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Editor’s Note: A new report today from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies addresses improving the health of people with chronic illnesses. Karen Basen-Engquist, Ph.D. , professor in MD Anderson’s Department of Behavioral Science , is one of 17 experts nationally who co-authored the report. By Karen Basen-Engquist In fighting the war on cancer, emphasis has been placed on detecting disease early and, hopefully, curing it. Many battles have been won, and because of this we have more than 12 million Americans living today who have had a previous diagnosis of cancer.

By John Chattaway, MD Anderson Staff Writer Part II of Monday’s post- Short Circuit: MD Anderson Robots Provide Safety in the 21st Century “Autobots, roll out!”… and into the next lab “I am a robot.” If you’ve traveled Floor 4 of the Main Building, you may have heard those words spoken by “Tess,” the Swisslog SpeciMinder used by Laboratory Medicine to transport specimen batches between labs. The robot is on loan from Swisslog while Pathology and Laboratory Medicine determines if it’s a technology we want to invest in. Laboratory Medicine technicians have a button or “bell” they push to call Tess. The robot has a pre-programmed map of our facility that it uses, along with external sensors, to find its way to the technician. Once Tess arrives, the technician loads specimen batches into it and tells it where to go. Once Tess delivers the specimens to the required destination, if that destination has nothing to send, Tess returns to a docking station in the central specimen processing area. “Tess minimizes the need for manual transport of specimen batches between labs. This enables our lab employees to stay focused on high value and patient-oriented work,” says Lila Pulido, director, Pathology/Laboratory Medicine Operations. “It’s also fun because you can program what Tess can say. I once heard it say, ‘Sorry, I haven’t had my morning coffee,’ when it bumped into a wall.” Don’t be fooled by Tess’s simple, R2-D2-like appearance. The robot can hold up to 150 tubes of blood and a bag of microbiology specimens, or up to 50 pounds of cargo. At three feet tall and 100 pounds, Tess rolls at normal human walking speeds. Unfortunately, Tess still needs help opening doors and is contained to the Floor 4 labs while it’s being tested. But if MD Anderson decides to pursue this technology in the future, don’t be shocked to find Tess on the elevator with you, asking you to push the button for another floor. These are the droids you’re looking for While our robots don’t travel through time or space, or morph into cars, they help make our operations more efficient. So don’t go poking the nearest doctor, checking for mechanical parts. We don’t have androids working in the hospital … yet. Resources The Robots of MD Anderson (video) Related story Short Circuit: MD Anderson Robots Provide Safety in the 21st Century

My name is Deserie Johnson and I am a lung cancer survivor. I am still challenged with living with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, ankylosing spondylitis and sarcoidosis for which I take about 15 prescribed medications daily not including oral chemotherapy weekly. Friday is my chemo day (normally drained, nauseous, not feeling well) and this week of January 23-27th is my  second week drinking Le Vive Red. The last two Friday’s, I have been energetic, talking nonstop about Ardyss and no nausea! This is an answered prayer and I thank Nichole Jefferson for allowing God to use her and Ardyss to give me my life back! I AM ARDYSS!

By Andrew Griffith Andrew Griffith has mantle cell lymphoma and has had an auto (November 2009) and an allo (August 2011) stem cell transplant . He lives in Canada and is married with two young adult children. He blogs at www.lymphomajourney.wordpress.com and can be followed on Twitter @lymphomajourney . Most of us find it challenging to make sense of the wave of information when we enter our cancer journey. This is foreign territory, with its own language, culture and routines. It takes time to absorb and understand. We’re not oncologists or hematologists. However, we can learn to improve our discussion with our medical team. Tips to help Build your knowledge: By the time you start your treatment, you’ll likely have searched the web and read brochures on your cancer. Ask your medical team which sites have reliable and up-to-date information to avoid old and possibly discouraging information on treatment outcomes. While blogs and support forums help give a real-world view of the range of experiences, you’re an individual, and too much thinking about what happens to others, good or bad, increases worry further. Moderation! To save time, set up Google Reader for news sites, blogs and forums, and use the search function (general terms like cancer or lymphoma ) to narrow down articles of interest. Keep a notepad: At each appointment, take notes. Chemo brain or not, this is new territory and hard to master. Come with someone, either as a listener or a scribe. My wife played the first role and it helped ensure that we both heard and understood the consequences the same way. Start a binder: As you go through treatment, you’ll get more and more paper. I started a binder, organized with these categories: contact info (first page), treatment plan, test results, background information and drug information. The purpose is to have all reference material in one place, to consult and take to hospital and clinic visits. Be prepared: Prepare a list of questions for the medical team for your clinic check-ups (I found it harder during the daily hospital routine). My doctors are busy people. However, they always take time to answer my questions. If I weren’t prepared, the appointment would be limited to a brief summary of my condition. As treatment varies depending on the doctor, having detailed notes and questions helps track any changes. Given my group practice, I questioned my team about changes (scan or not to scan, when to stop immunosuppressants) — not to challenge their judgment but to ensure I understood their rationale for the change. While every patient gets good care, an empowered patient becomes a partner in treatment, one that my medical team appreciated, and may have resulted in better care. Go electronic: I started with a paper system. My second time around, I switched to an iPad (initially to have a new toy). This included the following apps (equivalents available for Android): Evernote for clinic notes and questions, as it kept everything easy to findo

Did kids or siblings call you names when you were little? Did you have stomachaches and begin to develop an eating disorder including bulimia when you were in school? Did people beat you up after school? Did you answer yes to any of these questions? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to know that bullying leads to children’s eating disorders or other dysfunctional behaviors. More and more children are finding they need treatment for an eating disorder who are younger than 12. Bullying is dangerous and can even lead to suicide. The internet has exposed the terrible truth about the effects of bullying. Remember, Phoebe Green, who hung herself at age 15 because of cyber bullying. Only recently have we as health care professionals begun to look at the seriousness of bullying particularly after reported teenage suicides. Does your child use the internet? If so, be alert. Know that the internet has exposed the terrible truth about the effects of bullying, severe enough to drive some kids to self-harm or suicide. Bullying effects millions of students but parents and teachers don’t understand the serious outcomes. When professionals or parents tell kids to ignore teasing, or to just get on with it, this not the kind of advice or understanding they need. What does bullying looks like? 1. Emotional or verbal abuse looks like “Fatty fatty two by four, can’t get thru the kitchen door” or Piggy, piggy! 2. “Hey Jew boy.” 3. Cyber abuse is on Facebook where everyone from your school can see it. 4. Cruel emails can be sent from anywhere. A person can be picked on by an individual or group with more power. Someone with more power may be peers, older kids, even teachers or parents. Bullies choose their victims because they look different, have a different religion, or are disabled. Bullies pick on a person simply because the person is shy or is gay or is a lesbian. We must never forget that bullying is a severe form of abuse, i.e. emotional abuse, verbal and sexual abuse. Being excluded socially is a form of abuses. Verbal bullying, cruel email, or cyber-bullying (posting insults online) are forms of abuse. Bullying like most forms of abuse is ongoing, like water dripping on a stone. The person being bullied lives in a constant state of fear. Everything in his or her life is affected. School work and health are both affected. A person being bullied can get stomach-aches, diarrhea, and headaches from the stress. Kids abused by peers or family members can suffer from depression, low-self-esteem, and anxiety occasionally or a great deal of the time. They might even consider suicide! Here are 8 tips to help you protect yourself from bullies. What advise will help if you feel bullied or know someone who is being bullied? 1. Tell someone about it, a teacher, a friend, a parent — tell anyone but tell right away. 2. Stick together with your friend who is being bullied — never leave him or her alone. 3. Learn to ignore the bully. Don’t add wood to the fire. 4. Don’t get physical (or angry) with the bully. 5. Practice feeling and looking confident. Posture is a give-away. 6. take small steps to be in charge of your life. This is where a good coach can help. 7. Talk about the bully and bullying to anyone and everyone. The more public you are, the bully will hide out. 8. Find true friends, friends that can offer you unconditional friendship. If you’re a kid, find an adult who can guide you step by step through the process of taking charge of your life. As you grow in confidence, you’ll stand taller knowing that no one will bully you again.

I am Executive President Danisha Thomas from Mitchellville MD. Prior to using Ardyss products I struggled with my skin care routine. I could never find anything to work on my blemish prone skin. Every month, during my cycle I would suffer with painful, irritated, red, and even bleeding acne. It was embarrasing and depressing. I even tried infomercial products including proactive, but nothing would work. When I started taking Levive, 3 oz in the morning of the red, and 3 oz in the evening of the green, I finally began to see a difference. When the Armida Skin Care line came out, I was reluctant, but knew I wanted to give it a shot. Since I have normal skin, I used the cleanser, rejuvenating night cream, purifying mask, and eye cream on a regular basis. That’s when my dark spots from previous breakouts started to even out, and clear up, and my skin got an even brighter glow. Once I completed my ultra body cleanse, I couldn’t believe the effect it had on my skin. Now, people always think I have foundation on. But I don’t. I have Ardyss on! In fact, I AM ARDYSS! Thank you Mrs. Armida. What would I have done without you!

By Isaac Van Sligtenhorst Isaac van Sligtenhorst is a physician-in-training in the Texas Medical Center. He blogs about his training, as well as battling cancer from the perspective of a caregiver . Read more about his approach to grief, hope and life in general at heartofalonelyhunter.blogspot.com .

I began my journey about five years ago when I had some temporary blindness. I went to the doctor and my blood counts were low, so I was sent to a hematologist oncologist. After a bone marrow biopsy, I was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Once I got my diagnosis, I went straight to MD Anderson. My doctor at MD Anderson was Guillermo Garcia-Manero, M.D., in the Department of Leukemia. I can’t say enough good things about this man. From my first appointment with him, I knew he was the best doctor in the world. It turns out he’s considered the leading authority in the world on my disease. I never doubted him, did everything he told me to do and constantly sought his advice. When my MDS became more vicious and progressive last spring, I became transfusion dependent and my quality of life was deteriorating, he decided it was transplant time. It was now riskier not to have the transplant than to wait. He also told me that after the transplant and when I no longer had MDS, he would no longer be my doctor. I cried.

Ardyss begins the year delivering big checks. On Saturday January 21st we welcomed our new Platinums Presidents Pattian & Michael Bartley and Bernardette Selby to the city of Las Vegas who received directly from the hands of our founders Antonio Diaz de Leon and his wife Armida Diaz de Leon Fonseca their amazing checks for the month of January . Our Platinums pledged to continue working hard to continue to reap 6 figure checks and get their teams to reach the top!

By Val Marshall Val Marshall’s cancer journey began in May 2009, when her son Addison was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia . A visit to the family doctor for what they thought was a simple high school football injury turned out to be much more. Inspired by her son’s strength and hope, Val strives to be a voice that connects other parents on this journey. Her series shares insight into her life as a mom of a typical teenager who just happens to be fighting leukemia. Addison Marshall Crush Cancer I have to say that I was happy to ring in the New Year and say “hasta la vista, baby” to 2011. Last year was a huge mountain for Addison to climb. But he scaled it with a heavy load, while refusing to yield to leukemia’s wrath. I remember when I saw the protocol with 104 weeks of chemotherapy at the time of his relapse. I never thought the end of treatment would occur. He’s now looking down at 81 weeks — “run Forrest, run!” We’re crossing our fingers and hearts that he will finish chemo in June, in time to ship off to Texas A&M this fall. Addie started the year like he lives each day. He fell on jump boxes while working out and split open his shin. I didn’t flinch but realized that his platelets must have been decent, even though it took a while to stop the bleeding. Boy, I am getting lax.

Meals that help us with weight lost Did you know? By choosing sensible meals you could lose weight. Nature provides foods rich in nutrients of all types. Simply by knowing which one to choose could help you lose weight. Vitamin C Vitamin C burns fat by using a simple process of liquefaction. Choosing foods naturally rich in vitamin C such as apples, strawberries, broccoli, cabbage, and citrus fruits could help you lose weight. Apples. Apples and berries also contain pectin, which restricts the amount of fat in cells. Moras blueberries, red and black currants, raspberry and strawberries help to detoxify our body. They stimulate our metabolism to become more efficient in burning fat. Foods rich in calcium. Cabbage, broccoli, and milk bio-products (like cheese and yogurt) contain calcium. Calcium helps the body lose weight by assisting to dissolve fat cells. Foods rich in protein. Protein also plays an important role in fat burning and weight lost in its natural form. We choose foods naturally abundant in protein like eggs, lean meat, and fish, (such as tuna, salmon and sardines). Garlic. Garlic or garlic oil also helps in weight lost as it reduces fatty deposits. Green Tea. Green tea increases the metabolism and accelerates the speed at which your body burns fat. It also contains powerful antioxidants which are known to prevent infection and help prevent disease. Peppers Chili peppers also accelerate metabolism to burn more calories. Whole Grains Whole grain (like oatmeal) contain fiber which help cells absorb fat Olive and canola oil Olive oil or canola oil comes from natural sources. They help keep cholesterol levels low. They belong to the same foods group that helps burn fat. Soup Soup that is made from natural foods is a huge appetite suppressant. Its Tradition to serve soup first at a meal to prevent from over eating. Try it and you will see that you are not as hungry and therefore you eat less of other foods. Soy Soy in natural foods (non-hydrogenated oil as Soy) contains lecithin, which protects the cells from accumulating too much fat and helps the decomposition of body fat deposits. Water Water helps to cleanse the body inside and out, flushed the system and eliminates toxins. Our body consists of 70 % water. And needs his daily repositioning

We are Alejandro and Gelly Cantú, in Ardyss has given us the best years of our lives, Ardyss has given us the opportunity to grow as entrepreneurs and as individuals, we have traveled to different parts of the world, it has allowed us to live where we like, drive the cars we’ve always wanted, has given us the time to spend with our families, but most importante, Ardyss has provided us excellent health and the opportunity to help others achieve their dreams. We have a wonderful group who always supported us.  Thanks to everyone for their love and loyalty. Thanks to the Díaz de León family. Alejandro y Gelly Cantu.

My name is Shona Davenport Blackthorn from Australia, for over 40 years I have suffered with my body.  I remember when it first started I was in my middle 20′s married and had 3 children. Instead of eating, I would smoke and drink coffee, I realised I had an eating disorder because every time I looked in the mirror I saw a very fat and ugly woman, everyone would tell me you look great but I know what I saw and that’s what I believed! It became that bad I dropped to 7 stone and still saw a fat person staring back at me, so I smoked and drank coffee for nearly every meal. I would not go out, I couldn’t find anything that looked good on me or about Me, I just looked fat… but life went on and I still couldn’t see Me as I really looked.  Days went past and they turned into months and years, always seeing the same thing, so I stopped looking in the mirror and I became what I thought I looked like FAT, of course! A few years ago I lost 20 pound but I still suffered from Body Disorder, I went to gym after gym but they made no difference, I still looked fat and ugly………… now I had layers of loose skin, I couldn’t afford to pay $10.000 for a tummy tuck so I started looking around for a garment that would hide my ugliness but not cost the world! Yes I paid for undergarments that did nothing then I found Ardyss and my life changed, my body not only looked fantastic but my self esteem was lifted to a height where I now speak to other women and men as a Motivation Speaker. What a life change I have had, Ardyss has changed my whole outlook on my life and the way I look at myself. I have started looking at photo’s of myself in my 20′s and I was a good looking woman and I still not bad for nearly 61, I can’t believe I have wasted so much time,  now  I love who I have become and I am building other women’s and men’s self esteem and they are starting to live the life they were meant to live. Thank you Ardyss for giving me my life back and more! Shona Davenport Blackthorns

By Sarah Cook, Department of Social Work An acute leukemia diagnosis can make you feel as if the world has stopped — for you, the patient, and for your loved ones.

By Sapna Patel, M.D. , assistant professor, Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology When a patient is diagnosed with uveal melanoma , he or she should be evaluated by an ocular oncologist, an ophthalmologist who specializes in treating cancer of the eye. The objective of this examination is to find out whether the uveal (or intraocular) cancer has spread to the optic nerve or nearby tissues of the eye socket, or has moved through the blood to other parts of the body. Depends on diagnosis When uveal melanoma is diagnosed, the treatment depends on whether the disease has metastasized to other organs. Most patients whose disease has not metastasized are treated with surgery known as enucleation or some form of radiation therapy . A commonly used radiation treatment for uveal melanoma is plaque brachytherapy, in which a tiny radioactive disk is placed on the affected part of the eye for a few days, minimizing exposure to surrounding tissue. Dan Gombos, M.D., associate professor and chief of the Section of Ophthalmology , is an ocular oncologist who specializes in the treatment of uveal melanoma, in addition to other intraocular malignancies. He works in coordination with Beth Beadle, M.D., and William Morrison, M.D., in the Department of Radiation Oncology, to manage these patients. The latest diagnostic techniques and treatments for eye cancer are available at MD Anderson, where cutting-edge translational research is conducted, continually driving laboratory discoveries forward to application in the clinical realm. Clinical trials for uveal melanoma patients “Because of the multidisciplinary nature of the ophthalmologists, oncologists and research scientists at MD Anderson, we are actively designing research-driven clinical trials for patients with uveal melanoma,” says