Psychological recovery of mastectomy can take a long time

DEAR DOCTORS: My best friend has breast cancer that has spread to her lymph nodes, and she needs to have a double mastectomy. Can you please talk about how all of this can psychologically affect you? What can I do that will help her and not be a burden?

- ■DR EVE GLAZIER & DR ELIZABETH KO

DEAR READER: Learning that you have any form of cancer can have a profound impact on mental health. It often begins at the moment of diagnosis, when the seamless flow of daily life is suddenly bifurcated into "before" and "after". The new reality means a seemingly endless series of medical appointments, treatments that are often scary and painful, a lack of certainty those treatments will be successful, and living with the possibility of a future recurrence.