Health care is expensive, even for those with insurance. My treatment with the breast cancer drug Herceptin cost $5,000 every three weeks for 52 weeks. Insurance paid 80 percent; I was responsible for 20. That's $1,000 every three weeks. Not exactly affordable.

What many of us don't know is that we can play an active role in cutting our health care bills. We can shop around for everything, for example. Before filling a prescription, consider comparing prices offered at mail-order and online pharmacies with those of larger retailers. You may even find that mom and pop shops offer competitive rates since they can set their own pricing. Don't forget about generic drugs too. Ask your doctor if a generic version of your medication is just as good as a brand name drug. If so, go for the price break.

Did you know that lab work is more expensive if you get it at a hospital? Ask your doctor for other trustworthy locations and save a few bucks.

On July 23, a milestone in presidential campaign history was delivered when Democratic presidential candidates fielded questions sent in via YouTube, a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips. On September 17, Republican candidates will take part in the second CNN-YouTube debate.

Aired live on CNN, this unusual debate featured 39 serious questions -- about immigration, climate change, the voting system, even cancer.

Thirty-six-year-old Kim of Long Island, who pulls off her wig mid-question, asks in her video clip about the millions of uninsured Americans who don't have access to preventative medical care.

When researching children's hospitals and oncology programs, you should have a list of questions that are relevant to the child's cancer. The same questions should be asked at each hospital so you can compare answers and make an informed decision about where to seek treatment.

Some questions include:

• What clinical trials are available?
• What type of research is going on for this type of cancer?
• What are the success rates?
• How many of these type of cancer cases do you see each year?
• Have you treated a child with this type of cancer?
• What cancers do you specialize in?
• Do you offer support groups?
• Do you allow family-centered care which allows families to be part of the treatment plan?

Pediatric cancer care is much different than cancer treatments in adults, many parents decide to go to a children's hospital like St. Jude's for care. Whatever the choice, make sure that you are getting the best possible care for the child as you can. Since you are their voice and their advocate, you have to do what you can to make sure that you are giving them the best opportunity to fight and beat childhood cancer.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is launching a three-year pilot phase of a new program that will help bring state of the art care to patients in community hospitals across the country.

The NCI Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) is designed to encourage the collaboration of private practice medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists. Building on this expanded network, the NCCCP will explore ways of sharing information, via electronic medical records, to further enhance patient care. Evidence from a wide range of studies suggests that cancer patients diagnosed and treated in a setting of coordinated multi-specialty care and clinical research may live longer and have a better quality of life.

The pilot program will research new and enhanced ways to assist, educate, and better treat the needs of under served populations -- including elderly, rural, inner-city, and low-income patients. As well as racial and ethnic groups with unusually high cancer rates.

Many cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed at advanced stages, its one of the gynecological cancers that is hard to diagnose in the early stages of the disease. Ovarian cancer needs to be treated correctly from the get -go for the best chance of survival.

It seems that some women are not receiving appropriate surgery in the United States based on an article in Journal Watch by Andrew M. Kaunitz MD.

A study found that out of 10,000 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer from 1999 to 2002, only forty two percent underwent surgery at teaching hospitals. Almost half of the patients in the study were operated on by surgeons who performed fewer than 10 ovarian cancer surgeries each year. Scarier yet, the study showed that about 25 percent of these women underwent surgery by very-low-volume surgeons -- less than one annually.

Dr. Kaunitz advice is to seek out a gynecological oncologist to get comprehensive care that is needed.

Don't be afraid to ask a surgeon -- How many times have you performed this surgery?

Cancer cases are expected to more than double between the years 2000 and 2030, says the director of the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer.

This upward climb will occur primarily in poor countries due to an increase in population growth, longer life expectancy, more smoking, and a lack of health care in low and medium-resource countries.

"What's going to happen between now and 2030 is that the population is going to increase from about 6.5 billion to 8 billion in 2030," Dr. Peter Boyle reports. "So even if the risks remain constant at each five-year age group, because we've got more people around, we're going to have more cases of cancer.

It's the unfortunate successes for developed countries over the past 40 years, such as the export of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, that have doomed poorer countries, says Boyle.

Consider this definition of doom: By the year 2030, there will be 27 million cases of cancer, 17 million deaths caused by the disease, and 75 million people living with cancer.

WOW, what a book -- a perfect guide for those just embarking on a medical journey and a valuable resource for people like me -- already surviving a major illness -- who wish to better manage their health care for all of time.

Author Laura Nathanson, MD, wrote What You Don't Know Can Kill You: A Physician's Radical Guide to Conquering the Obstacles to Excellent Medical Care in honor of the husband she lost after a series of misdiagnoses and for everyone wishing to prevent such tragedy in their own lives.

Nathanson offers readers techniques for identifying signs of misdiagnosis and misleading analysis of symptoms. She shares tips for preventing medical miscommunication, keeping safe in the hospital, and choosing health care plans without falling into the uncovered services trap.

The allure of this book is the easy, non-medical approach Nathanson uses as she urges everyone facing the medical world to take charge of an often inpenetrable system. For the patient who is no stranger to this world, Nathanson's words will ring abundantly true.

"When I look back on that long period of delayed diagnosis and how we were then and later bounced around from one medical specialist to another, the image that pops into my head is that of a slightly mad, grotesque volleyball game -- with the patient as the ball," she writes.

For the patient new to medical confusion, Nathanson's words will impart volumes of truth.

"Here's what I've learned, and what you must learn if you wish yourself and your loved ones to survive a bout with serious illness," she reports. "No matter who you are, physician or not, lucky or not; no matter how rich, famous, successful, good-looking, innocent, kindly or powerful; no matter how close and trusting the relationship you have with those providing your medical care -- you cannot rely on today's medical system to keep you healthy, safe and alive."

Amen.

In 2003, 29 percent of the American population had only basic prose literacy skills and 14 percent had below-basic skills.

Prose literacy measures the skills needed to understand texts such as new stories, brochures, and instruction manuals. People with basic skills can perform simple, everyday literacy activities. Those with below-basic skills are proficient in only the most simple and concrete literacy.

How is it that these individuals, when they are diagnosed with a disease such as cancer, are able to understand the medical jargon thrown their way, the literature that piles up in front them, the complicated process we call the medical system?

They aren't. And this leads to increased chances that people will be hurt, even killed, in the course of their medical treatment.

There are many barriers that lead to miscommunication -- cultural differences, language problems, and overall poor literacy skills -- and experts in this area are recommending some changes. They urge more education and training for health care professionals who may not ever imagine someone might not understand their words. They suggest health teams use medical interpreters. And they seek to embrace a culture of easy-to-understand communication in all aspects of medical care.

Toni Cordell, a nationally-known health literacy advocate, says humiliation and shame washed over her three decades ago when her gynecologist told her she needed a simple repair and she woke from surgery to learn she'd had a hysterectomy. Struggling at the time with dyslexia and a poor education, Cordell never asked any questions of her doctor. She just accepted the course of action, without knowing anything about it.

"Ignorance is not bliss," she says. "It's not a good place to be."

Surgeons will normally remove the lymph nodes during surgery when a patient has Stage II or Stage III colon cancer. These stages refer to colon cancer that has penetrated the colon and entered the abdominal cavity. There may be spread of the cancer to local lymph nodes that need to be removed and biopsied.

An article published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute says that patients have improved survival when a greater number of lymph nodes are removed during surgery. Patients have anywhere from six to forty lymph nodes removed and evaluated. The question is -- What is the optimal number of lymph nodes to remove and evaluate?

A clinical study was conducted that involved nearly 62,000 patients. The researchers concluded that patients with Stage II or III colon cancer had significantly improved survival when more lymph nodes were removed.

The author of the study stated "These results support consideration of the number of lymph nodes evaluated as a measure of quality of colon care."

Fewer women are getting mammograms. Facilities offering mammograms are closing. Mammogram machine usage is declining. And we don't really know why.

"We're heading in the wrong direction," says Carol Lee, professor of radiology at Yale University School of Medicine and chair of the American College of Radiology's commission on breast imaging.

"If this decline holds up, it will be very worrisome," she says.

"We're looking at a possible increase in deaths if we see this continue," according to Diana Balma, vice president of public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Studies don't show which women -- rich or poor, young or old, educated or uneducated -- are skipping these critical screenings, but there are a few possible reasons for this dangerous drop.

Think about this:

Perhaps there are fewer facilities, staffed by fewer radiologists and technologists due to high lawsuit rates and modest reimbursement. This is scary -- because the number of women old enough to get screened is increasing.

Women may be missing out on all sorts of necessary medical care because of inadequate health insurance or other access problems.

Women may be choosing, for whatever reasons, not to get mammograms, despite strong public urging that women age 40 and older get screened one time every year.

And now think about this:

Recent news about declining breast cancer rates may not be all that good. It may not be that fewer women are developing breast cancer. It may simply be that fewer women are getting early diagnoses because of irregular or nonexistent screening.

Chemo is tough stuff. That's what my oncologist told me the day I tracked her down on the phone and told her how awful I felt. I was weak, dizzy, pale, and as close to incoherent as I'd ever been. I was so out of sorts I was convinced I would jump out of my skin at the very moment this doctor implied all I needed was a firm grip on reality.

"Do you have enough support?" she asked. "Yep," I replied. I told her my mom lives right around the corner, my sister just a few miles away. I told her friends were delivering meals and my husband was coming home from work whenever I called for him. Help was just a phone call away, and I had plenty of it. What I didn't have was medical guidance about how my body was tolerating chemotherapy. That's why I needed her.

I hung up the phone that day having accomplished nothing. And I woke up the next morning barely able to walk. I crawled into my kitchen, grabbed a banana, sprawled out on the floor, inhaled some nutrition, and called my mom. I told her I needed to have my blood examined.

My mom transported me to my oncology clinic -- we had a genetic counseling appointment there anyway so it was convenient timing -- and before long, I was hand-delivered a mask and was swiftly escorted to my very own hospital room where I stayed for five days.

The day I was admitted to the hospital, my white blood counts were 700. My body was not tolerating chemotherapy. And I'll never know why my oncologist didn't know this, didn't call me in for an evaluation when so many signs were presenting themselves, didn't offer me more than her steadfast declaration that "chemo is tough stuff."

Yes, chemo is tough. And there are all sorts of expected side effects of the dreaded treatment that patients must endure. But there are many effects patients should not have to suck up, effects that warrant immediate medical attention and can be alleviated with the right intervention.

It took days of antibiotic treatment and a blood transfusion for my body to recover from its chemotherapy attack. I often wonder what would have happened had I toughed it out at home. I suspect the outcome could have been tragic.

If I ever have the occasion to preach about the dangers of chemotherapy, which is what I am doing here, I offer a firm warning about how difficult the treatments can be, how anyone with any string of worrisome side effects should seek medical help immediately, how any oncologist who doesn't respond to an outright cry for help should be fired.

I learned many lessons from my chemo crusade. I learned how to better help myself, and I learned to report right to the emergency room the second time my blood counts plummeted. I learned to demand the care I deserve, and I found an oncologist who is a warm and caring partner in my pursuit of health. And I learned that chemo is tougher than I ever imagined, too tough for some -- like me -- to go it alone.

Environmental groups claim some children's bath products contain a suspected cancer-causing chemical in amounts that reach or exceed safe limits. The chemical in question -- 1,4-dioxane -- is found in products made by companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Disney, Kimberly-Clark, and Gerber, says David Steinman, head of the environmental publishing company Freedom Press.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calls this chemical, already known to cause cancer in animals, a probable human carcinogen. But there is no real regulation on the petroleum-derived chemical and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only recommends cosmetic companies limit the concentration of 1,4-dioxane to 10 parts per million (ppm).

Studies show Johnson's Kids Shampoo Watermelon Explosion contains the maximum recommended level of 10 ppm. They also reveal that Kid Care's Hello Kitty Bubble Bath contains 12.3 ppm of the chemical. And two adult shampoos have been found to have twice the recommended level of this chemical that is typically a manufacturing by-product.

It's been reported that nearly 57 percent of all baby soaps contain 1,4-dioxane. But Iris Grossman, director of communications at Johnson and Johnson, stresses that all of her products are within FDA limits.

Cancer is not the only risky link to children's bath products. It seems these items are also linked to early puberty development. And this is concerning because a fast-paced growth rate combined with children's porous skin increases susceptibility to toxins that can enter the bloodstream. One breast cancer expert says an increase in breast cancer risk is linked to toxic exposures during the formative years of life.

Valerie Monroe, beauty director for The Oprah Magazine, writes a monthly column -- Ask Val -- that appears on the pages of Oprah's feel-good publication. She responds to questions about make-up, skin care, hair care, and overall body care too.

In her February 2007 column, Val writes, "Many of you have written to tell me that you began to be less critical of your body when you appreciated the things it could do." As I read this, I had what Oprah would call an Aha! moment, a moment when something just clicks and makes sudden sense. Aha!, I thought, as I considered all the things my body can do, completely independent of how I look on the outside. So while I was jogging today -- my body can now easily run three miles -- I ran through all of my body's accomplishments, and I stored them in the files of my mind so I could later write them down.

Here are seven things my body can do. As you read them, consider your own body -- its strength, its power, its capacity for greatness -- and remind yourself of your wondrous self the next time you start to criticize the way you look.

• My body can partner in the creation of human life. It can carry babies and deliver them and love them and care for them and raise them. Not all bodies have this power. I am lucky.

• My body can climb an attic staircase, crawl into cramped and dark corners, pull large boxes out of wedged spaces, drag them back to the staircase, and walk backwards down the stairs with goods balancing on my head so that I can fulfill the wish my five-year-old child who wanted so badly in early November to assemble our Christmas tree and decorate our house for the holidays. "Let's wait until Daddy gets home," I told Joey when I found myself crammed into a tiny space in the attic, wrestling with a heavy box full of artificial tree parts. "You can do it, Mommy," Joey said. "You are strong." And so I fought my way through the frustrating feat because I was afraid of the lessons I would teach this little boy if I didn't. In the end, it was Joey who taught me the lesson. I can do it. I am strong.
  

• My body can endure and conquer a 5K run when it once could barely run around the block. With a little extra effort and push, I think my body can accomplish even more.

• My body, once weak and without definition, can lift increasingly heavy weight and can generate muscle tone. It can even do push-ups -- real push-ups. It takes dedication and practice and persistence and mental toughness too. But I see progress. I feel progress. And I want more.

• My body can help others. I can use my fingers to type words on a keyboard that will reach friends and family and people I don't even know. My words can inform and support and encourage and heal. I can use my hands and my semi-creative talents to create hand-made gifts, to cook and deliver very mediocre meals for friends in need, to massage my husband's sore back, to braid my niece's beautiful hair and paint her tiny nails. I can use my arms to hug my little boys with all my might. I can use my voice to communicate, my ears to listen, my senses to feel.
  

• My body can tolerate surgery and chemotherapy and radiation and horrible allergic reactions to antibiotics. My body was badly beaten by a treatment protocol intended to cure me of a disastrous disease. And somehow, in some way, it survived.
  

• My body killed cancer. With the aid of medical intervention and a hopeful attitude, my body overcame the worst and best thing that has ever happened to me. And if it could do nothing else, I would be truly happy for this one thing my body can do.
  

Health care provider Dr. Anthony Vendryes wrote Monday in the Jamaica Gleaner that he is distressed at the growing number of young women developing cancer -- especially breast cancer. He believes women are not working very hard at preventing the disease. He thinks we are just waiting for the problem to surface and then treating it with "painful and often ineffective" efforts.

According to Vendryes, research indicates a woman's risk of developing breast cancer is under her own control. If we live a lifestyle that promotes cancer, we are apparently likely to get the disease. Such a lifestyle would include gaining more than 11 pounds after the age of 18, exercising less than one time per week, eating less than five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, eating more than three ounces of red meat per day, ingesting too much fat and salt, consuming more than one alcoholic drink per day, and smoking cigarettes.

I am all for healthy living. And I believe achieving good health is under our control. I would personally recommend every woman take charge of her life in a healthful manner. But I do not believe as Vendryes states, "most women actually give themselves cancer by making poor choices in life." I think it's the word most that bothers me.

Obviously, there is a connection between lifestyle choices and chronic disease. And of course our level of health is under our control -- to some extent. But I don't believe it's fair to claim most women ask for breast cancer. I know I didn't.

I did not choose cancer. It chose me. Vendryes might say I am one of the disillusioned people who think cancer is entirely a matter of chance or entirely a matter of genetics. Actually, I suspect it's a combination of all factors. All I know for sure, however, is that my own lifestyle choices were pretty darn healthy prior to my diagnosis.

My weight has always been in a normal range -- and while I did gain more than 11 pounds twice in my life, it was due both times to the more-than-ten-pound babies I delivered into the world. I have always eaten a fairly healthy diet. I consume sweets, salt, and fats in moderation. I have never smoked and have consumed alcohol only minimally. And I have always consistently exercised.

I admit I have eaten red meat, although never daily. And I'm sure I fall short on the recommended intake of fruits and vegetables. But really, I cannot even begin to imagine that my lifestyle was an invitation for cancer. And it makes me sad that most other young women, shocked by a diagnosis of breast cancer like me, might think they asked for such a horrible disease.

It's been two years since my breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent "painful and often ineffective" treatments. And although I have made some lifestyle changes -- I never drink alcohol now, I exercise a little more, and I don't choose to eat red meat if other options are available -- my life is much the same as it was prior to cancer. And I am certain that if cancer makes a return visit to my body, it will not be because I asked for it.

After a leave of absence due to family medical issues and moving back home, it is good to be back blogging here on a daily basis and I look forward to resuming where I left off at the end of October. I have personally stayed up to date reading the daily posts by the bloggers on this site when I had access to the Internet and I feel that this staff of writers are dedicated and very thorough in what they do. I hope I contribute as much as they do in the days to come.

With all of that in mind, I want to make a brief input on making a move when family medical issues make it necessary. It ways heavy on your mind and can be very stressful. Employment issues, time that you personally can donate, uprooting your own household, and the needs of parents, all can put a heavy burden on your mind. Staying destressed as much as you can for your own personal health is a must. I personally found prayer, lots of conversations with my friends and family, making a list of important issues to consider on both sides of the fence, and taking personal down time to be alone and unwind to be very helpful.

Many people have to make the decision on when is the time to be more involved in their parents lives, exactly what is best for everyone, and how you can accomplish what is needed. Health insurance or the lack of cuts down on a lot of options and medicare and medicaid sometimes do not take care of all the needs. You are not alone and reaching out to friends, pastors, doctors, and support groups can be the best thing that you can do for yourselves. Find out all of the benefits that medicaid and medicare offer in assistance for stay at home patients and use them.