Living Beyond Breast Cancer will hold a free teleconference, Follow-up Testing: What You Need to Know, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Thursday, August 16.

Speaker Virginia F. Borges, MD, will discuss follow-up testing after initial treatment, including follow-up testing guidelines, insights into future tests, the uses or limitations of screening tests and the emotional impact of follow-up testing. She also will explain the need for routine follow-up for other treatment-related health matters, creating a plan to monitor overall health and the role of follow-up tests for women with advanced (metastatic) breast cancer.

Dr. Borges is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Science Center. Dr. Borges specializes in the treatment of breast cancer and her research interests include the study of new biologic therapies for breast cancer, development of cancer vaccines and improving the quality of life of people affected by breast cancer. In addition to her clinical practice and research efforts, Dr. Borges volunteers as a medical facilitator for Casting for Recovery.

This free program will feature a presentation by the speaker and a 45-minute question-and-answer session with participants. Participants can listen over the phone or use their computer.

To register, visit Living Beyond Breast Cancer's website at www.lbbc.org or call (610) 645-4567

What some special young women have learned throughout their breast cancer journey.

What cancer has taught me:

• To see beauty in what before I would have thought to be ugly.
• That there are total strangers that can lift your spirits.
• Who my true friends are.
• To forgive.
• To bring a sweater everywhere I go.
• Not to feel guilty about day-time naps.
• How to swallow five pills at a time.
• To ask every nurse, clerical person, lab tech, scan tech I encounter what their name is.
• To give more hugs and always tell the ones I love ..that I do love them..every time we speak.
• How to poop and throw up at the same time.
• To look at my kids more (when they are not looking).
• To realize that you can live with cancer.
• Meds are my friends.
• Hair grows really slowly.
• Some drugs make you fat.
• Life is really not fair, and bad things happen to really good people.
• To be more comfortable challenging authority, asking more questions and speaking my mind.
• That my husband absolutely adores me.
• To be more selfish and take time out for me.
• To go out and do the things that make me happy.
• Not to take life or people for granted.
• To see the little things in life that I never saw before.
• To love even more than before.
• Time is very valuable.
• Where to find a good wig in New York.
• That I'm not that afraid of needles.
• That I really am a 'glass half full' person.
• That I'm stronger than I ever expected.
• How nice it is to sit on the porch on a warm day.
• That being bald ain't so bad.
• That I can cope with more than I ever thought possible.
• That it is okay to need other people, okay to be vulnerable and okay to ask for help.

John Ondrasik, the man and musician behind the band Five for Fighting, has released a new album and a new website that just happens to benefit the Breast Cancer 3-Day, a 3-day, 60-mile walk sponsored by Susan G. Komen For the Cure.

Think about this:

Ondrasik's new album, "Two Lights," features a song called "World" which is in heavy rotation on pop radio stations across the country. This single is the inspiration for Ondrasik's new website, What Kind of World Do You Want -- the first video community that gives back by allowing visitors a chance to make a difference.

This is how it works: reveal what kind of world you want and help raise money for charity by watching videos or creating and uploading a video of yourself, your friends, or your family. In your video, answer the question What Kind of World Do You Want? and then choose which charity you wish to help fund.

In addition to the Breast Cancer 3-Day, selected charities include the Fisher House, Save the Children, Autism Speaks, VH1 Save the Music Foundation, and NY Police and Fire Widows & Children. Video clips describing each charity, a message from Ondrasik, and a video of the song "World," are all featured on the site.

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.

His name is not really Brian -- that's just the character actor Barry Watson plays on the ABC TV show What About Brian that just ended its season on March 26.

I really like this show. The network calls it a contemporary, heartwarming ensemble drama that continues to tell the stories of a group of close-knit friends in various stages of romantic relationships and friendships living in Los Angeles.

This is exactly why I like it. But there's an underlying story not written into the script that has compelled me to watch -- and truly enjoy -- this show.

Barry Watson, best known for his role as Matt Camden on the long-running WB series 7th Heaven, is surviving cancer. Diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in May 2002, he received treatment and reported in April 2003 that he was in remission. And he's been working hard ever since.

Watson is not only an actor. He is a husband -- his wife is Tracy Hutson of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition -- and he is a father. But most important in my book, Watson is a cancer survivor. And more than anything, this is what inspires me every time I watch What About Brian.

I'm in another hospital lobby -- this time waiting while my three-year-old son has surgery to repair a hernia.

So I'm back to reading a magazine. This time I brought my own not-so-outdated publication -- The Oprah Magazine, April 2007. And as I sit here flipping and turning the pages, there is so much I want to tell you.

I'll be back with more. But for now, think about this:

"...see how the flesh grows back
across a wound, with a great vehemence,
more strong
than the simple, untested surface before.
There's a name for it on horses,
when it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh.
as all flesh
is proud of its wounds, wears them
as honors given out after battle,
small triumphs pinned to the chest."

Jane Hirshfield, From What Binds Us

I have a few small triumphs pinned to my chest -- they show in the form of surgery scars and radiation tattoos and puckered skin where a port once lived. Proud flesh. Stronger than the once untested surface. My honors for having survived a battle.

Today I offer you not so much a Thought for the Day but a Question for the Day. Before I ask my pressing question, though, I want you to consider this story.

Diagnosed with a rare malignant melanoma on her retina in 2001, Ann Guthrie, a South Carolina wife and mother of two grown sons, endured radiation and chemotherapy. The treatments shrunk Guthrie's tumor, but another mass appeared two years later, forcing the removal of her right eye.

At about the same time Guthrie lost her eye, cancer was discovered in her lungs. It was inoperable. Then cancer landed in her brain. And now, without any approved treatment avenues, Guthrie is out of options.

Like many people with terminal illnesses, this woman is willing to try just about anything -- a clinical trial, experimental drugs, risky treatments -- to extend her life. If she's going to die anyway, why not? She just might live longer. And if she doesn't, she could at least help advance science by offering herself up as a sort of guinea pig.

While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed changes that would make it easier for patients to access options like these, it's just not that simple right now.

There are ethical issues -- like weighing the needs of people who think anything is better than death against the need of society to prove drugs and treatments work safely. The only way to ensure a sort of balance is through clinical trials -- and letting anyone participate in clinical trials, for example, would make the results harder to interpret.

And there are medical and legal risks. What if terminally ill patients end up in worse shape after a treatment with an experimental drug, for example? What if the FDA or a physician is considered responsible for adverse drug reactions?

Denying terminal patients their last bits of hope is difficult. "It's a hard discussion to have with a patient and his family," says one doctor. "There's a lot of tears. We all would love to be able to get them access to some form of therapy."

And now for my question:

What do you think about terminally ill cancer patients and their access to anything that might extend -- or save -- their lives?

It can be a bit overwhelming and scary to read all the side effects on the sheet that the pharmacist gives with the medicine that has been prescribed by your physician. There always seems to be so many side effects that CAN happen. The thing is that most of the side effects are not life threatening and are mild. Some medications however do have severe side effects that if you are not aware of can prove to be deadly. This shouldn't happen of course if you are listening to what your doctor says and are being monitored closely.

It is important to read all the side effect information yourself and know what to look out for. In case something does happen that is abnormal, you will notice it sooner than later, and you can call or see your physician immediately.

In a report issued Tuesday, the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that 700,000 people a year, especially the elderly, experience adverse drug events that lead to emergency room visits. In patients 65 or older, one-third of the drug reactions were caused by three medicines: Coumadin, a blood thinner, insulin and Digoxin, a heart medication.

The important thing to remember is to ask about any other drugs you are taking and the interactions with the newly prescribed drug. The report I saw on this issue mentioned that about 30 percent of us are taking around five pills every day.

So ask the nurse at the doctors office to explain the side effects and you can also talk to your pharmacist about the drug. I went and got a prescription filled the other day and the pharmacist asked me if I had any questions about that specific drug. I didn't this time, but I liked that he asked.

UCLA researchers report that doctors are doing an inadequate job at communicating vital information to the patient about the medications they are prescribing. Open communication must be a part of the doctor/patient relationship. This open communication can most often avoid prescription drug misuses, overdoses and underuse.

A report released in 2004 by the National Center on Health Statistics said that almost half of Americans regularly take at least one prescription drug. Half of older patients take at least three or more each day. That is a lot of us. I myself take three separate medications everyday and I'm only 35. I know what they are and I know what they do and I also know their risks and side effects. I also have a pharmacist that always asks if I have any questions about the medication, which I like. I never ask any questions because I already asked my doctors and researched on the internet and found out what I needed to know. Its not that I just want to know what is going inside my body, I am interested in what the drugs actually do. How they work and why they work. It fascinates me so I like to know all the details.

Of course you don't have to be like me and want to know all the details but you should know what your taking and why. Mistakes can be made and you are your number one advocate. Its great to trust your doctor. I completely trust my oncologist but I still ask questions. Thousands of deaths are caused each year because of misuse of prescription drugs.

What you need to know according to the recommendations from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which is the federal agency charged with improving health care quality, is that all patients should be given basic information about the drugs that are being prescribed for them. You can find the list of questions here to ask your doctor.

The girls I know at the Young Survival Coalition website have discussions on many topics about the impact of cancer on our lives. Sometimes though someone comes up with an idea to lighten things up. Here are the most popular things we don't want to hear from our doctors...

1. When complaining to my plastic surgeon about the funky shape of my tissue expander, he said "Well, its sort of like a beach toy that is not fully inflated yet".
2. When asked to take part in a clinical trial suitable for stage II cancer I asked my oncologist "So that means I'm stage II then?". He said "Yeah at least!"
3. After taking samples of my tumor, my physician asked "Do you want to see them, they look like little tiny pieces of angel hair pasta?"
4. After discussing plastic surgery for breast cancer my plastic surgeon said "You know they are never going to look real".
5. When discussing with my oncologist about getting my port removed he said " Well, I guess we can put it back in if we need it".
6. Talking to my oncologist he says, "Well everything is fine, for now"
7. My primary oncologist asked me "So, who is your primary oncologist?"
8. My plastic surgeon remarks "I hate making nipples".
9. Arriving to get a mammogram a few years after a breast cancer diagnoses. "Why are you here?".

I found a book called Cancer Etiquette. The book was written by a woman who is a survivor of multiple myeloma and breast cancer. In this manners guide to cancer you can find advice on what to say to a cancer patient and what not to say. For example, only say "you look terrific" if the person really does look terrific.

The author Rosanne Kalick also tells us that we should be more specific when offering help to a cancer patient. Don't just say that you're there for them. Offer to do something tangible like cook a meal or baby-sit the kids. Rosanne talks about the distressing comments sometimes said to cancer patients and offers helpful advice on what should be said instead.

This book would be very helpful to caregivers, friends or family members of loved ones dealing with a life threatening illness.

I wrote another post a few days ago called Things not to say to a cancer patient. Well, here are some great things that were said to me when I was going through my cancer journey. These things helped tremendously!

• I will drive you to your chemo treatment.
• Here is some dinner I made for you and your husband.
• I would love to go wig shopping with you.
• Call me any time and I'll be here to talk.
• You still look beautiful to me bald.
• Here are some xanax!
• Can I give you a foot rub?
• Sure, I can take your nipple off and move it to where it belongs (plastic surgeon).
• I'll drive 2 hours to your house and go with you and stay while you get your breast biopsy and wait for the results.
• Hang in there.
• I love you.