seemed to stem from a dog bite (our own dog) I had over 10 years ago. I was on a wound vac to close it up (no stitches or staples or graft). It left a fairly large hole in my leg but it healed up (closed) in good time and I haven’t had really very much afteraffects from it muscle wise ever since. I started Physical Therapy on it like 8 months later just to help me feel more confident about using that leg normally. I might do more. It has a huge scar from the surgery and it still feels odd at times to do with many of the nerves in that area but otherwise it’s been feeling very much like it used to before all this happened to me. (Having had a CSection in 1991 with the birth of our 2nd child did help me to get thru this easier I think.) Similarly they had to cut thru many layers of tissue and I got back on my feet pretty quickly after that too. I was up walking on my leg though this latest time pretty quickly although they had me in a full leg brace for awhile but I got around with a walker and sometimes a wheelchair and then a cane for a bit. A nurse came to my house and would change the wound vac bandage every other day while I had to use the wound vac. When the nurse first changed the wound vac bandage I remember I cried and said Call 911! as I looked at the open gaping hole in my thigh. It was beyond my comprehension why the bandage had to be replaced every other day which was painful to have done but I went along with it and soon the gaping hole in my thigh did heal up completely basically all on its own. At one point the surgeon wanted the wound vac removed completely and so the visiting nurse just used rolled gauze to cover it. I went thru a lot of gauze that year I remember. I was in the hospital for this for just a few days. I was told I could do away with the clot prevention bags on my legs and go home as soon as I could get up on my own and use the bathroom so I accomplished that ASAP I remember. The worst part of it all as I recall was needing to cover the bandage in plastic so I could take a shower. I was terrified of getting shower water and soap in the surgical incision, My cousin a former home health aid suggested I use plastic wrap and duck tape.

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