Smitty,
I'll add about organizing your support network:
Get a special friend to:

-email all your relatives friends with health updates, and forward questions to that person who can field and answer questions.

- assess your needs (work, children, elderly care, homecare: cooking, cleaning...) and field the phonecalls from all the people who want to help. Tell people who say: What can I do?...to call this friend. People want to help, they don't know what to do that's constructive. Remember, when you accept someones help, you are giving back at the same moment by allowing them to rise up one rung on their ladder of righteousness. Don't have the feeling you will have to return a lot of favors.

-make regular trips to the library for books on tape. You will have long miserable nights. A good book on tape can help you forget the pain.

-make sure the primary caregiver is alleviated from as many responsiblities as possible so that their energy is focussed on caring for you in that personal way that no one else can do.

-What I wanted more than anything during my treatment months was not the flowers, gift baskets...but that I wasn't being forgotten. Sometimes there is nothing others can do but send you a good joke in a card. The funniest one I ever got was: "Now that you are having radiation, your husband can say he's married to a really hot babe!'

-Very few people thought about making a donation in my honor (so much more important than the $50 flower arrangement). Consider getting people to come to the OCF site and donate!

Eva