September 26th, 2008: Four weeks after my hip replacement, I returned to Dr. Cox’s office for my first check-up. It was a poignant visit. The surgery had been a great success, but all admiration we shared for the rapid recover was overcast by the unknowns of my cancer diagnosis and the upcoming procedures necessary to treat the unexpected illness. For the record, let me say that Dr. Cox is famous for his neat, even elegant finishes to closing the wound. His wife is a plastic surgeon and she showed him how to do subcutaneous suturing near the outside of the incision, then, for the final closing of the site, Dr. Cox glues the skin together so that the final result is a slim line, like the light tracing of a thin red pencil. And this line fades with time. Amazing.