It sounds like you're progressing pretty fast with Blender! Congrats! Every time I look at the latest release, I throw up a little in my mouth... :) But, hey, if it works for you, that's all that matters! (I am sure I'm going to have to learn it, one day. /sigh)

Something to note: If Blender has a good retopo tool, you might be able to get away with a Boolean operation and end up with some topology you can tweak to be suitable.

Ah, found it: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Manual/Modeling/Meshes/Editing/Retopo

Seems like they're putting everything in Blender. When it can change my oil and balance my checkbook, I might try to learn it. :)

Happy vert pushing!