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ORIGINAL: pinksugarsub

He once had his staff leave me a voice mail at the office that my pap results had come back abnormal.  i almost fainted.

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ORIGINAL: pinksugarsub
i think if s'thing happens to my body, i'll notice symptoms, and can seek treatment for diseases i actually have.  i don't want the anxiety of imagining i have everything from breast cancer to colon cancer, etc., once a year or so.

What's  Y/your opinion?
 
pinksugarsub

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ORIGINAL: mistoferin

There are a lot of things that can kill you that don't have any symptoms at all until it's too late. Cervical, breast and colon cancer are a few of them.

What's my opinion? Anyone who doesn't get such testing done and justifies it with reasons like humiliation is a fool. How humiliated do you think you might feel if they have to remove your breasts for no reason other than you waited too long....or when you wake up with that colostomy bag hanging off your side....or even worse, when you are lying there dying from the most treatable cancer with the highest rate of cure to date? And insurance has nothing to do with it. Most cities have clinics that offer those tests free of charge or for very low cost.

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ORIGINAL: shivermetimbers
Sometimes talking about those "embarrassing" tests with others who have been there done that got the t-shirt is helpful.  I am part of a golf league, and one of the few people under the age of 50.  After a round of golf, and at the watering hole, one guy said he wouldn't be there next week, he had to go for his colonoscopy.  Which brought about tales of the procedure from all the other guys that had it done.  Then age got discussed, and eventually it started to turn towards us "younger" guys.  As I was the oldest of the under 50 crew, the league members said they are going to have a "coming out party" for me when I hit 50 soon, to celebrate being inducted into "the club".  Grown men sharing camaraderie over having a camera shoved up their butts is funny, but at the same time, the stigma of that coming day is long gone, and when it's my turn to "join the club" I'll treat it with the same humor they all did.  Hearing from others, especially those who had something detected, and taken care of right away, is a positive experience to carry when the day comes that I'm drinking go litely all night, and getting a camera run up my pooper the next day. It won't seem so bad afterall.

It's cliche, I know, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Or to be more crass, a couple quarts of laxative and the crapper cam is worth not having to shit in a bag or be the man of honor at a funeral.

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ORIGINAL: L8bloomer

quote:

ORIGINAL: pinksugarsub

He once had his staff leave me a voice mail at the office that my pap results had come back abnormal.  i almost fainted.

You gynecologist's office violated HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) by leaving that message of your pap smear results on voice mail. You should report them. You can get more information at the following web site. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacyhowtofile.htm   However, HIPAA hasn't been around forever, so if this was many years ago you may have no recourse.

quote:

ORIGINAL: L8bloomer

I respectfully disagree Cali. Unless the answering machine was known by the clinic staff to be secure, it is a violation. They would have no way of knowing that the patient alone would be the one to receive that report. I work in a medical lab and we cannot leave results on an answering machine. We cannot even give results out over the phone unless we have a means of verifying who the individual is. For them to leave a result like that on an answering machine is, at a minimum, very careless.