She kept saying that she could cope if it was happening to her but not to me. The second time I needed mastectomy surgery she did much better. She knew what to expect. She knew how to help me. This helped me emotionally too because we women have a need to try to help everyone else before we help ourselves.
Spouses have a tough time too.
Yes, I did write about my mother in my book. It also tells about my experiences as a nurse and now most recently as a patient. My husband has been a model husband for such a crisis and there is a lot of information about him as well as our daughter who was 12 when I was first diagnosed. My husband and I made a commitment that every day no matter what we would find something funny about the fact that I had gotten breast cancer. This is one of the reasons that I named my breast prostheses.