Did you know the number one symptom of lung cancer is a persistent cough? Other symptoms include bouts of wheezing, shortness of breath, trouble swallowing, blood-streaked sputum, and a hoarse voice.

Did you know 28 percent of all cancer deaths are due to lung cancer and that it's the number one killer among both men and women?

Did you know that Hookahs -- used to inhale tobacco through a water pipe -- let in the same cancer-causing substances as cigarettes and are just as harmful as smoking, despite the fact that many people believe they are safer?

Now you know.

Source: WebMD: the Magazine, March/April 2007

Surgeons will normally remove the lymph nodes during surgery when a patient has Stage II or Stage III colon cancer. These stages refer to colon cancer that has penetrated the colon and entered the abdominal cavity. There may be spread of the cancer to local lymph nodes that need to be removed and biopsied.

An article published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute says that patients have improved survival when a greater number of lymph nodes are removed during surgery. Patients have anywhere from six to forty lymph nodes removed and evaluated. The question is -- What is the optimal number of lymph nodes to remove and evaluate?

A clinical study was conducted that involved nearly 62,000 patients. The researchers concluded that patients with Stage II or III colon cancer had significantly improved survival when more lymph nodes were removed.

The author of the study stated "These results support consideration of the number of lymph nodes evaluated as a measure of quality of colon care."

I will be honest. After a double mastectomy left my chest mutilated and scarred, I worried if I would be physically attractive to a man after breast cancer surgery. It's not that I think men are shallow, it had more to do with all that cancer was taking away in my life, and I was not sure how much I would pay in the final cost of losses.

Worse yet, I wondered if simply being someone who had been diagnosed with cancer would make people run the other way. If the private conversations I have had with other women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer are a true indication, these are secret fears most of us share.

We each find our own inspiration back to feeling accepted and attractive in reclaiming the every day challenges and joys of relationships and life. For me, one of the ways I found that gave me hope was watching other breast cancer survivors enter new relationships or get married. As in -- obviously it doesn't seem to matter when it comes to love how imperfect you might be physically -- cancer surgery scars and all -- or that you were someone who had cancer.

I even find inspiration in Kylie Minogue being voted the number one desired traveling companion of men in a poll conducted by British Airways. She beat out Rachel Stevens and actress Angelina Jolie for the top spot. Not bad.

Yes, I know, few of us have the attractive quality of fame, fortune and international celebrity status to carry us along, but that does not matter. The fact that Minogue was voted by men as the number one person they would most like to be seated next to on a flight just reaffirms one more time the hope factor for me.

Seriously, I am okay now, it's been a few years but I remember when this private fear hurt my heart and I wondered if cancer had stolen more from me than was obvious at the time of diagnosis. If you are newly-diagnosed and reading this, and worry and wonder privately what life will be like down the road, it only gets better and the fears and worry about sex appeal will be have been for naught. Few will run the other way.

I sometimes complain about the lack of warmth I've encountered from medical professionals throughout my journey with breast cancer. There have been glimpses of compassion. And there are a few who stand out as truly caring and concerned. But there seems to be a general lack of sensitivity. Maybe it's a side effect of the job -- distance -- that I should have been prepared for. But instead I was shocked by how I often felt forgotten, like a number, just one of many in my same boat. And this makes me sad -- for me and for all the others who sail rough waters in search of health. I have waited in lobbies for hours -- four hours one time -- and I've been encouraged to toughen up. I've rarely felt comforted -- except by a few who have hugged me or placed a hand on my shoulder. That's all it takes. A simple gesture or kind word.