It's hard to see the light while stuck in the middle of the tunnel. It's difficult to imagine tough times getting better. It's frustrating to manage obstacle after obstacle. It's almost impossible to consider that challenges can actually transform into victories.

Yet somehow, in some way, in good time, most of us do arrive at the end of the tunnel -- where life is not so dark, where we can make sense of all that has come before our glorious exits into the light of the world.

A friend of mine is stuck in the tunnel of breast cancer. I know this because she sent me an e-mail today that struck a chord and took me back to a time when I was stuck -- and was quite certain life would not get better.

My life did get better -- after I survived the cancer treatment that sent me spiraling through my own tunnel -- and I know my friend will soon encounter better times. She may not be able to predict it at this very moment, but one day she will emerge into the brightness. One day, she will see the light. One day, she will be promising someone else that times do get better. One day, she will be amazed that she even wrote these words.

Well, chemo #2 kicked my butt! I was bed-ridden or in front of the toilet since Friday afternoon! It was awful. Stayed home from work today cause still feel a bit queasy. The doctor cut my steroids in the drip cause of the rash/break-out I had the first time, she thought it might have been an allergic reaction. Well, next time, I will take the break-out over this.

And to this I say -- let there be light.

I have a new friend who is a new breast cancer survivor. She is surviving a new diagnosis, a recent lumpectomy, and the moments leading up to another surgery to further investigate the margins surrounding the tumor removed from her breast. She is surviving the first phase of her breast cancer journey. A phase full of uncertainty and fear and panic. A phase so new and so fresh and so raw, her mind is whirling. A phase that has her grasping for any bit of direction she can find as she navigates a terrifying, unfamiliar road.

My friend is a young wife and mother whose worries are consuming her. She e-mailed me today and asked if I ever have moments when I look at my young children and worry that cancer will take me from them while they are young. She asked if I have always been so sure I will be okay. And so I replied with this candid cancer confession.

Numbness is wearing off, and I am beginning to feel twinges of pain surrounding the area where my port was once located. I can't see what was done to me today -- because the area is carefully bandaged -- but I know from what I feel that my skin has been cut and sewn back together. I feel the skin tightening, stretching, pulsing and while it's not terribly comfortable, it's pretty minor compared to the pain of so many other cancer procedures -- like my lumpectomy, my chemotherapy, my nausea, my neutropenia, my allergic reactions to various medications.

So I am fine, following my port removal that was predicted to last a few hours but somehow took most of the day. The actual procedure took just one hour, and the twilight drug that kept me in a peaceful funk allowed me to relax while the port that was tunneled into the tissue underneath my skin was precisely taken from my body. It was an uneventful experience -- except for a few tears that dripped from my eyes during the final moments before my surgery. I think it may have been the power of the moment -- the moment signaling the end of my active cancer journey. Or it may have been the power of support offered by my sister and my three-year-old son who accompanied me today. Or it may have been the power of the response I gave a nurse who had just seen my little guy and asked me if I planned to have more children. My response -- probably not, because of cancer -- seemed a little too final, a little too sad.

It may have been the combination of everything, all adding up over the past two years, that brought tears to my eyes today. But for now, the tears are gone. And the port is gone. For now, my cancer is gone.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a health warning to consumers that drinking high-strength hydrogen peroxide products sold online are extremely corrosive and can lead to stomach irritation or ulcers; and injecting the solution intravenously could lead to blood vessel inflammation, bubbles in blood vessels and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

In addition, the FDA has issued warnings to two Texas-based firms, DFWX and Frad 35 Inc., who are illegally selling 35 percent hydrogen peroxide products to treat AIDS, cancer, emphysema and other serious diseases.

To understand the strength of the hydrogen peroxide the FDA is referring to, high-strength hydrogen peroxide is 35 percent while the strength of hydrogen peroxide solution sold over-the-counter for disinfecting wounds is only 3 percent.

According to the news release, Donald Worden, owner of Frad 35 Inc., said he would continue selling his 35 percent hydrogen peroxide product and that his website provided links to information about potential medical uses but that he was not promoting his products for that purpose.

The FDA has issued a warning about this product. You have been warned.

I have been a cheerleader for the breast cancer drug Herceptin ever since I began receiving it. I had my initial worries -- about an allergic reaction that I knew caused death within 24 hours for a handful of women and about possible toxicity to the heart -- but after faring well through my first dose and having now successfully completed my one year obligation to the drug, with no allergic reaction or heart damage, I have come to believe the Herceptin might just be the gem of a drug that the media says it is. Yet now I've read an article that makes me question what I really know about Herceptin -- and the studies that surround it and the statistics that back it and the messages sent out over the lines of mass communication to every day, non-medical people like me.

Strange things have happened to my skin ever since I encountered surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for breast cancer. I developed an allergic reaction to the Tegaderm tape and latex used during and after my lumpectomy. My entire chest and one underarm were covered in red, itchy, burning, blistery bumps that oozed and then dried up. It took weeks of misery and a bunch of creams, lotions, and drugs to calm my skin and my anxiety too. Then I became allergic to an antibiotic while I was hospitalized for chemo-induced fever and low blood counts. The same horrible skin reaction again covered my chest and this time, my back also. It happened again a few months ago after a trip to the beach and I can only imagine that it was some combination of salt water, sunscreen, and chlorine that prompted this attack. I am still not sure of the cause. But it struck once again recently after a trip to my neighborhood pool. Sunscreen and chlorine were again my possible enemies. So I am staying away from all possible culprits now -- the tape, latex, certain antibiotics, sunscreen, salt water, and chlorine. And of course, the sun too. Perhaps treatment has made my skin even more sensitive than it already was. Perhaps something else is at fault. Regardless, I am now ultra careful about anything I put on my skin. I avoid most everything -- except for Dove soap and sometimes some fruity smelling lotion for my legs -- and I look for anything that is targeted for delicate skin.

So an advertisement in a magazine caught my eye today -- an ad for a hypo-allergenic deodorant that is highly recommended by dermatologists and oncologists. Naturally Fresh Deodorant Crystal Spray Mist and Roll On are both extremely gentle and also very effective. They are 100 percent natural and are fragrance free. They last for up to 24 hours, do not stain, and are good for one year. Like some deodorants that merely mask odor, these actually kill the bacteria that causes odor. Naturally Fresh Deodorant seems like a great find to me -- and it can be found CVS, Target, GNC, Hannaford Bros., A&P, Harmon Stores, Drug Fair, and Kerr Drug in the United States and Shoppers Drug Mart, Jean Coutu, and GNC in Canada.