Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The Diagnosis Part I

The Diagnosis Part I
Kaiser (KP) is very good about nagging you when it is time for your physical. So in June I got a reminder that I should get a pap smear, and made an appointment to see an ob/gyn.
That happened in July, and she put in the paper work for me to have my routine mammogram. This was all done at the West End Kaiser facility, which is about a five minute walk from
my home. I had the mammogram done in early August.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Detection/screening-mammograms http://www.imaginis.com/breasthealth/screening.asp
I received a letter from KP shortly thereafter, saying that something unusual had turned up on my screening mammo, and they wanted me to come back in for a closer look. This has happened a couple of times before, so I didn't get alarmed. End of August, I was back having "close ups".
http://www.imaginis.com/breasthealth/abnormalities.asp The radiologist reads these films while you are still in the office. He called me in and showed me the areas of concern, where some microcalcifications had appeared which were
not on my earlier mammos.
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=breastbixr

He thought it was wise for me to have a biopsy, so he asked for a referral to a surgeon.

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