Will the doctor give me the results over the phone?

SMV
SMV Member Posts: 30
edited January 2015 in Waiting for Test Results

Anyone who has received results from a biopsy in the past and can answer this question it would be greatly appreciated. I recently had a biopsy and I will be getting a call within the next few days with whatever the results are. Will the doctor tell me the results over the phone? Good or bad?


Comments

  • wrenn
    wrenn Member Posts: 2,707
    edited January 2015

    You say you will be getting a call within the next few days with whatever the results are so I would assume yes they will give you the results on the phone.

    Hoping for benign for you.

  • mel147
    mel147 Member Posts: 479
    edited January 2015

    SMV - I got my results over the phone - both for the MRI and the biopsy results. The only ones I got in person were the pathology after surgery and that was done at a post op appointment. Best wishes for benign results! Hang in there - the waiting for results can be really hard!

  • Chloesmom
    Chloesmom Member Posts: 1,053
    edited January 2015

    My doctor said he usually has people come in to tell them the results but since I explained I wanted to know immediately he called me with results. I made this clear at time of biopsy

  • SMV
    SMV Member Posts: 30
    edited January 2015

    wrenn, sorry if I made it sound like they were calling with the results. What I meant to say was the doctor will call me when he has the results but I'm not sure if he will actually tell them to me right then, or if he will call me and request I come in. I know I probably should have asked them that question at the time of my biopsy, but i wasn't thinking straight

  • alizbeth
    alizbeth Member Posts: 29
    edited January 2015

    Yes, I received my biopsy results over the phone.

    Best wishes for benign for you.

  • SMV
    SMV Member Posts: 30
    edited January 2015

    thanks for sharing your answers with me!!!

  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited January 2015

    Some doctors tell the results over the phone, and some do not. Some people have been called when they are driving or at an important meeting. I got my core biopsy report over the phone, but on my excision, my surgeon would only give me the results at a followup appointment. Hopefully, if you want a call your doctor will ask you if this a good time to take the call.

  • Holeinone
    Holeinone Member Posts: 2,478
    edited January 2015

    SMV,

    I think leaf is correct, depends on the Dr. Or the company they work for/with. I went to my personal Dr. I already "knew". Extremely strong, gut feeling. Also, all the long faces at mammos & biopsy procedure.

  • SugarCakes
    SugarCakes Member Posts: 353
    edited January 2015

    I was told over the phone. I was told I did have breast cancer and I was told I am hormone negative and HER2+. Because of what I had been researching during the wait, I knew basically what that meant. She had me come in the following day (yesterday) to further discuss these results and what she thinks my treatment plan will be in general. Chemo for a few months, surgery, radiation, and more chemo to close out a year of treatment. This was the breast surgeon. Today, I see the medical oncologist.

  • Sjacobs146
    Sjacobs146 Member Posts: 770
    edited January 2015

    I was told my biopsy results over the phone. I'm sure some doctors are different. My BS tried to give me my pathology results over the phone, but I missed her call. Just as well, I had plans for the weekend and if I knew on Friday that I was going to require chemo, plans would have been ruined

  • ml143333
    ml143333 Member Posts: 658
    edited January 2015

    I guess all doctors are different.  Mine would not give results either positive or negative over the phone and told me that at the time of the biopsy.  My BS did give me pathology results over the phone and then we talked about them at length in her office at my next appointment.

  • doxie
    doxie Member Posts: 1,455
    edited January 2015

    My BS said he would call me on my birthday to report if the lump removed was benign. No call came. Two days later my NP, who functions as my PCP and was on vacation, called me at work to tell me I had IDC. She knew I needed to know ASAP to arrange my teaching schedule. I knew it was cancer by what was said and they way I was treated, but the team wasn't sure what kind, possibly a skin cancer. BS told me at a prearranged appointment a week after surgery. He was surprised and annoyed that I found out from someone else.

  • armamp95
    armamp95 Member Posts: 44
    edited January 2015

    My first DX IN 2005 was delivered at a followup appointment with BS, a week or so after the biopsy. In 2014, the biopsy was performed by my radiologist (a breast specialist), and she called me as soon as she got the preliminary pathology report ... she didn't go into much detail, but had her staff set up a BS consult a few days later.

  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited January 2015

    Doctors are sometimes bound by practice policy or state law as to whether or not they can give results over the phone.  That is why you are asked identifying information over the phone sometimes, even if they are just discussing your general health, not necessarily biopsy results.  I have had numerous skin cancers in addition to breast cancer and I am notified by certified letter, requiring my signature, after each biopsy.  My mail carrier just winks at me now, there have been a lot of letters.  After my breast cancer biopsy I was called and told that I could come to the breast surgeon's office (I worked in the same hospital) and discuss my result.  I was also treated for an issue in the sarcoma department of another hospital and discussed the MRI result at a follow-up appointment - nothing was discussed over the phone.

  • WotV
    WotV Member Posts: 6
    edited January 2015

    I was told to expect a call with my genetic results over the phone - from the genetic counselor...

  • Denise-G
    Denise-G Member Posts: 1,777
    edited January 2015

    My family doctor called me before I even had the biopsy based on the preliminary reports

    from mammogram and ultrasound.  We had a 30 year relationship as doctor/patient and she

    told me "It wasn't good" and to start looking for a surgeon.   I already had as I just knew it

    was bad news.

  • Hopeful82014
    Hopeful82014 Member Posts: 3,480
    edited January 2015

    My PCP called me with the results. She said she'd rather see me in person but that would have meant waiting another five days until she would see me (after she received the results on a Friday).

    She has never followed up with me. She gave me the name of a surgeon (not one specializing in breast cancer) and and oncologist (ditto) and that was it. And no, she's not my PCP anymore.

  • Okiemomof4
    Okiemomof4 Member Posts: 54
    edited January 2015

    The radiologist who performed my biopsy called me with the news. The way he acted during the procedure pretty much told me he knew it was cancer. He called my gynecologist's office for meand told me that if I had not heard from her by the next day to call him back and he would chew some a$$. My BS also called me after my lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy to tell me there was no cancer in the node and that she had gotten clean margins.

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