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Mammogram Informative Speech

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It was a dark and cold fall morning. The sun hadn’t risen yet, and I could see my breath in the morning air. My mom and I were taking my grandma to her mammogram appointment. She would always tell us that the most productive in the mornings. So, she would schedule all important doctor visits extremely early in the morning—which made us absolutely miserable as her companions. She had had routine mammograms before. We thought it was just like any other appointment. However, we were wrong. Her doctor comes out into the waiting room. It had been about two to three hours since she had her mammogram. She was taken to a consultation room in the back and was given the diagnosis that changed her life forever:
“Mrs. Phuong, you have breast cancer.” …show more content…

It’s pretty simple, right? It’s just cancer of the breast. What if this cancer makes it to another part of the body like the liver? Is it, now, liver cancer? How do I know it’s actually breast cancer? Most likely, you noticed an abnormal lump on your breast when you get out of the shower one day. Alternatively, you could have your yearly mammogram and your physician could notice a change in your breast tissue (“Signs and Symptoms of Breast Cancer”). Whatever the reason, it would be an urgent need to see your regular physician and have them refer you to a physician who specializes in breast cancer as soon as possible. According to the American Cancer Society, when there is a suspected mass in your breast, your attending oncology physician will ask you to consent to a breast biopsy. With this, they will send the specimen to be looked at by a pathologist. A pathologist is a medical doctor who is specially trained to look at cells under a microscope and identify diseases (“Your Breast Biopsy Results”). Because these pathologists are specially trained to differentiate between each type of tissue, they will know if it is breast cancer by the unique tissue markers it portrays (Hoonakker). Once you get your test results back, it can go one of two ways: it can be benign—where a simple surgery can remove the abnormal mass or it can be malignant—a lot more serious and have the possibility to metastasize to other parts of the body, like the liver. There is a …show more content…

There are different types of standard treatments that can be used such as the following: surgery, sentinel lymph node biopsy, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and targeted therapy (“Treatment Option Overview”). Although these are standard treatments, there are constant clinical trials going on to improve standard treatments or discover a new type of treatment that would benefit breast cancer patients even more (“Treatment Option Overview”). Once there is a chosen course of therapy, the patient will be put through several stages of cancer treatment—some making them thirsty or super sick. Ultimately, each and every cancer patient will need to have follow-up doctor visits to make sure the treatment is working (“Treatment Options Overview”). Everyone will heal at their own pace. It’s up to us, as family members, to be thoroughly educated on our loved ones’ treatment. We can better understand what they’re going through and it would make the healing process go by much faster. Medical treatment is important, but loving support from family heals anybody faster than any medical treatment that is

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