Hi,
Just have to add that when I get together with my sisters, some of the best laughs we have had are over the darkest things...things that you only can laugh about after your life is touched by something as dark as cancer. But basically, people don't change all that much. What you found funny (or not) before, will be just as funny, but you both will have learned something valuable, or at least have had it driven home. Cancer can help open our eyes sometimes, and help us focus on what's really important. Not always of course, but many times. Like I said, we don't change much but if we're lucky we can get just a bit wiser.
Good for you, ordering that book. There are many more resources for bladder cancer these days than when my sister was dxed in '98. Information is much easier to find and more patient friendly than ever. Still, bladder cancer lags behind other cancers when it comes to awareness, especilally with women, because it's supposedly an old man's disease.
From where I've been sitting all these years, bladder cancer effects way more young people and women- young and old- than anyone ever realises.
Don't lose heart as there are many treatment options but bladder cancer has excellent long term survival stats. There are hurdles ahead and uncharted territory, to be sure, but this state is also temporary.
Wendy