Your family will just be thankful that the disease has been caught in time and they have you. They won't care what you look like and if you care, you can consider reconstruction down the track. As everyone has said, how you choose to deal with the day-to-day is up to you. My husband took me to the hospital and waited until I went in. The first time he was there when I got out but I was so disoriented that I didn't remember so I told him not to bother the next time. As far as friends and social gatherings went, I went into a bit of a hibernation mode during the first month or so and ended up setting up a blog to keep extended family, friends and colleagues informed about what was happening.