Telling your doctor or nurse about pain is not a sign of weakness and you should not accept pain as a normal part of having cancer. You have a right as a cancer patient who is experiencing pain to ask for pain relief. When you are free of pain, you can sleep and eat better, enjoy the company of those around you, and can continue on with work and hobbies.

If your doctor suggests no other options to reduce your pain after discussing it with him, then ask to see a pain specialist or ask your doctor to consult with a pain specialist which may be an oncologist, anesthesiologist, neurologist, or neurosurgeon.

Use a pain scale when talking with your doctor. For example, your pain might be 5 on a scale of 0 to 10. Other important factors you should discuss with your doctor include ...

Delayed nausea from chemotherapy in cancer patients frequently is managed by recurrent administration of high dose corticosteroids, resulting in undesirable side effects including weight gain, growth retardation and increased risk for infections. According to the NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture, there have been many studies on acupuncture's potential usefulness showing promising results in aiding adult postoperative patients and chemotherapy patients with nausea, vomiting and headaches. The National Center For Complementary And Alternative Medicine offers a lot of facts on acupuncture and other alternative treatments and therapies.

To many patients acupuncture relaxes them and helps relieve stress and to some it energizes them. It is safe and most people feel no pain or very minimal pain as the hair thin needles are inserted. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved acupuncture needles for use by licensed practitioners in 1996. Finding an acupuncture practitioner is as easy as getting a referral from your health care practitioners. More medical doctors themselves are getting training to do acupuncture. Be sure to check their credentials for licensing and training. A good thing to know is that acupuncture is becoming one of those alternative therapies that are more commonly covered by insurance so be sure to check your insurance coverage.

Deep within the pages of ancient texts detailing the remedies used by Chinese medicine practitioners, is there a cure for cancer waiting to be rediscovered? The global pharmaceutical company Merck thinks there might be a reference or two to natural cancer-fighting products used by healers then that is obscurely hidden and not known now in modern western medicine.

Merck has entered into a deal with Hong Kong's Chi-Med to look for evidence of promising products that the pharmaceutical company can research and test in clinical trials. According to the article Merck looks for ancient Chinese cancer cure written by Susie Mesure, "Western pharmaceutical companies are increasingly outsourcing their drug discovery work, with many looking east for the solution to medical mysteries that Western doctors cannot solve."

Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM, is a practice of medicine that combines medicinal herbs, nutrition, meditation, massage, exercise and acupuncture with an applied philosophy in the harmonious balance of yin and yang for treating illness. In all fairness, because this system of medicine has developed over thousands of years, and my understanding limited by Western educational influence, the definition I have given is a very brief, and possibly incomplete, overview of TCM. If you are interested in learning more about TCM, begin by visiting Traditional Chinese Medicine at Wikipedia.

Chi-Med will be scanning information in a library of 10,000 natural substances for those that might hold potential in a cure for cancer. It will be interesting what they find.

Adriene Hughes was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after her 44th year of living. She found her lump after participating in a 5K walk, which for some reason, caused her breast to swell. The swelling led her to the lump -- and that's how she discovered her cancer. Adriene lives in Southern California, works as a media specialist, and spends her time taking photographs, knitting, and baking cookies and breads.

I have never met Adriene, have never spoken with Adriene. But we have communicated through our on-line journals and through e-mail ever since November 2004 -- when we each received a breast cancer diagnosis that changed the course of our lives forever.

Adriene is a gem, a treasure, a true inspiration. And here are her words.

Are those mini-tropical vacations, aka hot flashes, getting unbearable? Many women have made the decision not to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to reduce hot flashes since news came out stating that women who took HRT were slightly more likely to develop certain illnesses such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and stroke compared with those who didn't take HRT. So what are the options to those unbearable night sweats and those red-faced moments in public that have you fanning your face? Take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and read on.

Certain herbs and supplements such as black cohosh, red clover, and soy products may help relieve hot flashes in some women. However, research in this area has only just begun and the effectiveness and safety of these products have not been proven. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is currently conducting research on these products to examine their ability to reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes. Further research is also needed to determine if these products are safe to take for long periods of time. Acupuncture is another CAM therapy that women have tried and some have found relief. But acupuncture has also not been proven to be helpful with hot flashes at this point.

Overall, the research on acupuncture and hot flashes has not been of very good quality to date and further research is underway to determine if acupuncture might be helpful. Certain relaxation and breathing techniques may be helpful in reducing the severity and frequency of hot flashes. Both the relaxation response technique and a breathing technique that involves slow, deep breathing called paced respiration have been shown in small research studies to be helpful. So keep taking those slow deep breaths. When added with meditation time or yoga it can become quite fun, relaxing, healthy, and can get rid of some of those unwanted mini-tropical vacations.

In a universal health system, care is rationed by medical priority when determining where health dollars will be spent and what types of treatment will be covered. In the UK, a debate is taking place between British scientists who are recommending that unproven or disproved complementary therapies not be funded and therapists of complementary medicine who argue that many of the alternative therapies have been proven effective and should be funded for patients who can benefit from such therapies. This has opened up a whole new discussion in defining exactly what alternative or complementary therapies are and what place they have in modern medical practice.

Meanwhile, Prince Charles, a strong advocate of alternative therapies and organic foods, spoke to World Health Assembly members of the World Health Organization about the need to consider making better use of traditional therapies, particularly acupuncture and herbal medicines, to improve health care around the world.

"I believe that the proper mix of proven complementary, traditional and modern remedies, which emphasizes the active participation of the patient, can help to create a powerful healing force in the world,'' Charles said. "This is where orthodox practice can learn from complementary medicine, the West can learn from the East and new from old traditions."

Prince Charles is concerned that if we do not recognize the wisdom and value of the past, much of that knowledge will be lost. Putting aside politics, monarchy and scandal, I am gaining more respect for the Prince of Wales the more I learn about his perspectives concerning health and the environment.