I worked about a month after my first surgery and then when I had a re-occurrence I had to have surgery again and then go through chemo/rads. I tried to continue to work but the chemo was making it pretty rough so I stopped working and applied for SS. One of the questions asked was relating to "how has your illness affected your ability to make a living" and when I answered that I had lost all this "work time" and could only work part-time for most of the last year the SS dept. awarded me the money I missed out on in one lump payment. Since your diagnosis is more sever, Im thinking that SS will compensate you for your lost time as well as put you on monthly benefits. They also told me that my medicare wait period of 2 years would only be one year due to my first diagnosis a year earlier.
Hope that helps.