Cancer stopped me from having a third child -- not physically, but mentally. Still, it hasn't taken away my ability to witness first-hand the miracle of childbirth, to hold a brand new baby in my arms, to lose myself in the wonder of an innocent and unburdened life.

Yesterday, my sister had her second baby girl. I was there -- from morning until evening, while she labored for 12 hours and then delivered a perfect, pink, precious bundle of hope. The whole journey made me cry. I cried for the sheer pleasure of being in the room for such a special occasion, for holding my sister's numb and heavy leg in the correct position, for watching a baby plunge into the world, for cutting the umbilical cord. I cried for the pain my sister endured, for the joy of new beginnings, for all that comes next.

For a moment while I held my new niece, I longed for my own baby. Then thoughts of cancer flooded my mind -- combined with thoughts of sleepless nights and endless shrieks and temper tantrums -- and I realized I am happy just as I am, with my own two little boys and a sweet baby girl I plan to borrow as much as possible.

Welcome to the world, Tori!

The idea of music as a healing influence which could affect health and behavior is at least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) promotes a vast amount of research exploring the benefits of music as therapy through publication of the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives and other sources. A substantial body of literature exists to support the effectiveness of music therapy.

You don't have to have a particular music ability to benefit from music therapy. No particular style of music is more therapeutic than any other. You just need to enjoy your experience. Music will lower stress and help you relax. It has been proven that it reduces acute and chronic pain. Even during child birth. It can elevate moods to counteract depression and it can counteract apprehension or fear.

So today just sit back and listen to some music, do some drumming or percussion rhythms, hum some tunes, blow on a flute or harmonica even if you don't know any particular songs. Be creative. Take advantage of the sunshine and beautiful weather and just step outside and listen to the birds, the wind, and the rhythm of mother nature. The stand by of anything else is to plug in a favorite CD and close your eyes and just let it sink in.

Newer versions of oral contraceptives -- with lower levels of estrogen and progestin -- reduce the risk of ovarian cancer more than older concoctions of birth control pills

Researchers at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, whose work is published in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, say birth control pills have long decreased the risk of ovarian cancer. But over the years, doses of hormones in these pills have been decreased to reduce side effects -- and this seems to have an even stronger protective effect against the disease.

Studies show for women who had used any oral contraceptive a 50 percent reduction in risk of developing ovarian cancer compared to women who had never taken the pills. This risk was reduced by 38 percent
for women who took high estrogen and high progestin pills and by 81 percent for those taking pills with low levels of these hormones.

"Up to 42 percent of ovarian cancers might have been avoided if all women used some form of combined oral contraceptive pills," say researchers.

"An estimated 73 percent of ovarian cancers might have been avoided if all women used oral contraceptive pill formulation of low estrogen and low progestin."

Besides preventing birth defects in the brain and spine and other congenital abnormalities, the folic acid found in prenatal multivitamins has now been shown to prevent cancer in children whose mothers take the vitamins during pregnancy.

A new Canadian study, appearing online in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, estimates prenatal multivitamin supplements can save hundreds of children each year in Canada -- where only 40 to 50 percent of women take prenatal vitamins -- from developing leukemia, brain tumors, or neuroblastoma. And the vitamins may prevent 900 cases of pediatric leukemia and more than 300 brain tumor cases annually in the United States.

It's not clear which vitamins or minerals, and in what amounts, could be protecting babies from cancer, but it's possible folic acid -- critical for cellular function -- may be acting alone.

One thing is certain, says lead investigator Dr. Gideon Koren -- this is one inexpensive way to prevent cancer.

Findings from an international study suggest that women with a waist size of more than 34 inches are more likely to develop cancer of the womb than women who boast slimmer waistlines.

The study, funded in part by the British charity Cancer Research UK, sized up 223,000 women worldwide and determined that women with a waistline less than 31 inches have half the risk of developing womb cancer than their heavier counterparts.

There has been a significant rise in cases of womb cancer in Britain. And the link between the disease and weight gain is most prevalent among postmenopausal women who have never used hormone replacement therapy or the birth control pill.

According to the National Sizing Survey conducted in 2004, the average British woman now has a 34-inch waist. This is more than six inches bigger than the average size of a woman in the 1950s, says Dr. Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK.

"Women are larger than they were when they existed on a wartime diet and were generally more active and this is having serious consequences," Walker says.

More than 6,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with womb cancer each year. The disease kills about 1,000 annually.

I've never had a problem with crying. My tears of joy and sorrow have always flowed easily, and I have never regretted shedding any one of them. I once told a college student I mentored who was hesitant to cry over a work-related scenario that I cry all the time. She later told me my confession sticks in her mind -- my ability and willingness to cry freely, without reservation. I told her I consider crying a cleansing, therapeutic process. I told her that I always feel replenished after a good cry. And I still believe this, years and years after my encounter with this student.

I cried just a few days ago while talking to my doctor and then my mom about how cancer may prevent me from having another child, if not physically, then emotionally. I just don't know if I could peacefully experience a pregnancy with the fear of cancer recurrence. And this makes me cry. Because I want another child. But I don't think I will have one. I cried at my oncologist appointment the other day while talking about the death of a friend. I cry while reading certain books and while watching sad movies and television shows. Two nights ago, I cried while watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, about a breast cancer survivor. I cry when recalling the births of my babies and while marveling at my little growing boys. And I know I will cry when I read a journal a friend just shared with me, written by his uncle who lost a daughter to brain cancer.

Tears cleanse my soul. And sometimes, they complicate matters. They make me wonder how well I am, two years after my cancer diagnosis. I interpret my tears now more than ever, in an effort to determine how well I am coping with life in survival mode. I wonder if the tears that frequently well up in my eyes are normal or if they are indicative of the depression that prompted my oncologist to prescribe an anti-depressant. I consider that perhaps I should be better able to handle some topics, some situations, some tough experiences without becoming weepy. And I also realize that perhaps my tears are completely normal, that I could be ultra sensitive to my every emotion, that as long as I feel happy and function easily, I am just fine.

I plan to iron all this out at my next and final counseling session that I need to schedule. This closing session will allow me to wrap up two year's worth of cancer issues, to close one chapter of my life and begin another. I just need to make the appointment. Which I have yet to do. Because contemplating the end of something so healing seems so daunting. And for better or for worse, this makes me cry.

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.

Each month, about 22,000 women log on to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) web site and answer seven questions to determine their risk of developing invasive breast cancer. The Gail Model, named for the NCI's chief biostatistician, Mitchell H. Gail, generates a five-year risk and a lifetime risk for each woman who answers each of these seven questions.

• Does the woman have a medical history of any breast cancer or of any ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS)? Note: This assessment tool cannot accurately predict risk for a woman who already has a medical history of breast cancer.
  
• What is the woman's age? Note: This tool only calculates risk for women ages 35 and older.
  
• What was the woman's age at the time of her first menstrual period?
  
• What was the woman's age at the time of her first live birth of a child?
  
• How many of the woman's first-degree relatives -- mother, sisters, daughters -- have had breast cancer?
  
• Has the woman ever had a breast biopsy? How many breast biopsies has the woman had? Has the woman had at least one breast biopsy with atypical hyperplasia?
• What is the woman's race/ethnicity?

A simple drop-down answer menu is provided for each question, and explanations for each question are available. Upon completion of the short survey, the Gail Model spits out a five-year breast cancer risk and a lifetime breast cancer risk with comparisons to the general population of women.

While this is only an assessment -- based on statistics that do not always take into account individual differences -- it is still a helpful tool. Because it's clear that women can minimize breast cancer risk with behavior changes and sometimes medication. And generating a personal rating on risk is a rating worth knowing. It's also worth knowing that this tool was designed for use by health professionals. If you are not a health professional, consider discussing your results with your doctor.

When we memorialize someone at the time of death, we often refer to the date of birth and the date of death. These numbers tell us something -- like the age of the person -- but they don't say much about the life that fills the gap between start date and end date. They don't tell of the life that was surely full of ups and downs and victories and struggles. And happiness and joy and sadness and sorrow. And family and friends and jobs and hobbies. They don't do justice to the true stuff of life that is so much more important than numbers. But there is something important about these two sets of numbers -- something that when really examined, tells the full story. This important something -- the dash.

The dash that separates these static numbers is what tells the story of life. So consider your own dash when contemplating life, while determining how to spend your time and fill your days. Make your dash matter. Make it worthwhile. Make it something that people will talk about long after your own numbers become a matter of permanent record. And when you memorialize loved ones in the future, think about what their dashes mean. Talk about them, remember them, honor them. And pass on this link -- www.thedashmovie.com -- so others will consider the meaning that flows from each simple dash.

A chemical found in hard plastics -- such as CD cases, baby bottles, food-storage containers, and even electronics parts -- has been loosely linked to incidences of breast cancer. Popular opinion cautions that if we were not worried about this news yesterday, we should not be worried about it today -- because studies are preliminary and nothing is definitive at this point. But there are definitely two sides to the debate over how harmful these hard plastics may be.

The chemical in question -- a pseudo-estrogen called bisphenol-A (BPA) -- appears to be absorbed by breast tumor cells, according to a new study published in the August 28 issue of Chemistry & Biology. Previous studies have linked small exposures of BPA to prostate abnormalities in mice that suggest a link between the plastic chemical and human prostate cancer. Some studies even theorize that embryonic and fetal exposure might influence mental retardation and birth defects. And because this pseudo-estrogen is a synthetic material that in human cells can trigger estrogenic effects, breast cancer now comes up as a disease that may result from this questionable chemical.

Critics say that average levels of the chemical found in urine is infinitesimally small -- about one part per billion. Some say the results of this research come from in-vitro studies that one expert says can never fully explain human disease. Yet the real crux of the matter, according to another expert, is that we are surrounded by all sorts of chemicals that are pseudo-estrogenic -- not just BPA -- and it's the cumulative effects that we do need to worry about.

Perth Now Sunday Times is featuring a story with a surprise and happy ending. Four years ago, Nick Close was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent a year of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Close was warned that he might suffer infertility as a result of treatment. After treatment it was determined he was sterile and incapable of fathering any children. What are you going to do other than accept the reality and move on.

Off on holiday Nick and his wife Sarah Millais-Close go, and during the extended working holiday Sarah tells Nick she feels she might be pregnant. Nick, thinking this an impossibility, told her not to even waste money on a pregnancy test.

Fast forward, and Nick and Sarah Millais-Close are the proud parents of now 15-week-old baby Charles. In the world of cancer, the dark news is abundant and can be wearing on the spirit in the constant telling. Good news, less ample, is always a joy to hear and share. Isn't baby Charlie an absolute cutie! Looks like a very happy family indeed.

In the second part of the two-part exclusive interview with ABC's Good Morning America Diane Sawyer, Sheryl Crow shares she is cancer-free and feeling great as a breast cancer survivor. The diagnosis of breast cancer came as a surprise as she is not a smoker and has no family history of the disease. She received enormous support from her family and friends during treatment, whom she refers to as "this incredible tribe of women." Before Dana Reeve died of lung cancer, she gave Crow advice on dealing with the emotional aspects of being a newly-diagnosed cancer patient and dealing with the recent separation from Lance Armstrong by telling her that the only way to go through grief was to grieve.

Crow talked about meditating and changing her diet. "I kind of went into a full-on Eskimo diet, where I ate a lot of salmon. In fact, I'm salmoned out of my brains ... and really green vegetables, just eating really clean, organic food. Listen, I haven't had a doughnut in I can't remember when."

Breast cancer forced Crow into an introspective place of self-realization in facing and overcoming fears -- and the wisdom that comes with that when she said she tried to at least address her fears and not be overcome by them. "The fear of things not always working out. You come to a point in your life where you realize it's not my job to prove to my parents or to my record label or to the world or to my lover that I matter. The fact is that you matter."

"It's not a good place to be concerned with always being right with everybody, always pleasing people, because ultimately you wind up betraying yourself a lot."

Crow shared that she sees her breast cancer diagnosis and being a cancer survivor as part of life's deepening experiences where obstacles are removed and opportunities come in.

Last Friday night, Crow joined the Dave Matthews Band in a concert at Fenway Park. But before she went onstage -- in part of giving back as a cancer survivor --  she made an unannounced surprise visit to Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to visit children with cancer at the Jimmy Fund Clinic.

My mom just wished me a happy birthday and said she recalls vividly the days of June 19th and 20th -- way back in 1970. She remembers June 19th because she was admitted to the hospital on this day and June 20th because this was the day she gave birth to me. Her own birthday is just two days from now -- but it is my birthday that is more memorable, more joyous, more etched in her mind. And so it is not my birthday -- today -- that evokes emotion in me or makes me feel nostalgic about the day a life was born. The days my own two babies were born -- January 3 and May 30 -- are the birthdays that are most powerful for me. These are the days when I personally pushed two big boys into the world -- and for me, that is a cause for a celebration.

I will still celebrate my birthday today -- with a day spent with my boys, a dinner out with my husband, perhaps some gifts, and the thrill of knowing I've lived to the age of 36 after a breast cancer diagnosis at age 34. So it will be a happy day for sure. And I am thankful to my mom for pushing me into the world so I can know the true pleasure of birthdays that are not my own.

In November 2004, my husband I and decided to try to have a third child. But instead of getting pregnant, I got breast cancer. And with the aggressive treatment I would receive -- surgery, dose-dense chemotherapy, radiation, and Herceptin therapy -- becoming pregnant was not an option. Birth control became my only option -- an option that has many limits for premenopausal women surviving breast cancer.

Doctors start to recommend regular mammograms for women when they reach 40 but evidence now shows that a woman's risk for breast cancer may be determined far earlier in life. Cellular changes in breast tissue that are just beginning to develop in childhood can lead to cancer.

During early childhood, breast tissue is mostly dormant until the pituitary gland and ovaries produce enough hormones, including estrogen, to accelerate breast growth. These changes take place when a girl starts menstruating and continues for several years. During this period rapid cell growth appears to be a particularly vulnerable time for the breast and may be the time when the first cellular changes that can lead to breast cancer are most likely to occur.