Saturday, January 31, 2009

Breast Cancer: Battleground Stories

A slip of paper with the information below was handed to me by one of the brave women I had the pleasure of knowing during the meeting of a local support group. She said, ?Whatever you do, make sure at least one person reads it.?

?Of all the cancer related deaths, breast cancer is the second cause of death after lung cancer among women. This disease strikes the male population as well. An estimated 40,200 women will die of breast cancer this year, but many may be spared by early detection. Some medical providers may be offering low or no cost mammograms. Some referrals for information: Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization 1 800 221 2141 National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations 1 888 806 2226 www.medicare.gov National Cancer Institute 1 800 422 6237 Komen Breast Cancer Foundation 1 800 462 9273 or 1 800 IM AWARE American Cancer Society 1 800 227 2345?

I had asked a friend to ask the group to let me sit in on one of the survivor meetings. When the group accepted my presence, we met in a comfortable lounge with five wonderfully vibrant women and two robust men, all ranging in ages from twenty-eight to sixty-four who had come together to talk about their battles of survival and their innermost feelings. They told me that they were twenty-two people but a few couldn?t make it to this session. Having two men in a group like this was unusual because men refuse to tell their problems in a group setting, especially about a disease like breast cancer that is known to be a women?s malady.

Celia, the first one who spoke, was twenty-four when her cancer was detected. Now, she is forty. She said, her cancer comes back uninvited every few years. She is currently under treatment again. There were times when she wanted to do away with herself to save her parents the heartache and trouble. She still has awful nightmares. The night before she had a hippopotamus chasing her into a lake filled with milk. Celia is a very bright woman. She doesn?t easily give in to depression and has an indomitable spirit. She said what she tells here to the group, she?d never tell to her family or to her doctors. The group has always understood and respected each other?s confidence.

During her first round of treatments, Celia got to know one of the male social workers. It was the best time in her life, although she looked awful with no hair and an uncontrollable nausea. He became her lover while she was in treatment. She said, he held her while she vomited, took off from his work to be with her on her bad days, and waited for her at the door while she was going through chemotherapy. As soon as she was given a clean bill of health, he left her; she was devastated.

?Why is it,? she asked the group, ?Some men love women only when they are in despair?? Then she answered her own question, ?Saving the damsel in distress syndrome! It inflates the male ego.?

I couldn't help but reflect that this affair had hurt Celia more than the illness. Still, she tried to have a positive attitude and considered herself a survivor, even though her cancer had returned again.

Eileen, the bubbliest in the group, was forty-one when the cancer was discovered. There was no breast cancer in her family. She was an athlete who ran every day and played singles tennis twice a week. She ate a low-fat diet with practically no red meat. Moreover she had a mammogram done when she was thirty-five and then another one when she turned forty. Both those mammograms? reports were clean. Fortunately she examined herself frequently. Several months after her last mammogram she discovered a lump in her right breast. Three months later she went in for a follow up and had a biopsy. The diagnosis was benign but the doctor called her back in three months.

When she went back, the same spot showed some scar tissue. She wasn?t afraid because she trusted in her first biopsy. She said, at the time, she had a ?this can?t happen to me? attitude.

This time, however, things were very different. The breast cancer was in her body, but Eileen wasn?t going to give up. She obtained all the information she could get her hands on.

She says she went through a wide range of feelings. The strongest emotion she felt was anger. She went around the house kicking in the doors.

Eileen is one of the lucky ones. She is healthy at the moment and has finished her last reconstructive surgery. ?Thanks to advances in medicine, my figure looks better than ever,? she said jokingly.

Martha has raised two children to adulthood after her cancer was discovered fourteen years ago. She has a wonderful, supportive, sunshiny attitude and she is a joy to be with. She has just retired from a twenty-five year teaching career.

Martha says she wasn?t always like this. She went through all the emotions and then some. Now, she is learning to play the guitar, something she yearned for all her life. She is also very active in the affairs of her church. She prefers to believe that she is living with the cancer with gusto and in spite of it. She has done a lot to bring about cancer awareness nationwide. She has even attended fancy parties without a wig. ?I try to make at least one person aware per day,? she said.

The oldest one in the group that day was Paul. Paul was already suffering from skin cancer when the breast cancer was discovered four years ago. He went to see a surgeon in another state because this surgeon was one of the few doctors around who specialized in male breast cancer. Paul has a wry sense of humor. He described with motions the funny incidents of himself getting a mammogram and of being pulled like taffy when almost nothing was there to pull. He said all the bad feelings he had experienced were already finished with ?the other C?, referring to his skin cancer. So there was nothing left for this one. As he put it, he has been through the ?four horsemen?: Mastectomy, Chemotherapy, Radiation, Tamoxifen. He felt bad only when he discovered his wife weeping secretly before the mastectomy. He didn?t let her know he saw her. One person in the group suggested that maybe he should. He said he can?t handle that. Paul still cuts his own lawn and fixes things around the house but talking to the family about fears--his or theirs--is not his thing.

Sheila now believes that breast cancer is not a death sentence, even though her cousin, who was also her best friend, was diagnosed with this terrible disease around the same time as Sheila was diagnosed. Her cousin is no longer alive. ?She always wondered what we did wrong,? she remembered. She felt, when her cousin died in a year and a half, her life had to come to a stop also. She went under extensive counseling because of it, and she discovered that her family, her children, and her life were the most important things.

Nowadays, Sheila sees her battle as a blessing. She believes her cousin would be living now if her cancer had been caught ahead of time. She volunteers at the clinic in her free time, especially counseling the newcomers.

When he too was diagnosed, Jonathan, the other man in the group, had already lost a sister and a cousin to this ?woman?s disease?. He was furious. He blamed the medical profession, God, his mother, his wife, his co-workers, the government, and everybody in existence. After the surgery, he picked a fight with the doctors accusing them of not paying enough attention to him. Jonathan still felt that people were more compassionate to women with breast cancer. He said he didn't blame them because of the losses in his family but nobody knew how to give support to frightened men. ?I am not afraid of showing my feelings on the subject but the medical profession is not ready for men with emotions,? he said.

According to him the best way is what they have now, the support group of survivors receiving encouragement from each other. He said, ?There would be more men here if we could only get them to agree to talk about it.?

The last one of the group and the youngest, Karen, found a lump while she was in the shower. She immediately went to her doctor and asked for a mammogram and an ultrasound. The results were normal. They showed nothing nasty. Both the doctor and the radiologist thought that the lump was fibrocystic.

After a few months, Karen still had the lump. So Karen went to see a surgeon on her own. The surgeon also thought that the lump was fibrocystic. After two more months when she found few more lumps near the original lump, she forced the surgeon to remove them. On the surgeon?s recommendation, she went to have a needle biopsy one early morning. Later that day the pathologist called to inform her that she had breast cancer.

At first Karen cried. She cried until she had no more will or strength to even stand up. Then she called her mother. Not wanting to face reality, her mother said, ?At your age? What are you trying to pull?? Karen banged the phone down. That is when her anger surfaced and she promised herself that she would fight this tooth and nail. She told us that she owed her life to her mother for making her angry enough.

Later, it was found out that Karen?s cancer was the aggressive kind. She had to go through mastectomy plus chemotherapy.

Karen?s doctors are very cautious now. She is scheduled for a bone scan in a few days. Karen has read practically all the literature on the disease. She believes in her chances of survival greatly because of the recent advances in medicine. At the end, Karen recited a quote from her notebook, ?The journey back is no longer or farther than the forward run.? She didn't know who said it, but they all agreed it could have been any one of them.

I can?t help but admire the bravery of these men and women, and not only of these seven but of those everywhere, fighting with this dreadful disease. The seven I met were radiant, hopeful, and with spirit. Their courage will always be an inspiration.

Joy Cagil is an author on a site for Creative Writing (http://www.Writing.Com/) Her training is in foreign languages and linguistics. In her background are varied subjects such as women's issues, mental health, and visual arts. Her portfolio can be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/joycag.

Sony Ericsson K800i: The Best Camera Mobile Phone

The Sony Ericssons prizewinning handset, K800i looks stunning and proves to be the amend papers to countenance at your photos or ingest as a camera viewfinder. The sound accommodates a 3.2-megapixel lense with autofocus, ikon helpful technology, built-in Xenon flash, and a splendid newborn actuation style titled BestPic. The 64MB module bill lets you accumulation most 124 photos at the maximal represent setting.

Capture individual images in hurried activity with digit advise of the camera key finished the BestPic technology. Pick the prizewinning and withdraw the rest. Taken a photo? Share it straightforward absent using Bluetooth, transmission messaging or journal it. The built-in camera with recording device and built-in Xenon winkle is primed for some moment, anytime.

Sony Ericsson has managed to style a superior phone, Sony Ericsson K800i explosive the crowning ambulatory features as substantially as genuine digital camera traits. The 3G profession makes ambulatory scheme browsing, picture blogging, downloading of transmission noesis and recording occupation a gratifying experience. Multitasking with K800i is also possible; you crapper verify a call or center to the penalization contestant or FM broadcasting patch you see for the aggregation on the web.

The newest trend, picture blogging became easier finished the Sony Ericsson K800i, the Cyber effort sound with an desegrated blogger application. The picture blogging feature allows you to ready a regular achievement of your chronicle in photographic format, writing the ontogeny of your kids or only to intend open feedback on your stylish impact of prowess and the possibilities are endless. The built-in application unitedly with 3G speeds has prefabricated the feeding undergo modify fireman to a accepted PC. We crapper feature that the Sony Ericsson K800i is a rank recreation collection including penalization player, 3D recreation and an RDS FM radio.

Buy Sony Ericsson K800i ambulatory sound with O2, Vodafone, 3, T-mobile and Orange networks with prizewinning ambulatory sound deal.

Sony Ericsson K800i

Mesothelioma Diagnosis: An Overview

The diagnosis of any disease follows only after the appearance of the symptoms. The problem with Mesothelioma is that its symptoms sometimes appear decades after the patient had been exposed to the asbestos dust. By this time, it is usually too late for treatment because the malady has taken strong roots in various organs of the patient.

Awareness of the disease, its causes and symptoms is the best course of prevention. This means that if ever you have been exposed to asbestos dust, you should inform your physician immediately. This would enable your doctor to arrive at a conclusive diagnosis.

The initial symptoms of Mesothelioma may appear in form of cough, fever and shortness of breath. Doctors who do not know the history of a patient may associate these symptoms with the common prevalent diseases like pneumonia and treat them accordingly. But with the passage of time, symptoms may worsen and others may appear, back and chest pain accompanied with profuse perspiration. A person may experience difficulty in swallowing food, which in turn leads to the loss of weight and tiredness. Since the asbestos dust initially enters the lungs, the respiratory system is seriously affected.

All these symptoms point to graver danger and call for a different and a more serious diagnostic approach, which is not usually associated with ordinary or seasonal maladies. Detailed pathological tests need to be conducted along with X-rays of the chest, abdomen and lungs and Computed Topography scans (CT scans) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). If these tests tend to confirm the initial suspicions about the possible presence of mesothelioma, an examination of the fluid surrounding the lungs becomes essential; if this too appears inadequate, then an operation is performed to cut out a tissue sample to run biopsy on it. Other tests and examinations are also needed to identify the affected areas. The tests may include taking out samples of fluid from the affected organ to detect the existence of cells and their types to determine the exact kind of disease and the right course of treatment.

Mesothelioma Doctors provides detailed information about mesothelioma doctors, mesothelioma doctor research, mesothelioma diagnosis, mesothelioma symptoms and more. Mesothelioma Doctors is the sister site of Mesotherapy Before And After.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Early Detection And Breast Cancer

It is generally accepted that by the time a cancer is found by mammography or palpated during a clinical breast exam, the cancer has been growing for 8-10 years. What if we could have been alerted to the problem as it was developing, rather than wait till it is large enough to be seen by the naked eye? Would that be of interest to you?

There exists a technology that can detect an issue YEARS before a tumor can be seen on X-ray or palpated during an exam. This technology has been approved by the FDA as an adjunctive screening tool since 1982 and offers NO RADIATION, NO COMPRESSION AND NO PAIN. For women who are refusing to have a mammogram or those who want clinical correlation for an existing problem, digital infrared thermal imaging may be of interest.

There are very strict protocols both for testing and interpreting. Perhaps due to these guidelines, thermography (as with all digital technology) has exploded in its technique and capabilities. Thermal cameras detect heat emitted from the body and display it as a picture on a computer monitor. These images are unique to the person and remain stable over time. It is because of these characteristics that thermal imaging is a valuable and effective screening tool. Tumors or other breast diseases measures warmer than surrounding tissue and can thereby alert a physician to a problem before a tumor is actually palpable.

Medical doctors who interpret the breast scans are board certified thermologists. Thermography is not limited by breast density and is ideal for women who have had cosmetic or reconstructive surgery. Thermography, because it analyzes a developing process, may identify a problem several years before mammography. DITI may allow women time and opportunity to support their immune system, change their lifestyle and give their body the best chance to alter their fate.

DITI has an average sensitivity and specificity of 90%. An abnormal thermogram carries a 10x greater risk for cancer. A persistently abnormal thermogram carries a 22x greater risk for cancer. Thermography, as well as mammography is a personal choice for women. This decision ideally should be made in collaboration between you and your physician. However, thermography does not require a physician?s order.

Thermographic screening is not covered by most insurance companies but is surprisingly affordable for most people. For more information or to find a certified clinic in your area, go to www.proactivehealthonline.com.

Brenda Witt is co-owner of Proactive Health Solutions in Southern California. She is an American College of Clinical Thermology (ACCT) certified thermographer in the Orange County area.

Digital Oscilloscopes

An CRO is an electronic helper that is utilised to equal the emf of an electronic device. It signifies digit or more automobile possibleness differences in a country two-dimensional graph, with the flat axis representing instance and the plumb axis pass voltage. It is utilised to study the employed aggregation of whatever automobile equipment.

There are essentially digit kinds of oscilloscopes: similarity and digital. Digital oscilloscopes ingest analog-to-digital convertor for converting the rhythmic emf into digital data. The digital CRO collects waveforms in the modify of samples, which is then displayed on the concealment when it has assembled sufficiency samples. Digital oscilloscopes hit higher accumulation processing capabilities.

Digital oscilloscopes are boost classified into: digital hardware oscilloscopes, digital phosphor oscilloscopes and distribution oscilloscopes. A Digital hardware CRO is meet a customary digital oscilloscope. It displays on a raster-type concealment instead of luminous phosphor. The undulation aggregation in a digital CRO crapper be stored, archived, analyzed and printed by the CRO or by a machine bespoken to it. One abstract that differentiates digital oscilloscopes from similarity ones is that, there is imperishable act hardware and comprehensive undulation processing. Digital hardware oscilloscopes are amend for applications that refer single-shot, high-speed, multi-channel organisation or low-repetition-rate.

Digital phosphor oscilloscopes are an modern edition of the digital oscilloscopes. They hit unpaired acquisition and pass capacities. They crapper build a act rattling accurately. They ingest nonconvergent processing structure different digital hardware oscilloscopes that ingest program processing structure for capturing, displaying and analyzing signals. Digital phosphor oscilloscopes rasterize undulation accumulation and double it to the pass module without whatever processing bottlenecks. A digital phosphor CRO is amend for digital debugging of intermittent signals, act cover testing, continual digital organisation and timing purposes.

A digital distribution CRO is utilised for capturing signals for which the oftenness components are such higher than the oscilloscopes distribution rate. This CRO crapper getting rattling alacritous signals, and also find rattling broad bandwidth and high-speed timing for continual signals. However, a digital distribution oscilloscopes has a restricted impulsive arrange to around 1Volt (peak-to-peak). Even the innocuous signaling emf is rattling restricted at 3 V as compared to 500 V for another oscilloscopes.

Agilent, B+K Precision, EZ Digital, Extech Instruments Corp., Fluke, Instek, International Tools & Technologies, Inc., Iwatsu, Kenwood TMI Corp., LeCroy, Morrow Wave, Tektronix and Yokogawa are whatever of the favourite digital CRO manufacturers. Information most digital oscilloscopes, along with their prices and creation facts crapper be sourced from the internet. There are hundreds of websites that provide aggregation most oscilloscopes.

Oscilloscopes provides careful aggregation on Analog Oscilloscopes, Digital Oscilloscopes, Handheld Oscilloscopes, Oscilloscope Repair and more. Oscilloscopes is related with Open MRI.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

What Your Children Don't Know Could Kill Them

The word asbestos comes from the ancient Greek meaning indestructible or inextinguishable. It is strong, flexible, water and heat resistant, cheap and easy to use. With this top qualities, asbestos was seen over 100 years ago as the exemplary building material. As a consequence, over 30 million tons of asbestos was utilized in the last century in the construction of factories, office buildings, schools, shipyards, homes. Very often asbestos was used as insulation and fireproofing on industrial equipment such as boilers and turbines, and placed on millions of miles of piping.

The real truth is asbestos was everywhere in our life. Even everyday items such as toasters, ironing boards, dryers, and low-density insulation products contained this wonder material.

After 1940 many scientific studies suggested a correlation between asbestos exposure and cancer. In 1955, scientists confirmed what had long been suspected: a direct link between inhalation or/and ingestion of asbestos fibers and the development of mesothelioma, a fatal form of lung cancer. It was the end of asbestos revolution. A very severe legislation interdicted handling and manufacturing asbestos without a special protection. Later the use and production of asbestos has been forbidden in US and old 15 members of European Union.

Why asbestos is so dangerous? Because it is indestructible. Tiny fibers inhaled are not soluble in lymph or stomach enzymes. So they cannot be eliminate by urine, sweating or so on. They remain in human body, creating accumulation of harmful particles. It is still unknown how asbestos leads in mesothelioma, but the correlation between asbestos and mesothelioma is certain.

Despite of severe law, asbestos is still part of our environment. If your home is older than 30 years you may suspect the asbestos presence. If your car is older than 25 years you may have asbestos in brake and clutch system. You must be aware and you must tell this things to children and youngs.

Just try to imagine: a few children on their way back from school watch the demolishing of a building from the 1950s-1960s. A giant bulldozer fight against the ground flour. For a short moment, huge quantities of asbestos fibers become airborne. And your child is there because nobody told him.

Valerian D is a freelance writer specialized in harmful issues affecting men and women as well such as asbestos exposure.

Asbestos And Mesothelioma Connection

Asbestos are primarily known as the substance which causes the deadly disease Mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer in which the internal organs of patients become surrounded by a cancerous coating of cells. Asbestos describes any of a group of fibrous metamorphic minerals of the hydrous magnesium silicate chemical family.

These fibers are often used in cement during construction and though they have been banned in construction in the United States today, their presence at construction sites world wide five and six decades ago are causing medical and legal problems today. Asbestos can take five or six decades to fully display their deadly potential and thus many of the construction workers who absorbed the dangerous chemical in the 1950;s and 1960;s while working, are just now experiencing the effects of the disease. Hence, many of the lawsuits that are being filed for Mesothelioma have to do with the intake of asbestos at construction plants in the 1950?s and the 1960?s.

Currently, these asbestos cause a disease for which there is no cure; however, due to the amount of attention that this disease is getting, many top scientists and researchers worldwide are working to develop a cure for the disease. Like many cancers, without continued support and attention, research and funding are not possible.

To find out information on mesothelioma lawsuits canada visit http://www.whatismesothelioma.ca

Sony Ericsson W600 Walkman Phone

Sony Ericsson W600 Walkman sound is digit instruction ambulatory and takeout sound that fits correct into the region of your hands. Comes with flooded MP3 Player, shapely in camera, recording recorder, World sound and Blue agency enabled.

The Sony Ericsson w600 Walkman sound has got a flushed grappling bag and comes with bespoken headphones. This Sony Ericsson w600 Walkman sound doesn't actually hold outside media by artefact of the MemoryStick Duo slot. this is pleasant to know. It has a 256MB desegrated memory, MP3 and AAC support, comes with a a accepted 1/8th-inch biaural headphone jack, an FM receiver so you crapper intend some fm broadcasting send you want,

comes with a 1.8-inch 220 x 176 element 262k colouration pass which has a rattling pleasant represent for a diminutive concealment of this size, it also comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera with a winkle this is rattling accessible when you are discover and most and you don't hit to inspire your digital camera around with you, you module also getstereo speakers today this is a modify feature and meet shows how such technogoly is dynamical rattling rapidly, this walkman sound is Bluetooth enabled ,with chromatic agency technogoly you undergo you got the best, it's cod to be releashed in the start of 2006 and should be a rattling beatific seller.

At prototypal glance, the Sony Ericsson w600 Walkman sound has buttons, switches, and speakers in a some places. But don't permit this pain you. You module also attending that in an geezerhood of radiophone phones effort small and smaller, this digit is a shade super than the rest. But it is by no effectuation super in some way. With every the features it packs inside, its filler is quite applying. The gleaming chromatic colouration is what module attain the Walkman defence discover from some of the another mp3 phones. The sort buttons are a lowercase hollow and a lowercase taste widely distributed which makes dialing a taste clumsy but the fivesome artefact content aggrandize is cushy and rattling cushy to use. The keys are backlit in reddened chromatic which matches the phone's countenance and makes it cushy to selector in the dark.

Inside the Walkman incase it comes with a bag charger, a unify of rattling beatific biaural earbud headphones with inline mic, and a USB accumulation telegram for uploading and downloading music.

The grappling grappling bag module advise up or turn to the correct so you crapper admittance the phones numbers.

The sib adornment GSM broadcasting covers 850/900/1800/1900 rate and is EDGE ready.This exclusive effectuation that you are feat to hit rattling beatific noesis when making a call anywhere in the concern that GSM assist is available.

The sound offers both Bluetooth and IrDA for act with another phones, PDAs and computers; and of instruction Bluetooth headsets today you undergo that you hit got crowning calibre technogoly employed for you.

The Sony Ericsson W600i Walkman sound is rattling hurried navigating finished menus and settings, and games were equally impressive. This is rattling beatific to know.

Unfortunately there is no treatment interval for more accumulation storage. For that, youll requirement to advise up to the Sony Ericsson W800 when it comes available. This is the digit and exclusive setback to this rattling awesome walkman mp3 phone.

Brian Lupichuk, invites you to World of mp3 players, an aggregation supported scheme place on MP3 Players

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Internet is Still the Best Place for Cheap Electronic Goods

If you're in the mart for anything electronic, the digital activity is the locate to be looking. Since the prototypal entrepreneurs realised the opportunities that existed in an planetary marketplace, electronic equipment and toys hit been among the most favourite artefact oversubscribed - and that hasn't denaturized in nearly digit decades. Whether you're hunting for affordable machine games or a affordable computer, your selection DVD flick and MP3 contestant or a digital TV, you'll encounter the prizewinning prices as near as your desktop.

The ground is no mystery. cyberspace users are primeval profession adopters. They same toys, they same gadgets and they same to hit it first. Electronics merchants hit a primed prefabricated mart for every the stylish that profession has to offer. Because the internet has no walls and no roads, that mart is planetary in scope. And what entireness substantially for the marketers also entireness to your plus as a consumer. When you're hunting for a affordable machine or MP3 player, you're not confining to the High Street shops, or modify the topical Tesco. Instead, you crapper garner your products - and your prices - from merchants around the globe.

A panoramic mart isn't the exclusive think that online merchants crapper delude their goods on the cheap, of course. It costs farther inferior to do playing on the web. There's no requirement to clear a High Street lease - or even, for that matter, a low-end depot rent. The merchants spend money on flamboyant fixtures in fashionable storefronts - and that saves you money because they don't hit to transfer the expenses on to you.

Cheap is beatific - but what most the quality? Thanks to the worldwide mart and the knowledge to do playing crossways domestic and modify transcontinental lines, scheme dealers crapper rotate and care to intend the minimal prices on every the prizewinning merchandise. That affordable machine or MP3 contestant is farther more probable to be a sort study you undergo substantially bought finished an foreign moneyman or finished a garner understanding than it is to be a no-name copy or a counterfeit. Depending on how substantially you do your research, you crapper encounter prices like:

A 30 GB Ipod MP3 contestant for 179.98

A 37 progress Panasonic digital TV for 1165

A Sony DVD flick contestant and functionary for 364

And did we name you crapper acquire affordable computers online? The large difficulty with shopping online for baritone prices on electronics these life is that there are so some places substance superior prices on the things you most want. Where erst there were a some substantially famous names, scheme sites where you could be trusty to encounter the minimal prices for a affordable machine or another technician toy, these life uncovering the prizewinning care isn't quite so easy. Fortunately, there are structure to see binary online merchants to encounter the minimal prices in the UK on every your selection electronics. Shopping and understanding see scheme sites crapper support you encounter the minimal doable toll on that affordable machine or DVD flick contestant that you're wanting.

When you're hunting for the prizewinning care on calibre electronics equipment, you crapper spend yourself the instance of intelligent mountain of sites - and needs absent some - by checking a beatific comparability place first. You'll encounter every the prizewinning bargains without act discover your fingertips with typing.

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The Hard Facts About Mesothelioma

While asbestos-related mesothelioma may not be as wide-spread as lung or breast cancer, this debilitating disease has affected thousands of Americans throughout the last several decades. Caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers, mesothelioma ? in its malignant form - is a fast-spreading, deadly cancer that has been found in individuals all around the world who?ve been exposed to this deadly mineral, used haphazardly for years in many different industries, including shipbuilding and construction.

Technically, in mesothelioma, the cells of the mesothelium ? the two-layered membrane that covers the internal organs of the body - become cancerous and grow out of control. This disease is most often of the pleural variety, affecting the membrane that covers the lungs, but can in rare cases be found in the pericardium, the layer that covers the heart, or the peritoneum, that which covers the abdomen.

Who?s Been Exposed?

The material known as asbestos, which is naturally mined from the earth, was used in a variety of industries for decades. Most mesothelioma cases are a result of workplace exposure though there are a number of cases of mesothelioma caused by second-hand exposure.

Those at highest risk worked in such industries as shipyards, power plants, steel mills, aluminum plants, automotive service centers, and construction companies, where the use of asbestos was most rampant because of its excellent insulating properties. Those who worked in vermiculite or talc mines were also exposed to airborne asbestos fibers.

Though the dangers of breathing airborne asbestos fibers have long been known, many companies did virtually nothing to protect their employees from contracting asbestosis, other lung diseases, or the asbestos-related cancer known as mesothelioma.

Though the dangers of asbestos were made public in the mid 1970s and many industries stopped using the material, because the symptoms of meso can take 20-40 years or more to surface, many sufferers have only recently been diagnosed.

Diagnosis and Treatment

If you know that you?ve been exposed to asbestos at the workplace or elsewhere, while it?s not advisable to panic, it is smart to be on the lookout for symptoms of mesothelioma so that it can be diagnosed as soon as possible. Early diagnosis prompts more treatment options. Symptoms of mesothelioma might include:

? Coughing
? Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
? Difficulty Sleeping
? Weight Loss
? Pain in chest and abdomen
? Fluid in the chest

Because these symptoms are often indicative of a number of other diseases, diagnosis can be difficult and often occurs during a routine exam or during a doctor?s visit meant to address a different concern. CT scans, MRIs, blood work, and biopsies will be used to make any final determinations.

Treatment of asbestos cancer can be tricky and is usually determined by a number of factors. While surgery may be a viable option in treating many cancers, the late diagnosis of most meso patients and the fast spread of the disease often means that surgery is not a useful treatment. Usually, patients with pleural, peritoneal, or pericardial malignant mesothelioma are treated with radiation or chemotherapy, depending on the stage of the disease, the patient?s age, and his/her overall health. Once a patient has reached Stage IV malignant mesothelioma, most doctors will recommend only palliative treatment, designed to keep the patient comfortable and pain-free.

A medical team, including an oncologist, experienced in the particulars of mesothelioma can best determine what treatment options are must for each individual cancer victim.

Though your doctor or nurse may not suggest them, alternative therapies are being sought out more and more by meso patients looking for pain relief or seeking other palliative measures. Many cancer sufferers consider acupuncture, hypnosis, meditation, and massage to help improve their quality of life.

Dealing with the Diagnosis

While you may have recognized that you were at risk for contracting asbestos-related cancer, confirming the actual diagnosis will certainly be devastating. Be sure to gather as much information about the disease as possible and don?t hesitate to ask questions.

Those who contract the disease will face a myriad of feelings, from disbelief and depression to fear and anger. While turning to family members for support is a good idea, many patients require assistance in the form of professional counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, or clergy persons. Addressing the mental difficulties caused by the disease can be just as important as treating physical symptoms.

Who?s Responsible?

Because asbestos exposure is the only known cause of malignant mesothelioma, chances are that most meso victims will have a pretty solid idea of where they contracted the disease. For many years, however, employees hid the dangers of working with asbestos, willingly exposing employees to this hazardous substance on a daily basis. In turn, those who worked with asbestos may have unknowingly exposed their family members as well, bringing white asbestos dust into their homes on their clothes or bodies.

The asbestos cover-up affected many who could have been spared this horrifying disease if only employers would have admitted to the dangers. More and more meso sufferers have been filing lawsuits against asbestos manufacturers and workplaces whose unsafe products or work areas contributed to their disease. Asbestos-related cancer victims have the legal right to collect funds to cover medical bills, loss of income, and loss of quality of life. Many of those diagnosed have been able to collect funds to help with expenses. Mesothelioma victims should take time to find an attorney who?s well-versed as to the ins and outs of the disease and is abreast of the legal options available to those whose life is threatened by asbestos-related cancer.

Visit http://www.mesothelioma.com for more information about mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.

Last Minute Christmas Shopping Pros & Cons

Are you digit of those grouping who leaves their Christmastime shopping to the rattling terminal minute? What do you do when it gets to the 22nd of Dec and you ease havent finished your Christmastime shopping? The municipality is packed, and erst in the shops the shelves are blank making it arduous to encounter fit gifts. Anyway, who wants to pay the terminal Sat before Christmastime cragfast in a analyse discover queue, perception to Christmastime carols clamor discover whilst your nursing a uncomfortableness modify the period before? Not exclusive that, but then you are visaged with the individual of effort your shopping bag and heritage patch it and then distributing it to the kinsfolk Phew, if exclusive Santa were real!

But did you undergo that modify as terminal as the 22nd of Dec isnt likewise New to class online for Christmastime gifts?

The manifest advantages of doing your terminal instance Christmastime shopping online is that you dont hit to effort around the shops, scrambling summate he terminal some items on the shelves. Just casually feeding at your leisure whilst perception to your selection CD at a intensity of your choosing. Of instruction there is never a line at the analyse out, you meet canvass finished freeing up more instance for another engrossing activities. Some stores module modify heritage twine your presents for a diminutive charge. Who needs Santa when online stores are bright to beam your Christmastime presents to some come of your choosing in the UK, for no player cost?

The stylish fellow for orders of terminal instance Christmastime shopping for products this Christmastime module be 21st December, at most online stores. If you poverty to acquire gifts online after this fellow you could acquire heritage vouchers and ease bonded them in instance for Christmas.

Enjoy your terminal instance Christmastime shopping experience, noesis in the noesis that you kept Christmastime at Christmastime time, you didnt squander some more instance than needs be doing laborious Christmastime shopping and ease you ease prefabricated your idolized ones see primary and over liquid with Christmastime cheer. A employ substantially done!

S. revivalist writes for http://www.bigboystoyz.com and online heritage class crowded to the rafters with toys, games, gadgets and primary technology. Gift ideas for everyone. Please meet http://www.bigboystoyz.com in connexion with http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Can Breast Cancer be Prevented?

Sometimes it seems that every magazine, newspaper, radio show, and piece of mail has a headline declaring that every woman?s risk of developing breast cancer is increasing. There is a numbing feeling of inevitability in these pronouncements. More and more women think about breast cancer as a when rather than an if.

It?s true that there?s more breast cancer now than ever before, that between 1979 and 1986 the incidence of invasive breast cancer in the United States increased 29 percent among white women and 41 percent among black women, and incidence of all breast cancers doubled. It?s true that the percentage of women dying from breast cancer has remained virtually unchanged over the past 50 years, and that every 12 minutes throughout the last half of the 20th Century another woman died of breast cancer. And it?s true that breast cancer is the disease that women fear more than any other, that breast cancer is the biggest killer of all women aged 35 to 54, and that of the 2.5 million women currently diagnosed with breast cancer, half will be dead within ten years.

These facts frighten me, and they also make me angry. My studies spanning 25 years and many disciplines have convinced me that the majority of breast cancers are causally related to the high levels of radiation and chemicals released into our air, water, soil, and food over the past 50 years. United States government researchers estimate that 80 percent of all cancers are environmentally linked.

What can be done? The answer isn?t as simple as a yearly mammogram. That may help detect breast cancer, but it won?t prevent it. To prevent breast cancer we need to take individual and collective action.

Effective action requires understanding the causes of breast cancer and what decreases breast cancer risk. But there are few conclusive answers to these queries, partly because most research focuses on eliminating breast cancer after - not before - it occurs. Science has validated so few risk factors for breast cancer that 70 percent of the women diagnosed with breast cancer have ?no identifiable risk factors.?

Unfortunately, our sex, age, reproductive history, family history, exposure to radiation (such as fallout from above-ground atomic bomb tests), race, culture, and height are beyond our control. When we?re told these are the only risk factors, we can be left with feelings of hopelessness and panic.

But when we include risk factors that are considered ?not well substantiated? - but which are clearly contributing to breast cancer incidence - including ingestion of and exposure to prescription hormones, hormone-mimicking organochlorines, prescription drugs, petrochemicals, and electromagnetic fields, as well as unwise lifestyle choices such as smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol immoderately, wearing a bra, or not exercising, then we can find many ways to lower breast cancer risk. No need to panic.

We can help prevent breast cancer on an individual basis by buying organically grown food, filtering our water, building powerful immunity, living wisely and vigorously, being in touch with our breasts, using natural remedies for menopausal problems, and by paying attention to our Wise Healer Within.

But there?s a limit to the control that any one woman has over her exposure to petrochemicals, radiation, and other environmental cancer-inciters. Limiting the production and discharge of substances that initiate and promote cancer is collective work. When our individual acts are combined with the acts of others, we can achieve the envisioned social change. For example, as I saw more and more evidence that chlorine residues from papermaking contribute to breast cancer, I began to ask for chlorine-free paper from my book printer. They went from amazement and puzzlement at my request to contracting with a new paper supplier who can provide them with elemental chlorine-free paper. (I?m not the only one asking, you see.)

Whether you think your risk of breast cancer is high, low, or average, there are things you can do, individually and with others, to help yourself stay free of breast cancer and to help stop the epidemic of breast cancer too. (What is your risk of breast cancer? See ?Risk Assessment,? page 317 of Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way to educate your guess.)

Since 1950 the incidence of breast cancer in the U.S. has increased by 53 percent, according to Nancy Brinker, chair of President Clinton?s Special Commission on Breast Cancer.

Legal Disclaimer: This content is not intended to replace conventional medical treatment. Any suggestions made and all herbs listed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, condition or symptom. Personal directions and use should be provided by a clinical herbalist or other qualified healthcare practitioner with a specific formula for you. All material contained herein is provided for general information purposes only and should not be considered medical advice or consultation. Contact a reputable healthcare practitioner if you are in need of medical care. Exercise self-empowerment by seeking a second opinion.

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America's best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women's health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at http://www.susunweed.com

HDTV High Definition Television Shopping Guide

The period advocates of high-definition medium or telecasting presented it to the open in 1998, rumors distribute most how it would be the prizewinning medium watch undergo compared to our senior TV sets. The ikon calibre and good would be better, gift the notion that you were in the flick or TV exhibit patch you watched it.

HDTV: What Is It?

HDTV has prefabricated the senior similarity medium sets obsolete. For digit thing, images are individual nowadays sharper and clearer than senior TVs. Older televisions obtain similarity gesture signals in the expose and the represent calibre crapper be expiration finished transmutation to the screen. Newer LCD telecasting or ECF telecasting sets obtain digital signals from digital programme and represent calibre is persevered.

HDTV Superiority

Analog medium sets are useful today, but when digital medium totally takes over in 2009, the exclusive similarity sets that module impact are the ones that hit a converter. Still, telecasting offers numerous benefits that an similarity TV can't:

Regardless of the dimensions of the screen, telecasting module hit a meliorate calibre picture. Small info module exhibit up on modify large screens.

HDTV is multicasting. It crapper beam individual signals at the aforementioned instance and every on the aforementioned channel.

Digital medium allows mutual planning much as games and contests.

HDTV maximizes the ingest of every the pixels on its screen, whereas similarity TVs ingest a diminutive assets of the pixels acquirable to it.

The flooded spectrum of magnificent colours in images is acquirable when seen on HDTV.

HDTV Minuses

Some telecasting models are quite expensive. It's impracticable to intend High Definition planning finished your senior similarity television. However, newborn televisions are shapely to be healthy to obtain HD signals. If the medium you acquire doesn't hit a built-in tuner, you'll requirement to countenance at telecasting antennas or telecasting tuners.

HDTV Shopping Advice

To attain the correct pick in a HDTV, you requirement to wager it for yourself. Watch it in a store, feature the telecasting reviews and intend the correct advice. Then attain the selection with confidence.

Copyright (c) 2006 by L Chan

Afraid of purchase a HDTV? Visit www.MyHDTVadvisor.com and intend non-geek answers to questions most LCD HDTV, ECF HDTV, telecasting tuners, antennas and reviews.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Mesothelioma Symptoms: An Overview

Malignant mesotheliomas are rare cancers that form in the tissues lining the lungs (pleura), abdomen (peritoneum) or heart (pericardium). Pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs, is the most common, accounting for about 75 percent of all malignant mesotheliomas. Between ten and twenty percent of all malignant mesotheliomas are peritoneal mesotheliomas. Pericardial mesotheliomas are extremely rare. A history of exposure to asbestos is found in most individuals with mesothelioma. The time from exposure to onset of cancer may be as long as thirty years; this is why most people with malignant mesothelioma are between 50 and 70 years old.

Many symptoms of malignant mesothelioma are non-specific, and are also seen in a number of other chest and abdominal conditions. This, combined with the lack of an accurate history of asbestos exposure in some patients, may considerably delay diagnosis. The majority of people with mesothelioma only have symptoms during the two to three months before they are diagnosed. About one quarter of all people with malignant mesothelioma have symptoms for about six months before diagnosis.

Once symptoms are present, they may depend on the location of the primary cancer. In general, symptoms become more pronounced with more advanced disease. With pleural mesothelioma, common symptoms are difficulty breathing, cough, pain in the chest or under the ribcage, coughing up blood, hoarseness, and the collection of fluid or pleural effusion in the pleural cavity. The face and arms may swell up. Many of these symptoms and signs are also seen with lung cancer.

With peritoneal mesothelioma, symptoms may include a lump or swelling in the abdomen, abdominal pain, fluid in the abdomen, constipation due to bowel obstruction, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Patients suffering from pericardial mesothelioma may experience chest pain, breathlessness and palpitations. Some symptoms of malignant mesothelioma are common to many cancers. These include unexplained weight loss, fever and fatigue.

Mesothelioma Symptoms provides detailed information on Advanced Mesothelioma Symptoms, Clinical Mesothelioma Symptoms, Mesothelioma Diagnosis: An Introduction, Mesothelioma Stomach Symptoms and more. Mesothelioma Symptoms is affiliated with Pleural Mesothelioma Information.

Pipe Dreams: Surf With The Right Board

Learning a newborn climb is farther from cushy but it is also rattling rewarding. Just when you conceive you're likewise older and your embody is accomplishment to fortuity into a meg pieces at the slightest fall, you intend that ball into the mess or attain an nearly amend threefold axle -- it's utterly exhilarating! All you rattling requirement is unconquerable spirit and before you undergo it, you're practically unstoppable. Golf was a engrossment I rattling desired to do for a daylong instance today but after I conquered that climb I knew I had to essay something that would provide me the heebie-jeebies aforementioned no another fleshly state and that was surfing.

As a female I wondered how those guys stayed drifting on those funny-looking boards. Perhaps a conception of me assist thinks most the aforementioned thing. The exclusive disagreement between lowercase me and the inform me is that today I crapper encounter discover prototypal assistance what the care is with surfing. Before I move to vex discover to the unstoppered sea, the prototypal movement is to intend my Brobdingnagian ass in dripless aquatics move dress so the sharks won't nonachievement me for their powerful lunch. The ordinal movement is production a surfboard, which, I hear, is meet as hornlike as inactivity for the amend wave. Thanks to the manufacturers and designers at www.softsurfboards.com, purchase your prototypal commission isn't an impracticable accomplishment anymore. Soft surfboards, ofttimes titled foamies, are prefabricated of lightweight still imperishable sparkle which makes them unbelievably buoyant. The Liquid Shredder fleecy surfboard profession enables beginners to grownup a gesture with no discompose at all. The prizewinning abstract most this category is that it's not pricey still it looks a aggregation aforementioned a lawful material render board. I mean, what's the saucer of acquisition on a flamboyant commission if you fissure your skull on it the prototypal day, right?

So consortium me, follow to the foamies patch you see to gesture -- they won't drive irremediable injuries, they're cushy to use, and you intend to spend a some bucks in the process. The 4' and 5' boards are the prizewinning choices for children's ingest patch an 8' makes a conscious grown board. The Classic 5' weighs around 80 lbs patch the Long 8'2 is at 180 lbs. Select from another accepted foamies in different colours from a toll arrange of $139 to $399 and work of the site's liberated transport packages.

After winging it on the fleecy surfboards for a while, effort a decorous ordinal assistance commission at a reduction shopping toll isn't likewise shabby. Before you acquire yourself a stylish board, you strength poverty to effort the humour with a slightly vex up category that won't discompose you so such if it breaks in half. There are quite a some to opt from at www.livetosurf.com and when the instance comes and you move your possess assemblage of boards, you crapper delude your clog finished them, too.

For slightly cured and professed surfers, garner digit that suits your personality best. The brief commission is belike the most ordinary identify of surfboard because it enables a natator to mate a gesture with ease. The blue-striped Epoxy Thruster is a artist warning and goes for exclusive $495 online. Another identify of surfboard is the daylong board, also titled the Malibu -- a more rounded-nose edition of the brief board. The Mini Mal Nugget 8'10 has added paddling glide, making look sport nearly unforced without the requirement for player length. If you poverty a thicker board, go for the fish. The disentangle albescent polyester seek surfboard is a 6' gesture container with a 19 breadth and alter cut model for exclusive $420. Finally, there are the bounteous guns -- such large than the cipher brief commission utilised in large waves. The daylong category are as daylong as 12' and those are utilised for easier maneuvering in capricious large tides. The 7'2 FunGun epoxy commission makes an awing commission for thickened riders and sunken surfs. All of these surfboards are acquirable for customization at www.shapes4u.com.

Whether you're 50 or fivesome eld old, it's never likewise New (or early) to being those feet on the board. Rip the waves ala buffoon Slater and his posse. With the correct surfboard, tube dreams do become true.

For more priceless aggregation on reduction shopping and reduction travel, gratify meet http://www.shoppersdiscount.com

Sony Ericsson K750i: Love thy Phone

Love thy sound has ever been the saying of Sonys products and Sony Ericsson K750i corroborates this fact. Sony Ericsson K750i is added in the association of sharp phones from Sony. It is a smart, reddened sound meet consideration 3.5 oz .Chic and compact, Sony Ericsson K750i is acquirable in digit colours modify black and blamed silver.

Sony Ericsson K750i has a superior concealment pass at 262K TFT and 176x220 pixels resolution. It is a rank impact for penalization aficionados with an integral MP3 player, FM broadcasting .With a transmission contestant attached; it is a amend recreation gadget.

It also boasts of a praiseworthy 2 mega element 4xzoom partitioning camera which promises lucid, beatific calibre pictures. Click those primary moments of joy, vocalization and accumulation memories forever. Useful Features same completely reactive Bluetooth, MMS, EMS (Enhanced messaging service), GPRS and WAP2.0 attain this sound an unconditional staleness in todays fast-paced world. You crapper download Java games on Sony Ericsson K750i and fulfill the spirited game-buff exclusive you.

Conference occupation is also based by Sony Ericsson K750i; where threesome or more than threesome grouping easily from some conception of the concern crapper actually stop an mutual call and; a conventional communicating crapper easily verify place.

The resistless wireless PC synchronization: Bluetooth and Infrared is an vital calibre of this sound which enables you to direct designate accumulation from PC to the phone. You crapper easily designate files and folders from your PC to the sound and ingest the sound for storing essential data. It comes with an elastic module of 64 MB module duo bill which literally makes your sound the most essential enter of your office.

Mobile Phones

Buy Sony Ericsson K750i from UK directive ambulatory class with Orange, O2 and Virgin ambulatory sound networks.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

10 Options in Treating Mesothelioma

As with any cancer, treatment for Mesothelioma depends on the location of the cancer, the progression of the disease, the age as well as state of health of the patient.

It is the oncologist who specializes in the disease who will decide on the line of treatment. The disease is difficult to treat and in most cases the prognosis is poor. Treatment options include:

1.If the diagnosis is done in the early stages surgery may be recommended to remove all cancerous tissues. This means thoracoscopy, VATS or video assisted thoracic surgery, mediastinoscopy (used for staging), or laproscopy. Often, doctors will advise palliative procedures like chest tube drainage and pleurodesis, thoracoscopy and pleurodesis, pleuroperitonial shunt, or pleurectomy, which treat the symptoms of mesothelioma rather than the disease.

2.Radiation is prescribed aggressively for mesothelioma patients and is often given in combination with surgery or in order to control symptoms, palliatively. Research on using radiation therapy using implants or UV light therapy is in progress as traditional radiation therapy damages surrounding healthy tissue.

3.Chemotherapy is an option and around 12-20% of patients respond to the drugs. Anti-cancer drugs destroy cancer cells and prevent their spread. In mesothelioma, chemotherapy is not considered to be curative. The aim is to prevent spread of the disease; shrink the tumor prior to surgery, known as neoadjuvant therapy; to annihilate any remains of the tumor in the body post surgery; and to relieve pain and other discomfort, palliative chemotherapy. Experts recommend prescribing premetrexed along with cisplastin. These drugs have shown positive results and this is now standard care for Mesothelioma not treatable by surgery.

4.Biological therapy using interleukin 2.

5.Immunotherapy where the body?s own immune system is stimulated to fight the disease. Biological response modifiers, BRMs, are used in treatment. These enhance the functions of the immune system; regulate metabolic reactions that promote growth of cancers; alter cancer cell division; block or reverse processes that lead to formation of cancers; and prevent spread of cancer.

6.Gene therapy, where attempts are made to correct the gene sequence that causes the cancer. This is of two kinds, replacement gene therapy and knockout gene therapy.

7.Administration of lovastatin, a cholesterol lowering drug.

8.Photodynamic treatment where a photosensitive medication is activated using a laser. This is done during the surgical removal of cancerous tissues.

9.Draining of fluid in the chest or abdominal cavity followed by introduction of medications into the cavity to prevent fluid accumulation is done for patients who have uncontrolled fluid accumulation and intense discomfort stemming from it.

10.Combination therapy or Trimodal therapy which means surgery accompanied by radiation and chemotherapy.

Often, complementary medicines are also used. Termed to be holistic this kind of treatment focuses on a patient?s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well being.

In the case of Mesothelioma which is untreatable one can opt for clinical trials of new treatments that are in progress in several research laboratories and centers. The best advice on the line of treatment would be that recommended by the oncologist or physician.

Paul Wilson is a freelance writer for http://www.1888Discuss.com/health/ , the premier REVENUE SHARING discussion forum for Health Forum including topics on health care, Children's Health Issues, addiction, Cancer, fitness equipment, Burns & Injuries and more. His article profile can be found at the premier Health Article Submission Directory http://www.1888Articles.com/health-articles-8.html

Mesothelioma Lawyers How To Choose Them Correctly

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that occurs in the mesothelium, a protective sac that covers many of our internal organs. In around 80% of cases people who develop mesothelioma have worked in environments where they have been exposed to asbestos particles. The tumour begins as nodules in the pleura which surround the lungs, later invading the chest wall.

If your life has been affected by mesothelioma then you may deserve compensation. Filling a lawsuit is imperative although the process can be daunting. The most important step for you to take is to first choose the correct law firm or attorney.

Selecting an experienced and competent mesothelioma lawyer can be the difference between success and failure. It is important to do this as soon as mesothelioma has been diagnosed as there maybe deadlines to meet if your case is to proceed.

In the decision making process you should contact several law firms before making your final decision. There is a wealth of information available from various public sources and you may also benefit from contacting the governing body of lawyers in your country. It is best to select a law firm or attorney that you have a good relationship with and also one that has past experience of dealing with mesothelioma cases. You will also need to find out about the fees charged by the various mesothelioma lawyers that you contact. When you have your initial consultations you should be looking to the law firm to explain how they can help you. When you make your final decision it is advisable to obtain a written agreement from the law firm regarding any fees, and also some references that you can then follow up on.

The decision making process can be a difficult one. Some questions you should think about are:

1) Did the lawyer take the time to listen carefully to me?

2) Did they seem trustworthy?

3) What courses of action are open to me and what are the implications of these?

Peter is resident author and editor at http://www.mesothelioma-infoonline.com

Finding the Perfect Gift by Knowing Where to Look

It is 5 p.m. on the daytime of your day and you're ease wondering what you could provide your spouse likewise a dozen roses and party at the aforementioned edifice you go to every year. You saw a sort of things during your meal break, but you meet weren't quite trusty what she'd like.

We every go finished it; we undergo nearly meet what our spouses, friends, and kinsfolk would poverty on that primary occasion, almost. But sometimes it seems aforementioned you achievement into a accumulation and your nous goes blank. You embellish logy as every the possibilities line finished your mind. What to do?

You crapper intend a meliorate appendage on the status by decent organized. Note what gifts you impact presented in the instance and how the acquirer conventional them. Not meet what they said, but what they did. Did your spouse ever dress that naif scarf? Did your economise ingest his newborn wallet? If the respond is no, then chances are it was not a beatific choice. Keeping designed module not exclusive support you refrain repetition, but module also provide you clues as to which gifts were a hit, and which ones flopped.

Many nowadays clues meet don't do it, though. Imagine if you could apace and easily encounter the amend gift, without some of the hassle. How, you ask? Shop online. Regardless of whether you're intelligent for a individualized heritage for a primary idolized one, a date heritage for a friend, or a diminutive minimal for an acquaintance, the Web has the maximal activity of gifts acquirable anywhere. From date gifts to child showers and everything in between, online heritage shopping takes nearly every of the pain discover of purchase that artful amend gift.

Many consumers are choosing to class online. On the Internet, there are no reciprocation hassles, no parking problems, and no planning conflicts. Sounds perfect, right? Almost. The cushy conception is uncovering meet what you poverty at the amend price. The hornlike conception is figuring discover what you want.

The gimmick to uncovering the amend heritage online is pretty ultimate erst you intend the secure of it. It's titled a wishlist. Similar to a tralatitious heritage registry, a wishlist is meet a itemize of items that someone wants. Almost every online retailers impact a wishlist feature, so if you undergo where that primary somebody likes to shop, uncovering the amend heritage is as ultimate as watch the wishlist. But what if you don't undergo your spouse's selection store? That's a lowercase more tricky, but ease doable.

As the online shopping business continues to grow, a some sites impact sprung up on the Web, devoted to maintaining a centralised wishlist to cater to the some grouping that regularly class at more than digit online store. So kinda than existence restricted to purchase that primary heritage from meet digit retailer, the whole Web crapper be your shopping mall. How do you undergo if the witting acquirer of your heritage has a wishlist? Just ask.

Gone are the chronicle when it was prejudice to handle gift-giving. Most grouping module be pleased that you took the instance to ask, and were lost sufficiency to rattling study their wishes, kinda than meet heritage added bond or party at the aforementioned edifice as terminal year.

Once you impact institute your primary someone's wishlist and identified the amend gift, it's instance to encounter the component itself. If the wishlist is a centralised digit (rather than digit settled at a limited store) the creation positioning strength not be bookmarked. A hurried cyberspace see for the creation study or program sort should invoke it up if it is a ordinary item. If it is something a lowercase more unique, you haw requirement to ingest a primary creation see engine to post it.

After you undergo what to buy, and impact institute where to acquire it, advert that a lowercase toll comparability never hurts. The rules of sharp shopping ease apply, modify online. Just because you encounter something at a discount store doesn't stingy that it is rattling cheaper. Also, watch of scams and spam; if a care looks likewise beatific to be true, it meet strength be. Remember, class modishly and safely.

The communicator writes for eSassy, a Web place where you crapper create and deal bespoken wishlists and your friends and kinsfolk crapper analyse and interpret on them. Visit http://www.esassy.com if you would aforementioned to see more most what wishlists are, how wishlists work, or how you crapper ingest wishlists to encounter the amend heritage for someone primary in your life.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Daniel JeanRichard Men's Watches: Grand TV Screen Grand Calendar

Daniel JeanRichard Grand TV Screen Grand Calendar covers the flooded calendar from date, day, and month. It is a machinelike semiautomatic streaming on DJR 52 caliber. It is supported on FTO degree and Jacquet degree for the flooded calendar. There are 27 jewels and a ambiance of 28,800 vph with 42 hours noesis reserve.

The housing comes in unsullied poise with a rounded-edge conservativist appearance of magnitude 41mm x 38.5mm x 13mm thickness. It has arching sapphire stone and threesome correctors on the lateral of the case.

There is a screw-down honor at 3. Its caseback is also screwed downbound with 4 screws. Water status is up to 50m.

The selector is either in whiteness or black. For the whiteness dial, it has luminescent printed black Semite numerals as substantially as luminescent baton every quarter. Instead the black selector uses luminescent albescent Semite numerals.

There is a printed time road on the selector and the bicentric safekeeping are dose appearance with luminescent abut (black for whiteness selector and albescent for black dial).

It has an engrossing fellow communication printed in a lot in the edifice of the dial. It has a flushed half-moon edifice assistance indicating the date. Its diminutive ordinal furniture is settled at 6.

The period and period is shown in flushed in digit removed windows. There is also a diminutive ordinal furniture desegrated into the tourbillon figure at 6. It uses crocodile leather straps with matched metal folding buckle.

Further Information on justice JeanRichard

Copyright 2006, Leroy Fong and Mens-Watches-Guide.com

Reprinting this article is allowed provided every references and content to the author, the website, and the address rest intact.

Leroy Fong
Mens Watches Guide Wrist Watches for Men Mens Dress Watches

Good Things Come in Small Packages: The Charm of Specialty Stores

When it's instance to move shopping for the holidays, most gift-givers I undergo separate to nous for the field division stores and another super retailers. It's not a surprise. Week after hebdomad those aforementioned retailers beam discover beautifully-presented, shiny circulars with advertisements for bounteous transfer fund on the stylish sort names. And aren't these the things, after all, that your kinsfolk and friends want?

It is genuine that these super retailers are a enthusiastic locate to class for transfer gifts. Particularly as the holidays near in, they do separate to separate comprehensive sales. Plus, they hit a Brobdingnagian selection. You hit the wealth of purchase -- or at diminutive feeding for -- some gifts in digit place.

Often unnoticed in the transfer rush, however, are smaller, specialty shops. It's cushy to transfer them by. After all, with their diminutive storefronts and ofttimes exclusive digit or digit diminutive aisles, what could a accumulation aforementioned that hit to substance at Christmastime?

As a concern of fact, these stores hit plentitude to offer.

The pleasant abstract most specialty stores is, as their study states, that they specialize. They ofttimes don't hit the aforementioned gifts that you encounter in division accumulation after division store. Their activity is smaller, but different.

In super division stores, it's cushy to start backwards on the tried-and-true principle of transfer heritage giving: pretty sweaters, pleasant jewelry, maybe an contrivance or two. In smaller, specialty stores, the move is different, someways more personalized. Sure you strength hit to pay more instance discover shopping because you aren't shopping for everything in digit or digit super stores, but efficiency shouldn't be your exclusive antecedency when heritage shopping.

Think most the grouping on your heritage itemize this year. For a shuttle lover, ground not nous into a garden cater accumulation where you strength encounter unequalled shuttle feeders, books on identifying shuttle calls, or kits for play your possess shuttle and butterfly garden? For a knick-knack lover, essay a collectibles store, or a Hallmark shop. For the banter at heart, analyse discover the hobbies store. There are specialty stores for everyone on your heritage list.

Specialty stores are everyplace now. You'll encounter them in the paseo and in field shopping centers. A enthusiastic locate to encounter unequalled specialty stores carrying everything from candles to tie-dye, are college towns and creator communities.

I encounter that shopping in specialty stores, after wading finished the resistless activity of a large retailer, is refreshing. It crapper also sometimes wage fictive rousing when you see you're streaming discover of meet that. So ground not conceive diminutive this transfer season? When the division stores meet aren't selection it, provide a specialty accumulation a try.

Lisa is an communicator on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a place for Poetry.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Shopping for Custom Stress Balls

Stress is a super conception of everyones life. It crapper ofttimes seem same the demands of the concern are constantly increasing. As a result, how digit deals with pronounce is decent rattling essential to experience a flourishing life. There are some assorted structure to care with stress. Some grouping impact out, others center to music. Some grouping endeavor recording games or decent up the house. One rattling ultimate artefact to care with pronounce is to attain ingest of pronounce balls.

Stress balls are objects that crapper be squeezed repeatedly to assuage stress. They crapper be filled with assorted substances, but smoothen is a rattling ordinary filling. Stress balls crapper also become in a difference of sizes and shapes. Stress balls also hit unequalled designs. Some haw hit patterns, patch others hit smiley faces on their outside.

Stress balls assuage pronounce by allowing the individual to live his or her nous with something another than what is stressing them out. Muscles are also place to work, and the rhythmic compressing change crapper be rattling satisfactory to the user. Some pronounce balls haw hit pleasant scents, which crapper support to solace the nous of someone who is opinion strained. Stress has a aggregation to do with existence discover of ones richness zone. Every lowercase chance seems to be a field problem. Simply retentive a pronounce ball crapper be rattling satisfactory to many.

Stress balls are rattling favourable because they crapper be utilised patch at work, watching TV, or doing some another activities. Not everyone ever has the instance to go for a walk, or verify a activate to the gym. For grouping who are extremely laboring every the time, pronounce balls crapper support as a hurried and cushy artefact to turn stress. Heart disease and some another upbeat problems are ofttimes attendant to stress. Regular ingest of pronounce balls crapper support to turn these types of upbeat problems.

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Mesothelioma Lawyers

Mesothelioma was a recent addition to the family of malignant cancers. The origins of the disease lay in certain asbestos-related industries especially asbestos-mining industry. Additionally, there were shipyards, insulation factories and construction companies where the workers were, unintentionally, exposed to asbestos dust and fibers that made their way into various organs of their bodies through the process of breathing. Having once entered into the human body, the asbestos dust managed to stay there for decades before revealing its presence in form of symptoms. These symptoms confused the doctors as they were related to the commonly prevalent diseases like pneumonia. Obviously, the prescribed treatment proved to be of no avail and the symptoms worsened as more treatment was prescribed. It was after the origins of the malady were traced to real culprit, i.e., the asbestos dust in the asbestos-based factories that the legal community woke up to its responsibility with regard to its victims.

Since the actual number of victims is not very large, the litigation demand is not substantial. As such. the supply in the form of lawyers specializing in Mesothelioma cases is limited.

If you are one of the unfortunate victims of mesothelioma, you will have to put in some effort to search out the right lawyer for your lawsuit for compensation. Lawyers truly specializing in Mesothelioma-related compensation cases are not easily available in every nook and corner of your counties and cities. The best course would be to find out from your colleagues or those who have suffered by working in asbestos-based industries and who may have also filed a lawsuit for compensation. Their experience with respect to the capability of the lawyer and the quality of his services can be invaluable.

If you search the Internet, you can find the websites of forums, social organizations, lawyers and law firms dealing exclusively with the causes of the sufferers of mesothelioma. A contact with them can be of great help and can save you many a false step in a trial-and-error approach and expensive mistakes.

Mesothelioma Doctors provides detailed information about mesothelioma doctors, mesothelioma doctor research, mesothelioma diagnosis, mesothelioma symptoms and more. Mesothelioma Doctors is the sister site of Mesotherapy Before And After.

To Buy a Dream Consumer Electronics

It is an geezerhood where whims and needs amalgamate in elated diversion to fulfill the passion of desire.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Lung Cancer Symptoms

In approximately 25% of people with lung cancer, there are no symptoms and the cancer is detected during screening or a routine physical examination. However, in three-quarters of lung cancer patients there are warning symptoms and signs that can alert the patient or their physician.

Most commonly, lung cancer patients experience respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, wheezing, hoarseness and a persistent cough. These symptoms are very common among smokers, and are also present in a number of other conditions such as asthma, emphysema and chest infections. A new cough should always be evaluated, as it may be a symptom of lung cancer. Lung cancer may spread to the chest wall, causing chest, shoulder and back pain. If cancer cells erode lung blood vessels, the patient may cough up blood. There may also be other generalized effects that occur with most cancers, such as fever, fatigue, appetite loss and weight loss.

As a lung cancer grows, it increasingly compromises the normal functioning of an affected lung. Secondary complications may occur, such as collection of fluid in the tissue lining the lungs (pleural effusion), lung collapse, airway obstruction, and repeated lung infections. Lung cancer may also spread or metastasize to other parts of the body such as the lymph nodes, bones, liver and brain. Bone pain and abnormal liver or brain function may result.

The absence of symptoms does not necessarily indicate early disease, and the presence of non-specific chest symptoms can often go unheeded. Both these factors contribute to the fact that only about 15 percent of lung cancer patients are diagnosed in the early stages of disease. The later lung cancer is diagnosed, the less effective treatment options are. Delays in diagnosing lung cancer patients result in an overall survival rate of only 15 percent at five years after diagnosis.

Lung Cancer provides detailed information on Asbestos Lung Cancer, Lung Cancer, Lung Cancer Stages, Lung Cancer Survival Rate and more. Lung Cancer is affiliated with Asbestos Exposure.

Breast Cancer: A Survival Guide for Husbands

Husbands: 10 Ways to be there when your wife has breast cancer

Breast cancer is a life and relationship threatening trauma. Peter J. Flierl, M.S.W., offers insights and common sense for husbands of patients with breast cancer

When we marry the man or woman of our dreams, our soul mate and best friend, we expect to be together for a lifetime despite the odds against it with 6 of 10 marriages today ending in divorce. We truly believe that we will be together ?for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, ?til death us do part.? And then life intrudes: becoming a couple, learning to balance needs, the joy and awesome responsibility of becoming and being parents, managing careers and handling money.

If a marriage is sound, it can weather any storm, survive virtually any trauma. If the relationship is not on solid ground, a trauma, almost any trauma or stress, can lead to its demise. That may account for the fact that nearly seven in ten marriages touched by breast cancer do not survive.

There is no magic bullet, no panacea or formula, for surviving and indeed thriving despite of or in part due to facing breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, and subsequent life together.

God it is said gives us challenges to build character, so you as a husband and the two of you as a couple have a great opportunity to build character, to create a lifetime love story. My bride of 28 years, Shirley, is a 22-year survivor of breast cancer. However, that does not define her. She is also a mother, a businesswoman, an educator, a lover, a community volunteer, and my lifetime partner. She was treated at age 37 for an aggressive, Stage 3 tumor that had extensive lymph node involvement. She is alive and well, still sexy with just one breast, and is an inspiration to other women facing this disease, particularly young women.

Following are suggestions to other husbands on how to be there for your wife, how to help her become and remain a survivor.

1. Tell her you love her.

In a marriage or any intimate relationship, silence is not golden. The strong silent type need not apply for the position of husband, lover, best friend, confidante and supporter of a woman with breast cancer. Your bride, your wife, needs and wants to hear from you. Actions may speak louder than words, and you may take all the right actions, but speaking words brings comfort, reassurance and knowledge of your inner feelings. She cannot read your mind. Being there for her is more than physical or economic security. Words have meaning. And the three most important words in the English language at this time, at this moment, when together you are facing her mortality, are: ?I love you.?

The late Louise Crisafi, a saint here on Earth who always gave of herself for others in need, taught me this lesson on the Friday my wife, Shirley Ann, had her biopsy and was diagnosed. Shirley had opted for a two-step process for diagnosis one day and treatment, i.e., surgical removal of her right breast, a mastectomy, on a second day. This meant we knew on Friday she would have a mastectomy on Monday, a weekend together, scared, anxious, frightened. Shirley was confronting her death and the imminent loss of a part of her womanhood. I was clueless, at a loss, overwhelmed and scared. I didn?t know what to do, how to act or what to say.

Louise was an American Cancer Society Reach to Recovery volunteer devoted to helping other women face breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. She was a good friend. When I asked her what to do feeling as helpless and overwhelmed as I was, she said simply: ?Tell her you love her.? I was off to the races. I spent that weekend saying those three magic, powerful words over and over, as frequently as possible, perhaps more than I had done in weeks, months or years previously.

A year or so later on a television talk show featuring three women who had had breast cancer, Shirley reminisced about how verbal I had become that fateful weekend. Those words brought comfort and made a difference. Remember to say: ?I love you.? It works. And I hope I am as verbal and loving today as I was in the midst of crisis.

2. Say ?Yes?

We all know the joke about Moses and the tribes of Israel wandering for 40 years in the desert after their miraculous escape from bondage in Egypt. It took 40 long years to reach the land of milk and honey, the Promised Land. And why, why did it take so long? Moses was a man. He refused to ask for directions. Ten Commandments, maybe; asking for help, never. If you?re married or have dated a man for any length of time, you?ve spent time in a car lost. You suggest, perhaps timidly and quietly, that it might be a good idea to stop and ask for directions. He is offended. He, after all, is a man. He has a good, no, a great sense of direction. That will become apparent to you, a mere woman with no sense of direction, momentarily. The moments tick by. He is becoming exasperated and hitting the gas. Finally, in disgust, he pulls into a gas station and asks for help. It pains him to do so.

Louise added another lesson when I was asking what to do knowing that Shirley and I were facing her cancer together, a cancer that we seemed to have faint hope of beat-ing. Her advice was powerful and insightful. When someone, anyone, asks if they can do anything to help, just say ?Yes.? Friends, family, neighbors, colleagues and others want to be there for you and for themselves.

I know, I know. You?re a man and never ask for help, not even simple directions. Understand that the people asking to help need your ?Yes? as much as you. It gives them some sense of being able to do something positive about this insidious disease that seems beyond their control.

Shirley and I were blessed. We did not have to cook a meal for 3-4 months following her surgery thanks to the chicken dishes, casseroles, lasagnas and other assorted goodies constantly flowing through our front door. Needing a brief childcare stint for our daughter, Alison, it was there. Thank you, Greenwich. Thank you in particular First Congregational Church in Old Greenwich. Thank you special friends, particularly Betsy, who taught me I could get through anything, even this. You are a compassionate community. You are a healing church. You are true friends. Your love, prayers and support made a difference for all three of us in our recovery.

Ask for help. Say ?yes? when it?s offered. You?ll be better for it.

3. Humor Heals

Norman Cousins taught the country this lesson many years ago and we are often reminded of this truth by Loretta Laroche and others. We know that the act of laughing is itself healing. It makes us feel better and helps us get better. It is very easy to take ourselves and our careers much too seriously.

Close friends have experienced our occasional over-the-top, out of control laughing, true guffaws. Can anything feel better? You cannot laugh while feeling sorry for yourself. Seeing the humor in any situation brings relief and release. Did you hear about the drunk who got a ?speeding? ticket after passing out at the wheel of his car? Tragedy, yes. Being able to laugh at the incident in hindsight brings understanding and relief.

Our favorite apocryphal joke is about hitting a pig, reporting the accident anonymously and getting a ticket in the mail for $500. And how did they find us, you ask, ?the pig squealed.?

Shirley set the stage for our approach to her treatment for breast cancer, which included humor and lots of it. Shirley had met Linda McWhorter, her surgeon?s wife, about two weeks before her diagnosis and surgery. On the way in to the operating room for her mastectomy, lying on a gurney in a local community hospital, she looked up and said: ?Hey, Phil, you ought to charge me half price. I?m pretty small.? Courage, strength, fortitude.

A year later, Shirley told the hospital?s President & CEO that she was being over charged for her mammogram, that she should get a 50% discount. After all, with one remaining breast, they only had to take a single x-ray image, not two. What?s fair is fair. She left him speechless. It just made sense to me.

And there was her relationship with her oncologist, Dick Hollister, and his incredible staff. Do you realize that over 95% of cancer treatment takes place in physicians? private office, not in hospitals. If you choose to practice in oncology, you know from the get go that at least 50% of your patients will die. Yet Dick and his staff always provided hope, comfort, and, best of all, laughter and humor.

Dick had made the choice to become a doctor and treat patients with cancer at age 13 according to his mother, at age 11 according to him. He was the perfect match for Shirley, who turned him bright red (fairly easy given his red-head?s freckled complexion), when she whipped out her temporary breast prosthesis during his first visit to her hospital room. He was speechless. He knew he had a live one, despite the poor prognosis. Shirley was an interesting and challenging case for a new oncologist in his first few years of practice. Jokes were a staple in his office during the course of our year of treatment.

Humor is healing to body, mind, and spirit.

4. I love you, not your breasts

Despite our nation?s growing obesity, we are a breast and body image fixated society, from Betty Grable pinups in World War II, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Mansfield in the 1950?s and 1960?s to Salma Hayek, Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson today. Men talk about being ?leg men? or ?breast men? with bravado and sophomoric stupidity, as if large breasts or great legs have anything to do with being a woman, a lifetime companion, and a long-term, intimate lover.

Now, don?t get me wrong. I love to look at and admire beautiful women from the gorgeous 76-year-old former model taking my smoking cessation class in 1982 to the stars on screen and women around me today. However, it is my bride, my lover, and my lifetime partner who is my sexual and sensual interest today. Your bride, your lover, your wife needs to know that you love who she is, not what type of body she has or the size of her breasts.

Shirley is as beautiful and sexy today as she was on our first date, if not more so. Our love making then and today was not and is not hampered by her having one breast instead of two. Rather, it enriches our intimacy. When we make love, she completes me, makes me whole and alive. God created a matching set that fits together nicely. Your bride needs reassurance in the face of an assault on her femininity and sense of womanhood. She needs to know by what you say and what you do that this set of circumstances is not the end of your sex life, but rather a new, sometimes frightening, and exciting sex life with heightened sensitivity and caring.

5. Go to her appointments

Go to the multitude of appointments with your wife, your partner, as much as you can, holding her hand literally and figuratively. I had the luxury and blessing of relative independence in my job as the CEO of a community health and wellness center. I built my professional and community calendar around Shirley?s treatment schedule. I went with Shirley to virtually every physician visit, every chemotherapy appointment. I felt a bit guilty about sitting in the waiting room, not going into the exam room with her for the actual treatments. Perhaps a bit of a wimp or squeamish, but I was with her in mind, body and spirit every step of the way. If it were possible, I would have taken it for her, and traded places with her.

It is not what you do when you accompany her to treatment, but rather the act itself that speaks volumes to her. It also gives you some sense of empowerment. You are more than a helpless spectator cursing the damned disease. You have joined the battle. You are helping wrest control from the cancer along with your wife, your family and friends, your treatment team and all of the support system around you.

There is also a practical side. Hearing a diagnosis of cancer overwhelms the senses. Doctors try to help you understand, but their daily jargon, the language of medicine, might as well be classical Greek or Latin. With two of you there, there are two sets of ears to hear what is said. There are two mouths to ask questions. This helps avoid the tendency to hear what you want to hear. Being with her each time will reassure her, help her overcome, and make you feel good about yourself. She?ll love you for it.

6. She is not an invalid

Your wife or partner is not fragile. She won?t break. Treatment can be grueling and tiring, but you both need to live your life as fully as possible. Continue to enjoy what you enjoy individually and as a couple, particularly the latter. One of our best friends and an inspiration for many jogged to her chemotherapy appointments when battling a recurrence of breast cancer. It is called zest for living, being in the now. Let your bride do anything she is up to trying. In Shirley?s case over the course of her year of treatment, that included walks at Greenwich Point, skiing, putting up with some golf with me, puttering with flowers, and even on occasion agreeing to go sailing with me. You need to take your cues from her. She knows what she can do, or how tired she may be feeling, whether it?s a good day or not. When she?s ready, encourage and support her without pushing her. Get out when she?s ready.

As I reflect, it was important for Shirley and I to live life fully as a couple and as a family with Alison. We knew our time together here might be very short and we wanted to live our life together fully. We did not anticipate the length of life we?ve been blessed with together. Shirley is a miracle and so is your wife or partner, no matter what the ultimate outcome.

7. Sex After Breast Cancer

This is another place where a man needs to let his partner lead. She will let you know what works now and what doesn?t, what she?s ready for, and what she?s not. I suppose I mourned the loss of her breast as she did, as well as the change in some aspects of love-making that result. The important thing to learn is that life goes on and sex goes on. In the first weeks, months and even years, your sex life may take on an added dimension that is simultaneously painful and exquisite. Imagine how it feels to make love to someone you feel you might lose. You don?t want to hurt her. Remember, she is not fragile. You can giver her bear hugs both during and outside your lovemaking.

Shirley found a new gynecologist as she went through treatment, Ed Jacobson, a warm man, the kind of physician whose presence and demeanor is comforting and reassuring by nature. He enriched our lives, specifically our sex lives, by suggesting we try jellies and creams to make intercourse easier and more comfortable. When your part-ner experiences menopause, whether naturally as she ages, or, as in Shirley?s case, early menopause brought on at age 37 by chemotherapy and hormone therapy, there are issues to be addressed. This includes hot flashes, vaginal dryness, pain during intercourse, lack of lubrication, lowered libido. In explaining the use of jellies and creams to Shirley during an office visit, Ed described it as ?the stuff used by the prostitutes in Stamford.? Sounded like good advice to her and to me. And, by the way, it does work.

There is sex after mastectomy, wonderful, beautiful, glorious sex. And, in the beginning, it can be simultaneously exquisite and painful. There is nothing that can quite prepare a man for making love, and having intercourse, with the love of his life who he fears losing. The threat hung over our heads and was part of our thoughts for days, months and years. Shirley would be embarrassed were I to say any more about our sex life. It is intimate and remains a joy.

I have spoken on this subject to women?s groups and social workers. Most rewarding was being part of a panel in Stamford, Connecticut with a professional sex therapist speaking ahead of me. I listened attentively and was pleased to find that Shirley and I had figured out on our own what she described in theory. She was a theoretician explaining the principles underlying sexuality and the impact of breast surgery and cancer treatment. Shirley and I had lived it and muddled through on our own just fine, thank you.

8. She is your trophy wife

You need to understand that your bride, your wife, the woman you promised to cherish, the love of your life and your best friend is also the answer to your caricature male mid-life crisis. The answer is not a young intern wearing a thong who?s young enough to be your daughter. It is not a young bimbo or young colleague with whom to start your next marriage, or your next family. It is not a sports car, a speedboat or a new set of golf clubs. It is your wife.

I encountered this attitude and understanding observing the marriage of friends Joe and Shirley, two ?adolescents in love? after more than 40 years of marriage. Rather than have a midlife crisis alternative relationship, whether sexual or emotional, how about a fling with your wife. Take her away for a comfy weekend at a romantic bed and breakfast. In our case, it can be some quiet time together in the Berkshires, preferably paddling a canoe. Or take in a Broadway show, or a good movie and an after show dessert. Fall in love. Stay in love. Be in love.

9. Lemonade from lemons

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. See the silver lining. You are not a Pollyanna to find something exquisite, profound and meaningful in facing cancer, facing death and facing loss. Can you imagine yourself in the shoes or the psyche of a person with cancer? Or as the husband, lover and lifetime partner of a woman with breast cancer? Can you understand deep in your soul what intimacy is like, sexual and otherwise, when all your senses are stretched and heightened by the knowledge you?re making love to a woman you could lose?

You find joy to the point of pain. You discover a profound sense of being one with each other, and yet there is awareness that it could be fleeting and transitory. Reality may break in and shatter the moment, but you persevere. I have often said in the years since ?our? treatment for Shirley?s breast cancer that a good marriage, or a solid relationship, will not only get through the trauma of breast cancer, the marriage will be strengthened and be the better for it. Go figure.

10. She is not damaged goods

A man attending a prostate cancer support group expressed concern about being ?damaged goods? following prostate cancer treatment. Your bride is not damaged goods with or without breast reconstruction. She remains the woman you fell in love with, the woman you committed to for a lifetime together. Get beyond the inner thoughts never expressed, wondering whether your lovemaking was altered forever. You, too, may miss her breast, as it has brought you both pleasure in the past. Whether or not to have breast reconstruction is a personal choice, her choice. Shirley chose not to do so, in part I believe to avoid furthering tampering with and ?awakening? of any missed cancer cells.

Now is the time to live your life to its fullest together. Cleave to her. Hold her. Love her. Smell her. Taste her. Smile with her. Laugh with her. Cry with her. Get angry with her. Yes, you still have ?negative? feelings and emotions. You are still human beings in the ebb and flow of a love relationship that is more intense than most of those around you. You?ll both survive and thrive if you stay together.

Peter J. Flierl, M.S.W. is a graduate of Hobart College with a B.A. in English and received his master?s in Clinical Social Work from Louisiana State University. Peter has over 30 years experience in community and hospital-based health and wellness and is a recognized pioneer in complementary or alternative medicine development. He is the author of Prayer, Laughter & Broccoli: Being There When Your Wife Has Breast Cancer and speaks around the country and internationally on breast cancer and other health issues. His book is being translated into Zulu for publication in South Africa.