Handling not being able to be there for support

jdlott74

My mom was recently DX with Stage 1.  She lives in NC with all our family and friends and has a great support group, which includes her boyfriend.  I live in TX, 1200 miles away.  I/we can not afford to go to NC very often, in fact, I have not been back since 2008.  She has come here, but we just can't afford to travel there.  She is having another surgery to remove all the lymph notes before the end of the year.  They told her today that she is having chemo and radiation.

For those that have been there,

1) How do you handle not being able to be there to help?

2) What tips should I give her for handling chemo and radiation. She is pretty upset about losing her hair.  Her boyfriend told her to get her friend that does her hair to make her a wig.  Can she take a tablet and read while getting treatment or is it better to take an actual book?  How long is chemo normally? Do they schedule for every day, and for how long, every week, every other week, etc?

We are lucky that they caught it in time and the first mass was only the size of a pea, and the other one they found after surgery was 4 cm. 

Her boyfriend said today it was the kind that was a string.  I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about.