Repeating your medical history can be a taxing process. Amanda talks about how it would be great if health professionals could avoid this step whenever possible.

Transcript

I don’t know if it’s advice but just for the patient repeating histories of your family and your progression of your illness it’s an emotional thing and it’s hard. So if there’s any way you can read the chart and get some information before you go in there, and not have to ask the person to take it from the top every single time when they have 2 to 3 appointments a day. Do that. Just try and know what you can know before you go in there, even if it takes some time. I don’t mind waiting, sometimes it sucks, but waiting isn’t that bad. I’d rather, if it saves me having to repeat that “Everyone in my family had cancer!” Then that would be nice if you could read up on that. And that’s one thing. Also, for pre-menopausal women who get diagnosed with cancer and who are facing risks with their fertility, let them know that there’s options. We can’t do it here in (an Atlantic province) and it’s expensive but there is stuff that you can do. So just broach that head-on and don’t wait for them to come to you looking for the information. I think that’s really important.

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