Breast Health Awareness

Breast Health Awareness

In observance of Breast Cancer Awareness month, a few of our experts discuss the plan of care for breast health.

[Music] one in eight women will get breast cancer in their lifetime as we recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month a few of our experts want to remind you about the importance of having a breast care plan to help in breast cancer prevention so gather the girls it's time for a breast exam breast self- exam has had some discussion and disagreement in the past few years the American Cancer Society continues to consider breast self exam as an option for women it's a way for women to familiarize themselves with their own breast tissue and hopefully be able to pick up early on a change or an abnormality in the breast my thinking related to bre a self-exam is that it's something that we should be encouraging in everyone it's something that can be done in the privacy of One's Own home anyone can be taught to do it properly it requires no special equipment and it's totally free many women do detect their own abnormalities so it is important to learn to do this breast self exam is a procedure done using the pads of the fingers the soft flat pads not digging in with the fingernails but using the flat pads of the fingers three levels of pressure are used a light level of pressure in small circles a more firm pressure and then a very firm pressure remembering that you are compressing the breast tissue against the chest wall the breast self exam is done on the opposite breast so if you're doing your left breast you're going to use your right hand placing the back of your left hand against your forehead beginning on either the inside or the outer edge of the breast and remembering that breast tissue goes from the center of your chest to your collar bone and over under the armpit you want to begin in small circles beginning at the bottom doing light pressure firm pressure and a very firm pressure without lifting the fingers moving upward and repeating the process three levels of pressure covering all the breast tissue once you reach the top then you move slightly to the right and begin the small circles going downward in addition to the self- breast exam at home we like women to do come into their provider's office to do a clinical breast exam at least once a year and the self breast exam combined with a clinical breast exam uh will help find any uh knots or masses that may need to be F further evaluated for breast cancer hi my name is Vicky Miller and I one of three mamography technologist on St at Marin Memorial hospital the other technologists are Kim SS and Kim Beckett I pleased to say that I work at a facility with caring individuals who are passionate about detecting breast cancer at its earliest stage the Memorial Health System offers many breast Health Care Services Marana Memorial Hospital has two accredited state-of-the-art dedicated mamography units each unit is compared with a computerated detection system also known as CAD the cad looks for a normal areas and produces an alert if additional evaluation is needed additional evaluation may include compression views and mamography breast MRI breast breast ultrasound or stereotactic breast biopsy stereotactic breast biopsy is a minimally invasive procedure that can be done under mamography or ultrasound guidance during this procedure tissue is taken from the breast and sent to the lab for pathology this procedure is done in in an outpatient set set where you can receive diagnosis without having to go to surgery another service offered through the Memorial health system is breast healthc care coordinator our breast health care coordinator provides support education and is a link to all services offered through the Memorial Health System together we can fight the fight against breast cancer start having your yearly mammograms at the age of [Music] 40 ideally would like to see the patient as soon as they find out they have an abnormal mamogram or if they're doing self- exams and they detect an abnormal lump or any changes in the breast I think the reason for that is that whenever that happens there's a lot of anxiety associated with an abnormal mamogram a new breast lump um certainly patients think the worst and they're very anxious and want to have all their questions answered so I think we try as our group to see patients um immediately really within the same day if they want or as soon as they they want to be seen and so that we can sit down and really go over the whole process with them and I think once that happens you know they feel a lot better about um what's going on and I think that's probably the biggest advantage to seeing us early um the first step would be um when we do evaluate the patient is go over what what we need to do as far as the lump or the abnormal mamogram and sometimes that means additional Imaging studies sometimes that means a biopsy which can be set up um here at the hospital um once the biopsy is done we typically will see the patient back within 2 days um and that's when the pathology report is back and then we would go over that in detail so that they would know the exact course of action if surgery is required or just observation so typically Kim D the breast cancer coordinator will be involved with that process as well she she comes to our office and is another resource for patients as well um I think once we do know what we're dealing with if it is breast cancer there's a lot of options but all the treatment uh options are available here at Marietta um we work closely with the oncology department with our plastic surgery colleague Dr yoke if reconstruction is required so so we really have all the modalities available here when it comes to fighting breast cancer there is strength in numbers that's why the Memorial Health System offers Signature Care for breast health making life easier for breast cancer patients and that's why we've created girl talk giving you your family and friends a chance to discuss breast health with the experts the Memorial Health System expect more

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