As many of you know, OCF receives a small sum when anyone orders books or music through this website. The other day I recommended a book under Survivor Stories and Brian added an icon to my post that allows the book to be ordered through Amazon.com on behalf of OCF.
I have a suggestion for Brian. Add a list of recommended books to the website with icons and maybe this would generate some revenue for OCF.
For that matter,you could even add music recommendations.

Danny G.

Thanks for the input, but we already have a books page. Here is where you find it in the porducts section of the website Books Page Link

I am always looking for peoples advice on which ones to add to the list, so if anyone has favorites, please email me with them. There are lots of pages in this website that do not get visited often.....here is another example. I want you all to wander around the site a little. Tell me where you think it's weak, tell me where you find errors, tell me what we should add. I want us to be a complete a site regarding oral canacer as we can make it.

Well duh! As a person who has more books than most small town libraries, I don't know how I managed to miss this wonderful list. I suggest this be mentioned at least monthly, for the benefit of patients and family members new to the site who are, as I was, so thrilled to find real people with real answers on the forum, that extensive site exploration falls by the wayside. What a great collection of specifically relevant reading material!
Joanna

Brian,

I like Joanna get lost in the forum very easily. But, I wasn't aware at the beginning until you pointed it out to me that there was a sitemap. I had requested in another post maybe adding sitemap to the forum page,so a person doesn't have to go back through home again to find something they may read about on the forum???

In my opinion if the "link" or listing to the sitemap could be more prominent in the opening pages, more people would find more pages.

In my ignorance I thought the pages were just the heading that came up after intro. My fault I know, but what can I say. Dumb is dumb!!!

Take care,
Dinah

The sitemap function is something that I wish all web designers would put into their sites; it makes finding things and seeing the overview of everything much easier. The sitemap link exists on the bottom of every page in our site that has a navigation column on the left. I'll talk with Chester about putting a link on the forum someplace. Everyone has a different level of web and computer expertise

Besides "diagnosis cancer" already displayed on OCF's book list (it really is excellent); I found "Informed Decisions" published by the ACS extremely useful. In addition to covering ALL possible aspects of cancer, the book also provides an overview of specific types of the disease (e.g. head & neck cancer: larynx, oral cavity, salivary gland). It is very well written and highly informative. I am currently reading several books on oral cancer and will keep you updated on their usefulness.

Sigrid...please post the ISBN number for any book that you recommend in your posts. I can then add it to our book list/page easily.

Brian,
the ISBN for "Informed Decisions" is 0-944235-27-1.
Sigrid

I forgot to mention a book I found interesting. WARNING! It may not be for everyone since it is quite graphic. For those who do want to know what happens during surgery, it provides a lot of detailed figures.

"Atlas of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinics of North America: Surgical Management of Salivary Gland Disease" edited by M.A. Pogrel (Vol. 6, No. 1, March 1998)
ISSN 1061-3315

Just finished 2 more books I found worthwhile:

McGurk, M. & Renehan, A. (2001). Controversies in the management of salivary gland disease. (ISBN: 0-19-263278-7)
and
Strafford, N. & Waldron, J. (1989). Management of oral cancer. (ISBN: 0-19-261609-9). This book is a bit older, and may be somewhat dated re. radiation therapy, but nevertheless offers generally useful information on treatment, as well as details on a variety of oral tumors.

Brian:
Just wanted to let you know that this site so far is the easiest I have found to navigate around. I am pretty much a beginner but learn more as I visit more places. This site by far has more info and is the easiest to get around in. I have probably been on approximately 35 to 40 sites to find info about cancer. I feel that you have done quite well.

Mike D.

Diagnosed 06/2002, w/Laryngeal cancer, 1st stage

Brian,
Of course I agree with Mike. The caring people who write in to this site are what got me through the tough times when my radiation treatment ended and I felt so badly. I love this organization and tell everyone that I know about it.
There is one little thing that occasionally frustrates me on this site. I, or someone else, will write in some insignificant, or frivolous comment, and it will remain on the front page for 10 days. Then, just when I post an issue or question that is really critical or important to me,and hope for input from others, it will immediately be wiped off by some other topic.

Oh well, I guess life is not perfect!

Danny G.

Dig.... the nature of message boards is that the information is structured chronologically, as opposed to what someone may think is important. So a whim of an answer (which requires no reply) can sit on top of the pile until some new post moves it down the stack. That is one of the reasons we are starting to move the posts which people think are particularly helpful or insightful to a permanent threads link, (at the very top of the message board page) so they will be there without all the other chatter. If there have been some posts which you have found particularly interesting or helpful, please email their name and author to me and to Chester our webmaster, and we will see that they get on the permanent threads pages.