TRANSCRIPT
Real Patient
It was around my anniversary about last year, that I noticed a lump in my left breast. And it seemed to not be there the month before or perhaps even a month before. As a provider, I’d like to say that I do regular self breast exams. It’s funny though because even as a provider, you know, you check your breast and you try to compare to last month. But sometimes these things grow very slowly and you don’t notice too much of a change. Well, this change was – I felt like it was a pretty significant lump that needed to be looked at. So, I asked my provider, I said you know, I think that I have this lump. Maybe you want to look at it. You know, see what you think.
So, she did and she immediately agreed with me and ordered a mammogram. So, we had my mammogram and it did confirm I had a three-centimeter lump in my left breast. And of course radiology was concerned because I told them, well I noticed it, I gave them a specific date that I found it, and it was a month ago, and they were concerned because it was such a fast growing lump because I didn’t notice it the month before. And so they immediately did a biopsy, right after the mammogram. They did a ultrasound, they did a biopsy, an ultrasound-guided biopsy. So I found out the results pretty quickly.
I felt like the waiting period was a little bit difficult because they were concerned whether it was either benign tumor or it could have been a fast growing cancerous tumor. So, it was you know one way or the other. So just in the few days that I was waiting, that probably was the hardest part, not knowing. But, you know, of course immediately after, my – the radiologist that did my biopsy found out the results. He called me right away and let me know. So, I was very thankful for that. And it was a benign lump.
If you feel like you have a lump, don’t be afraid to get it checked out. You know, it is one way or the other, but the sooner you find out what the result is, the sooner you can do something about it. The longer you wait, you know, that’s whenever scary things happen.
Sometimes you have an appointment that is only with a short period of time. So let’s say you only have a 15-minute slot because it is an acute visit. And then they expect that you’re going to address that one particular thing. Let’s say you have a lump in your breast. So as a provider you think that you’re going to go in that room with this patient and they’re going to talk about a lump in their breast but then they start talking about other things. And, which I feel like really needs a longer appointment time.
So when you make your appointment, if it’s an acute appointment, make sure that you talk about your acute reason why you’re there. If you have more to talk about, make sure that whoever’s scheduling your appointment, schedules for longer. Perhaps they can put two appointments together and make it a 30-minute appointment instead. That way you could have your provider’s undivided attention.