New to BC.org & introduction

Hello everyone. I've been reading some of the various discussion boards and learning as much as I can. This board looks like the most appropriate place for me to post, as my mom has recently been dx with BC.

Mom was dx in October 2011, had a lumpectomy in early February 2012.  Lymph nodes were positive, she had a scan about 10 days ago that showed a spot on her liver and possibly some suspicious spots on her ribs. The liver biopsy was positive. As far as I know nothing has really been verbalized about the possible mets on the ribs.

On the day that she got the news about the positive biopsy, she fell and broke her hip.  She has just moved to a regular hospital room but is facing a long uphill battle with recovery from the hip fracture. 

The truly sad thing is that for the last 10 years she has had horrible health issues; heart attack, horrible abdominal pain, bone pain, osteoporosis, arthritis, followed by a pulmonary embolism that she barely survived.  She had 5 or 6 wonderful months where she was finally getting mobile again, and felt well enough to stand and go in for her mammogram, and BAM! I wonder how long the cancer has been there and how long the liver mets have been there as she was having unexplained bowel issues. A few years ago her liver enzymes were abnormal. Her doctor says this is a slow growing type of cancer, and the lump removed was quite large - how could her PCP miss it? I have some anger over many of the symptoms and pain she's been having for years, some of which I think now might have been this cancer. Her PCP is truly awful, but that's another post.

I live 2000 miles away, my dad also has cancer, and is primary caregiver to her and a much younger brother who is disabled and living at home.  I guess what I'm looking for here is a place to support and be supported.  Dad is somewhat in denial and felt for a few days they "didn't need to know" too much regarding expectations, but now he knows, and I think what the oncologist says is probably a little sunnier than the truth, in light of her other serious health issues.  My mother is awfully tough, though.  As for now he hasn't told my mother about the seriousness of the prognosis, because he is worried she will just give up.  I told him there's no right/wrong as to how to handle it.  He certainly will have the discussion sooner rather than later if she asks.

I'm hoping to help hook my dad up with support and services that they both will need going forward.  Right now the talk is 6 weeks of rehabilitation in a skilled nursing care facility, if we can get her out of the hospital  That is the major hurdle. As the doctor says, she needs to get up, and until then she is at a very elevated risk of another embolism, pneumonia, or other infection.

Her treatments will be somewhat limited re: the cancer because of her health conditions, so there aren't a ton of options in the arsenal, so to speak.

Anyway, that's my mother's story.