Last night just before bed, DH says that his ex-wife told him she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She will be undergoing surgery to remove the lumps and undergo radiation or chemo to make sure they get it all.

Yes, this is not a good thing.

However I cannot help but also feel that she's getting her karma for how she treats people (namely my husband and me) and consistently rude/negative behavior.

At the same time, I also have a suspicion that this is a desperate attention-getting technique to find ways to interfere with our lives again. Meaning she either doesn't have cancer at all (God I hope she isn't lying about this, but I wouldn't put it past her) or it isn't as bad as she's saying it is just so she gets people fussing over her. I could totally see her doing it.

To understand why I think this way, you would have had to see and hear everything she has done in the last 4 years to make my husband's and my life miserable. Constantly interrupting our very rare date nights for stupid insignificant reasons (knowing full well we are out alone together), she tried to ruin our wedding, constantly tells my husband he's a bad father and calls him all sorts of names, whines about money, etc. She comes up with stupid reasons to 'insert' herself into my and DH's very limited alone-time. Such as calling him to help with the kids at the last minute just before we are set to do something together. He no longer acquiesces to her demands, but that doesn't stop her from trying. I could write a small book with all the BS she has pulled.

She also spreads lies about me to my in-laws and because they believe she's the 'golden one', they believe her. This causes problems between them and DH. She lies about me to the kids, so my relationship with them is strained.

What I am trying to say is I am conflicted as to how to feel or approach this.

Sympathetic? I do partly but I feel more for their kids because if this is for real, and treatment doesn't go well, they face losing their mother, which would be very hard on them. I know how they would feel.

Unsympathetic? Yes, somewhat, because of the kind of person she is. Self-centered, single-minded, and will do anything to get her way. She is very controlling and manipulative. Essentially I have this "Karma's a bitch" feeling about it.

I am not heartless, just hardened on feelings towards her. My soft-hearted side wants to sympathize. Cancer sucks and going through treatment is hard. I have seen it firsthand. I held my grandmother's hand as she passed away after a 2.5 year battle with leukemia. She was more like a mother to me, being she raised me from about 3 yrs old and up. My actual mother wasn't around much.

I don't want to be a heartless bitch but at the same time, after all I have had to endure from this woman makes me feel little sympathy for her. And regardless of this being true or not, I know she's going to milk the sympathy act.

Thoughts...