This is my second post for today!
This morning I phoned screening mammography to try and get copies of the reports from my mammograms that were sent to my GP. I can't get them. I can get copies of the "happy gram" form letters I wrote about in an earlier post but not the reports. Apparently they can't release the reports to me because even though I am the patient, I am considered a "third party"! If this isn't bull you know what then tell me what is! If you have any ideas as to how I can get them please leave me a comment.
I knew these reports would be challenging to get and even voiced my concerns to family and friends and was told that I needn't worry about that as I could get them. Well ladies, please know that you can't get a copy of the report sent to your doctor unless you get it from him!
Tomorrow I am going to try and get a copy of the film images from 2008 and 2010. Wish me luck!
Showing posts with label happy gram. Show all posts
Showing posts with label happy gram. Show all posts
Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Friday, 9 May 2014
Don't be as stupid as me - ask if your location has a digital machine
In 2010 at the age of 42 I believed I was doing the right thing for going by a mammogram and that if I was unfortunate enough to have breast cancer it would be caught early. If you have read this blog you will know how wrong I was! I went to one of the local stationary sites for three years and as you may have already read got the "happy gram" report. In 2013 after a mammogram at another location, a well respected location on a main thoroughfare, my cancer was detected. How I wish I had gone there in 2010. The lady I spoke to there said their radiologists are very thorough. I told her I know that now and tell everybody I can to go to that site.
This afternoon I called the first site, the one I hold a lot of resentment towards. Thanks to a woman at the Breast Cancer Support Group I went to last night, I was motivated to get my records. That and the fact I have a biopsy for another mass in another location on Tuesday that was missed on a scan in Jan. 2014. It turns out my first location, in the Shaughnessy area, did not have a digital machine until 2012! This doesn't excuse how my cancer was missed but instead highlights the importance of money being put towards prevention, not just a cure. I have to phone records next Tuesday to see if I can get a copy of the x-rays/film on CD . At least I learned that they weren't digital until 2012. It doesn't excuse what happened to me but if cancer in dense breasted women is like looking for a snowball in a snowstorm, then lets at least have the medical folks looking for it on the best machines possible. I made an assumption and a stupid one in that I thought being who they are, they would have the latest and best equipment! . Man was I wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong!
I then phoned the location I went to last year and they have been digital for three years. The lady there was wonderful and very kind and helpful. For a small fee ($25) which I feel is most reasonable I am getting my Jan. 23, 2012 screening mammogram, April 2, 2013 screening mammogram, and then the call-back diagnostic mammograms and ultrasound. She will phone me next week when the CD is ready. I don't recall going there in 2012 and believe that this mammogram was done at the first location after it became digital. Next Tuesday I am phoning records at the first location and attempting to get the 2010 and 2011 mammograms (old film ones) copied to CD. I certainly won't be able to read them but I think I would like to take them to a private radiologist to have them examined. If there were no warning signs,, then my cancer was incredibly aggressive to have got to stage III in a year. I have used the word 'exploded' and my surgeon called it "big and sneaky." It was diffuse and over 13cm of tissue when pathology examined it. My cancer was so aggressive that there was still active cancer in the breast they took! I am going to be looking for somebody who can help me look at the images and if there were issues that were missed, then I need to do some thinking.
This afternoon I called the first site, the one I hold a lot of resentment towards. Thanks to a woman at the Breast Cancer Support Group I went to last night, I was motivated to get my records. That and the fact I have a biopsy for another mass in another location on Tuesday that was missed on a scan in Jan. 2014. It turns out my first location, in the Shaughnessy area, did not have a digital machine until 2012! This doesn't excuse how my cancer was missed but instead highlights the importance of money being put towards prevention, not just a cure. I have to phone records next Tuesday to see if I can get a copy of the x-rays/film on CD . At least I learned that they weren't digital until 2012. It doesn't excuse what happened to me but if cancer in dense breasted women is like looking for a snowball in a snowstorm, then lets at least have the medical folks looking for it on the best machines possible. I made an assumption and a stupid one in that I thought being who they are, they would have the latest and best equipment! . Man was I wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong!
I then phoned the location I went to last year and they have been digital for three years. The lady there was wonderful and very kind and helpful. For a small fee ($25) which I feel is most reasonable I am getting my Jan. 23, 2012 screening mammogram, April 2, 2013 screening mammogram, and then the call-back diagnostic mammograms and ultrasound. She will phone me next week when the CD is ready. I don't recall going there in 2012 and believe that this mammogram was done at the first location after it became digital. Next Tuesday I am phoning records at the first location and attempting to get the 2010 and 2011 mammograms (old film ones) copied to CD. I certainly won't be able to read them but I think I would like to take them to a private radiologist to have them examined. If there were no warning signs,, then my cancer was incredibly aggressive to have got to stage III in a year. I have used the word 'exploded' and my surgeon called it "big and sneaky." It was diffuse and over 13cm of tissue when pathology examined it. My cancer was so aggressive that there was still active cancer in the breast they took! I am going to be looking for somebody who can help me look at the images and if there were issues that were missed, then I need to do some thinking.
Sunday, 30 March 2014
Have you received a "Happy Gram" report?
To learn what a "Happy Gram" report is, check out Dr. Nancy Cappello's story on the "Are You Dense?" website. She ends her story by saying she is on a quest to expose this best-kept secret of dense breast tissue to ensure women receive screening and diagnostic measures to find cancer at its earliest stage. Remember early detection can save lives!
In her quest for information, Dr. Cappello found "that there have been 7 major studies with over 42,000 women that demonstrate that by supplementing mammograms with ultrasounds increases detection from 48% to 97% for women with dense tissue."
I encourage you to go and read her story.
In her quest for information, Dr. Cappello found "that there have been 7 major studies with over 42,000 women that demonstrate that by supplementing mammograms with ultrasounds increases detection from 48% to 97% for women with dense tissue."
I encourage you to go and read her story.
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