[magicalhippo]

I was a student at the time, and well, didn't handle it particularly well in hindsight. Not sure I can help much with that aspect.

What I do want to say though, is if she makes it through this round, fingers crossed, ask the doctors where the cancer she got might spread to, and be very observant of changes in those areas.

I now have the sad experience of losing my dad and seeing two close friends lose one of their parents due to cancer that spread. Common for all three was that the spread wasn't detected because it happened in another area in the body, and nobody connected the dots.

In my dads case, after a year on asthma meds (he never had symptoms asthma before) the cancer was accidentally discovered in his lungs. Then the doctors say "oh yea, if the type he has spreads, it's to the lungs"...

In my dads case it would have been terminal either way, they couldn't remove it from his lungs. But it would at least have saved him over a year of needless pain and suffering before they figured out he didn't have asthma, and possibly slowed it down more.