Worklife doesn't stop once you've been diagnosed with cancer. Many women have to--and want to--work during and after treatment. Cancer and Careers offers information and tools to help working women manage their battle with cancer as effectively as they manage the rest of their lives.

One great tool on the website is the paperwork section where you can find many guides including help with insurance issues, disability, financial assistance, legal assistance, health insurance and your legal rights in the workplace.

Make sure you take advantage of the Charts/Checklists section. It is amazing that cancer can actually seem like another job. Keeping your life organized with appointment logs, treatment charts and drug logs can really make life easier.

There are also many other resources on this website including emotional support, inner strength and taking charge tips.

Seventy year old Ronald Baker says that "its hard to think about cancer on a growling bulldozer". He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and receives radiation daily, where he says is the only time during the day he thinks about having cancer.

Baker enjoys driving the two ton bulldozer and feels that staying busy is keeping his mind off of his cancer diagnosis and treatments. When he isn't working Ronald stays at Jack's Place, a temporary home for people needing long-term cancer treatments.

Ronald lives with his wife on a secluded ranch in Colorado where he rides horses and takes people on guided hunting trips in the winter. There wasn't a good treatment center available where he lives so he was referred to Jack's Place, a place he could live and find a job to keep busy during his radiation treatments.

Way to go Ronald!

In the news there has been a lot of questioning whether or not it is wise for someone diagnosed with cancer, and needs therapy or treatments to control their cancer, should still work or carry on with their life the way it was before cancer entered into their lives.

Its a good question -- but all cancer survivors or patients must make this decision themselves and should not be judged either way. Treatments can be physically mild or debilitating and everywhere in between.

I know women who are walking in Elizabeth Edward's shoes and have metastatic breast cancer. These women that I know might not be blazing the campaign trail but they are still keepin-on- keepin-on with life like it was before their breast cancer returned. They still get up and go to work, do the laundry, feed their children, all the normal things that you and I do everyday. Not to say that days can't be really tough, emotionally and physically. But I see women who are living with the disease -- really living and not giving up any of their dreams.

I can't really speak for women with metastatic disease, I can only talk about what I see, because I am not walking in their shoes and don't completely understand what it is like living with recurrent breast cancer.

Recurrent breast cancer can mean being on some kind of cancer treatment for the rest of your life, it can mean long times of remission or no evidence of disease.

Can it mean Elizabeth Edwards being first lady with metastatic breast disease? I think so.

Scientists from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing a tiny implant that will allow doctors to see what's happening with tumors from the inside out.

If all proceeds according to plan, doctors will one day be implanting tiny sensors inside tumors to determine whether or not cancer drugs are shrinking the tumors. The sensors will also determine whether or not tumors are growing.

Cancer specialists have long wished for better methods of measuring the success of drugs. While blood tests can show if a drug has reached the bloodstream, they don't reveal much about the tumor itself. This small silicone cube, no bigger than two millimeters on each side and embedded in a tumor or lymph node, would remain in the body throughout treatment while essentially broadcasting what's going on inside the tumor.

MIT scientists hope to begin animal experiments within months. Their goal is to one day make the implant as thin as the pieces of led used in mechanical pencils.

This research, funded by the National Cancer Institute, is part of a long-term project to make medical technologies that will cure cancer. It's all part of journey toward complete targeted cancer treatment. And this little implant will have the power to communicate whether or not these treatments are working.

Health care coverage for working Americans is like a brittle tree in a hard wind -- and the larger limbs are beginning to snap. Between the years 2000 to 2005, 6.8 million more people became uninsured according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. Current data estimates 46.6 million people are without health insurance coverage. As employer-based health insurance continues to fade, government programs are taking up the slack -- up to a point. But given the lack of funding, there is only so much that can be offered.

In a statement issued by the Center for American Progress, "These problems did not just happen: they resulted from flawed economic and health policies which force Americans to work more for less. When it returns after Labor Day, this Congress should act to mitigate these problems by passing a straightforward minimum wage increase and extend health funding for programs like the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Moreover, policy makers should recognize the need for major change, such as providing affordable health care to all Americans and taking action to address growing income inequality."

Some are calling for a government-based universal health care system that guarantees health care coverage for all Americans. Others are suggesting a mix of private and public health care coverage. What ever the solution, there certainly needs to be one.

We can start with a shift in perspective and change in expectation. If you are working full-time for a company, presumably your efforts are helping that company make a profit. Health insurance coverage should not be viewed as a luxury benefit, nor should the largest burden of health insurance premiums be shouldered by the employee whose earnings just meet living expenses. Yet, this is happening every day in this country. The hard wind continues to batter the brittle tree.

Personally, I am not sold on a government-run, government-backed universal health plan simply because I have covered too many horror stories about rationed care in other industrialized countries. It seems a combination of programs might be the solution but the government and our elected officials certainly need to be held accountable for implementing programs that insure all Americans.

American Public Health Association Georges Benjamin is quoted by United Press International as saying, ""This is the worst news we've had all year. Our nation is not secure if we're not healthy."

Kids can be so positive and encouraging, even in the face of sickness. Now today my kids have just a simple sickness -- nothing life-threatening -- that I'm sure will pass in a day or so. They are throwing up every content of their little tummies -- even sips of water -- and they are pale and lethargic and run-down. But still, they have hope for a brighter tomorrow. This morning, five-year-old Joey said to me while resting in my bed and just after he threw up , "this is just the good getting rid of the bad." He went on to explain how the good in our bodies knows when to push the bad out. And this is what is happening to him today, he said. He is throwing up the bad so the good can take over. Simple. Easy. Makes sense.

I never saw my own sickness like this. Instead of visualizing chemotherapy as a good agent that kills bad cells, I was repulsed by the horrific liquids that poisoned my body. I knew of people who were able to turn chemotherapy into a Pac-Man game -- with Pac Man chomping away at the cancer cells and leaving nothing but healthy cells to thrive. And I knew people who were relieved to feel sick because it meant the chemotherapy was working. I never saw it like this -- although I do know that chemotherapy may have saved me from a life with cancer. I was discouraged by chemotherapy. I had a negative attitude about it, and I had to really gear up for all of my infusions. I still -- more than one year later -- cannot eat anything I ate on my chemo days. The mere thought of these foods makes me feel ill.

A pediatrician friend of mine told me that kids with cancer tend to be positive. There are a few old souls, she said, but for the most part, they continue to tackle life with spirit and adventure and simplicity. Like my boys today who are peacefully napping at the moment so everything good in their bodies can come back with a vengeance.

If you count yourself among the working poor, or one of the vanishing middle-class in a constant struggle to make ends meet, do not read this -- it is not going to cheer you up.

The most significant and unavoidable risk factor that increases the chance of being diagnosed with cancer is the aging process. The older we get, the more susceptible we are to developing cancer. Because of this fact, research into the aging process, how we age, and why we age -- even if the research is not specifically looking at the link between aging and increased cancer risk -- still might one day provide some insight into the potential for reducing cancer risks associated with aging.

I remember reading that Barbara Delinsky, novelist and breast cancer survivor, never shared her diagnosis of cancer until well after her fight was over. She feared the news would somehow halt her career in the publishing world. She wanted to remain untainted by disease in the eyes of her readers and bosses so she saved her secret. The secret is out now -- and is also part of a book she wrote called Uplift: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivorship. She is in the clear now -- but she once feared the consequences of managing both cancer and her career.

The experts who offer a website resource at cancerandcareers.org believe that it is possible to combine cancer and career without fear or worry or secrecy. The advice provided on this site offers wisdom for working women and for employers and for co-workers. There is also a forum for shared stories -- where all of these individuals weigh in on their experiences. There are reading recommendations and a listing of available programs and services and a complete story about how this all came about.

Five years ago, the Board of Directors at Cosmetic Executive Women -- the preeminent nonprofit organization representing women in the U.S. and European beauty industries -- realized that five out of their 40 members had been diagnosed with cancer. Some told their colleagues at work and some did not. But all continued to work and experienced similar challenges. The fact is that work does not stop for all women who have been diagnosed with cancer. So the mission of this group is to help women, their employers, coworkers, and caregivers deal with this problem in the same way that they have learned to deal with problems at work -- strategically, knowledgeably, and effectively. With the right tools, stress and difficulty can be minimized. And this site is one great tool.

According to Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Dr. Susan Sabatino -- based on a study -- there are an estimated 660,000 uninsured cancer survivors in the US.

Because of the lack of medical insurance, or financial ability, two-thirds of uninsured cancer survivors younger than 65 delay seeking medical attention or skip buying needed prescriptions. The reason the study focused on people younger than 65 is because they do not qualify for Medicare health coverage.

Sabatino and her team share that they found almost 43 percent of cancer survivors with no health coverage said they had failed to get necessary prescription medicines due to cost concerns. In what can seem a normal life, your whole world collapses when you get a diagnose of cancer -- I cannot fathom the additional inner terror that someone diagnosed with cancer must face if they do not have health insurance or realize they cannot financially afford treatment or long-term aftercare.

Winners lose, - heroes cry
Wise men listen, - let sleeping dogs lie
The same is easy, - it's hard to change
Although the parts are there, - just rearranged

When things get old and lose there salt
And it's time to go,
ain't no one's fault
It's hard to let go,
harder to remain. -- Romancing the moon lyrics

Michael Troy, guitarist, singer and songwriter, is a two-time Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer survivor whose music reflects the lives of New England's hard-working common folk. In 1998, he was diagnosed with cancer, and then again with a recurrence seven years later. After chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant by stem cell replacement, he is again cancer-free.

According to those who have met him, or have listened him perform live, Troy is a magical storyteller with a gift for melody, a deep rich voice, excellent finger-pickin' skills and the ability to compose outstanding stanzas of substance. I discovered Troy while visiting Art of Survivorship, a place to discover phenomenally talented artists and musicians -- who also happen to be cancer survivors. My father, who was a musician and world traveler, once told me that music is a universal language that allowed him to be anywhere in the world and find a common connection with the people there through music. Music does seem to speak to a deeper part of who we are, and allows us to join others who are on healing paths.