Sparks & Favor PC

So purple—the awareness color this month—comes right behind October’s pink ribbons for breast cancer. It’s good timing. Did you know that sometimes breast and pancreatic cancer are related? About 5% of people who develop pancreatic cancer also have a hereditary risk for breast cancer (BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene abnormalities…

…

The year 2020 has affected all of us in ways we could not have imagined a year ago. But last February as we were beginning to realize how Covid-19 might alter our lives, I confronted another difficult life event. My annual screening mammogram revealed an abnormality that would require surgery and was likely to be malignant. I feel very fortunate that, in this case, the routine care I recommend to women each day allowed me to receive early treatment. I look forward to continued good health.

This October is the first Breast Cancer Awareness Month I have experienced as…

So…two years have passed since we began using our new 3D mammography unit. If you have not yet had a mammogram with this technology, you may be overdue. Here is a re-run of our original post about the advantages of 3D mammography. Our patients also tell us that it’s Smart-Curve compression surface is indeed more comfortable! Breast Cancer Awareness Month reminds us to ask ourselves “When was my last mammogram.” (If you can’t remember, call us. We’ll check.)

Most of our patients (beyond that “certain age”), have met Mrs. Charlene Aitken, Sparks & Favor…

As students return to Alabama college campuses facing the risks and restrictions of COVID-19, please consider that the greatest risks to the well-being of young adults are not COVID-related. They happen year after year. This year we have lost about 285 young people, ages 15 to 24, who were Covid positive at the time of their death. But every year, a subgroup of these young people (college students age 18 to 24), lose nearly six times as many friends and classmates to alcohol-related accidental deaths. Many thousands more suffer life-altering unintentional injuries including sexual assault…

For our patients, we want to update our previous guidance about COVID-19 testing.
Many individuals are still uncertain about whether testing would benefit them and their family members. The confusion is understandable considering the amount of press commentary about testing. The CDC has published testing guidelines, but leaves the final recommendations to each state’s health department…

11/13/2020 We have updated this post based on recent updates to the original CDC reports of Covid-19 risk during pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists summarizes its current view:
Although these data from the CDC suggest an increase in risk of severe outcomes in pregnant women with symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, the absolute risk is still substantially lower than that of pandemic H1N1 influenza infection during pregnancy…ACOG recognizes the critical need for further analysis and peer review literature on SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy. Pregnant individuals are encouraged to take all available…

We want to remind you of the risks of postponing screening tests and other preventive healthcare.
Research tells us that Americans fear cancer more than any other health event, even though heart disease is the leading cause of death. Much of this fear comes from the belief that cancer or cancer death is just a matter of random chance, something we are powerless to prevent. But let’s look at the actual facts about gynecologic cancers.

We refer to any cancer that begins in a woman’s reproductive organs as a gynecologic cancer. About 100,000 women are newly diagnosed…

State Health Officer Scott Harris reported on Tuesday 4/28 that Alabama is now seeing a leveling-off in the rate of new Covid-19 cases within our state. This appears to be the situation in Jefferson County as well. Here at Brookwood, as across the state, we have not experienced near  the numbers of Covid-19 patients needing hospital care that was predicted. Therefore, in conjunction with Gov. Kay Ivey’s re-opening recommendations, Dr. Harris stated, “There are no continuing restrictions on procedures by doctors or dentists, or dentists or optometrists or [other medical providers]. They are free…