So, you found a breast lump?
Your visit to the Brentwood Breast Clinic.
Coming to a breast clinic is scary let’s face it AND a nuisance, as you have to organise work and childcare to get to your appointment. Perhaps you haven’t told your family? To ease the situation, I have four clinics per week spread between two Brentwood hospitals, spanning early to late afternoon to ease the inconvenience as best as I can. My secretarial team will help coordinate your visit 01245234474.
On the day of your appointment, you will be called in by a specialist breast care nurse who will put you at ease.
You then meet me, Miss Dua, I’ll introduce myself and find out a little more about why you are here, your breast history, general health, family history and will start piecing your story together. I then examine you with one of my specialist nurses as a chaperone and tell you my initial findings. Both of my hospitals are currently fine about bringing a companion with you to clinic. Obviously, this may change if we hit another pandemic.
The next step, if you are coming for a breast problem, is imaging. For a younger woman, it’s just an ultrasound but for older women we do a mammogram as well. If we find a lesion of concern, them the radiologist will counsel you about a biopsy. This can be done on the same day, or another day, depending on your other commitments that day.
We do a thorough radiological check of both breasts and armpits in every case.
After your assessment in the radiology department, you are escorted back to the waiting room to allow me to confer with the radiologist about your imaging. Once we have discussed your case and assessed your images together, I call you back into my clinic room with my nurse and talk to you about our findings.
I then have a detailed chat with you about how to manage your benign changes such as breast pain, nipple discharge or benign lumpiness, and less commonly, how we are going to manage a breast cancer.
We then either discharge you with written information or make plans to see you again. At any rate we ensure that you know how to access our service should you ever need to see us in the future.
What should I wear?
It’s a good idea to wear comfortable clothes that have a separate top and bottom, as you will need to take your top and bra off for a physical examination and any tests.
How long will it take?
Your appointment might take up to two or three hours. We apologise in advance if you have to wait but some people’s appointments will take longer than others, and we cannot estimate how long each will take as the care is tailored for every individual.
Make sure your car parking, public transport, child minding and other arrangements allow for this. It’s also a good idea to bring something to read like a fully charged iPad, or magazine.
I undertake all breast cancer surgery and reconstruction with a specialist team of oncologists, plastic surgeons and clinical nurse specialists with a private multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting with other eminent specialists; this encourages a true expert team approach in each case. I am the Lead clinician of the Brentwood Breast Clinic and clinics are split between the Nuffield Hospital Brentwood and The Spire Hartswood Hospital, also in Brentwood.
