In December my sister had surgery to remove a mouth cancer and ended up losing her upper left jaw, cheek and eye. Partly due to a slight hiccup in her mouth, the reconstruction work won't start till next month (July). She'll start with the jaw and roof of mouth being fixed and then I believe things can progress with her facial prosthetic. She's had a couple of meetings with the prosthetic 'maker' and is very excited about what can be done.
I'm here to try and get some insight how I can better support her emotionally. She has a loving husband and grown up children so is certainly not alone but I know she finds things very hard - emotionally and physically. I want to be able to help her but am not really sure whether her fear and/or anger is about her disfigurement or the cancer or both or?? I would be most grateful for some insight into what she might be feeling and how I might in some way be able to help her deal with all this. She is very stong and has a fantstic attitude but I think it is getting harder to maintain that. She said that her close friends don't call as much as they used to and I think partly that's because they think she's strong. I'm hoping she will have the courage to let them know she needs them more than ever. She's also said that she's going to get some counselling now which is great. PS. She has received the 'all clear' from her surgeon post-op, but I suspect there will be many more visits to him yet? Thanks all.