Hi guys, little update.
SD's mum finally phoned her, a day late (but that was because she was out of her head the night before, beating up a young man). The first thing SD asked her was 'so, you're ill, what's wrong?'. Mum proceeded to tell her that she had 'second degree cervical cancer', that she'd had a biopsy on her cervix a month ago and that the 'cancer' had been cured with an injection so all was fine. Then they had a conversation which was quite civilised, for about 10 minutes. SD did ask her mum when she would come to see her, and was told 'not just yet because I'm still recovering from the biopsy operation (erm, I had a cervical biopsy some years ago for CIN3 and went back to work straight after ... she had this biopsy a month ago!). SD got off the phone and straight away asked me about the 'second degree cervical cancer'. I had to admit that I'd never heard of it, but decided to Google it anyway. As I suspected, no such thing. So I asked SD if her mum had said 'secondary cervical cancer', but she insisted her mum said 'second degree' and that it had been cured with an injection. Hmm, very suspicious. Anyway, a little time later, SD emerged and said she'd done some Googling of her own. She said 'I think she's lying. I think she's got 'secondary' cancer, which means she has got another cancer somewhere else, and I think it's her liver cos she's yellow'. Very astute child, and as mum IS yellow, it certainly fits much better than the **** and bull story she spun the child. I think mum forgets that I work in the medical profession too, and clearly thinks her daughter is stupid enough to believe some made up illness she decides to tell her. Perhaps she won't admit she has liver cancer, because if she admitted that she would have to admit she's an alcoholic, and as she's in denial of her alcoholism it stands to reason that she's in denial of any liver disease also.
Anyway, there's no way of us finding out exactly what is wrong with mum. SD has said that she will confront her about her yellowness when and if she sees her, but said in the meantime she's going to take everything her mother says to her 'with a pinch of salt'. Very wise.