This is my latest picture of my scar, taken today 13/4/2017, approximately 2 months and a week after my surgery. The scar is continuing to heal nicely and is a neat cut, there is still a lot of scar tissue underneath certain areas of the scar which I try to massage as often as I can/when I remember. I am still restricted in movement, I cannot completely bend my knee to do things such as kneel because of the swelling which is still present and again the scar tissue. I have now returned to work at my job as a care assistant and am getting on fine with my shifts, not experiencing any pain however I still cannot walk long distances without it aching. It seems I cannot do continuous tasks on it such as shopping and walking far but I am coping okay at work and am currently on a phased return which helps.

This was 3 weeks after my surgery, 1 week after the clips were removed. It's healed as a very neat scar, I personally am not embarrassed or shy about it, I prefer to take the perspective that it looks quite cool and is my war wound! At this present time I did not have much range of motion in my leg, I was walking fine but could barely bend it except to sit. There was also a LOT of scar tissue and swelling still at this point and massage does help with this as well as ibuprofen for the swelling and keeping it elevated when possible.

This was the day I got the clips removed, I think I had 24 clips in total and I am a bit of a wimp but it was painful for me, not excruciating but I did shout a little bit, best thing is to just clench your fists and countdown every time one is pulled out and psych yourself up each time, "you can do this you just had major surgery you can handle some clips being taken out!!" is what I was mentally telling myself at the time. As much as it hurts if you just grin and bear it its easily over within 5-10 minutes and then there is no pain!

This is the cast I had to wear for 7 weeks after my surgery, this was to ensure everything healed correctly as a lot of the tendons and ligaments etc needed to be cut and reattached, my bone also had to be shaved so it was a very difficult surgery and needed lengthy recovery. I was given crutches when I left hospital however only used them for around 3 days and then just hobbled about my flat until I got into the hang of walking straight again, it was difficult and restrictive to keep the cast on and many times I wanted to take it off and did! - which I do not recommend as I suffered from it. I felt like I could walk fine so decided to take the cast off myself and was fine until half way through the day I was limping terribly, very sore and in lots of pain so it is definitely wisest to listen to your doctor and not think you're superman/woman!

Not the most beautiful picture ever but my leg is heavily swollen in this picture, can barely tell where my knee is! But this is how everything looked after surgery, not a huge incision, probably about 6-7 inches my estimate, as you can see my leg was very swollen and its so pink because of the antiseptic dye put on prior to surgery so yep looks attractive. This was when I was getting my cast changed which I will show in the next post. The date of my surgery was 7/2/2017 and this is the morning after. My surgery lasted around 4 hours, was scary at the time as no further clear margins could be taken without amputating it but I am happy to say that I am cured now so it was a successful surgery and I don't want anyone to worry reading this. I was in hospital for 4 days and it was very painful to weight-bare on this leg, it was almost like a burning sensation but after about the second day this got better, using the crutches was also very hard at first and walking took a lot of thinking to make sure I was using my leg right but this was all normal and eased after a couple of days and I was getting about fine upon being discharged.

AFTER RADIOTHERAPY:
This is a scan I had taken after radiotherapy showing the size of the tumour, its quite difficult to see the size difference due to angle of the original scan however it does seem to have made a small difference at least.

My radiotherapy lasted 5 weeks and I was in everyday Monday-Friday. For the first week or so the appointment takes around an hour as an additional scan needs to be done each time to ensure you're in the right position for the machine, as you get used to the routine and radiographers the process becomes quicker and less scans need to be done prior to treatment as you begin to naturally lay in the perfect position, the appointments then last around 30 minutes. A mask is also created which can be seen on the table in my last pic, that is what I had to wear every day of my radiotherapy to ensure my leg was in the correct position each time. Something else to mention is I had to have 4 tattoo dots done on my leg to help mark how I should be positioned prior to my radiotherapy commencing, I'm not a big fan of needles but it was alright it's literally just a quick prick in several areas.

This is the bell I rang when I had finished my radiotherapy, its a really nice part of the hospital and always really warming when you hear someone ring the bell.