Positive Comments
June 16, 2015. Hello
I came across your site https://breast-cancer.ca/ while looking for information on my last lab test results. I just wanted to say that I found it very informative and fun to read at the same time. Love the moose! Thanks for making it and keeping it updated.
Stacey
June 25, 2015 I just wanted to take the time and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful, funny, and informative site on hematoma’s.
I was searching and searching for answers to my questions and your website did an awesome and thorough job of just that! You made a difference…..can we ask for anymore in life.:-)
Thank you so much Dr. Halls…….your work did not go unnoticed. Kim M.
July 27, 2015. Thank you for the article that you published yesterday on papillomas. I was given a diagnosis on Friday afternoon of multiple papillary lesions and told to follow up with UCSF Cancer Center. My husband and I have spent several hours on line trying to learn more about it, but couldn’t understand the medical lingo used in everything that we read. He is an engineer and I am an attorney, but still couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it. Your plain English article was very helpful to us in feeling like we now have some amount of understanding of what we may be dealing with while we wait to follow up with the next doctor.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this! Melissa J.
July 27, 2015. I will close with saying that I still LOVE your website and still think the time you have put into the research and the creation process shows. I want to say thank you for taking the guesswork out for me. I have a week until my followup. But your site helped me understand where am I going from here. While I don’t know what will be diagnosed for me, I came away from your website knowing that whether its good or bad news, at least I am prepared to face the next steps of treatment. I commend you. Thank you doc!
Melissa P.
Sept 2, 2015. Steve, Thanks for all the useful information. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 years ago. The Dr believe that it has come back. She will be getting her results in about an hour. I hope her chances of survival are good. She is so young.
Kind regards, Crystal
Sept 23, 2015. Hello Dr. Halls, I came across your website while searching for information on intraductal papilloma. I’ve learn a ton and found your sense of humor witty. You mad me laugh!
I hope you don’t mind me contacting you, I have a ton of questions about my diagnosis. So here’s my story…. (details followed…). Tiffany R.
October 27, 2015. Thank you. I am 32 and have tubular adenoma, it is difficult to find info on this and I love your site!! My surgeon told me she never heard of a tubular adenoma or pure adenoma of the breast, I was shocked and told her it does exist as I have been diagnosed with this 2 years ago and have researched this. Tanisha H.
October 31, 2015. Thank you for these words of encouragement! Sincirely Thank you! Also, Thank You for the website and all the work you have put into it. And thank you for such clear message! Irena R.
November 19, 2015. Dr. Halls, I really enjoy your website and find it very informative and funny, love the characters. But most importantly, you provide vital information. Cheryl M.
December 14, 2015. I love your breast cancer site! It is very informative, well written and funny. I have recently been diagnosed w/ DCIS grade 2. I have read hours and hours and been to several appts discussing treatment. I wish I’d happened upon your site before all of this b/c it is so concise, direct and fun. You’ve made my journey easier. Well done! Melissa
January 2, 2016. Dear Dr. Halls, I would like to thank you for your web site. On December 17th I was informed that I had a “suspicious” spot on my yearly mammogram. A second screening and ultrasound confirmed there was something there. My family practitioner was freaking out and had me very worried and uptight.
I found your website while trying to determine what my chances were. Your information was clear, measured and comforting. I went from being nearly paralyzed with fear to actually looking forward to the needle core biopsy which, praise God, found nothing of concern. Your website was a major factor in getting me through the two weeks between the initial screening and the “all clear” report.
Thank you for publishing the information. I am sure I’m not the only woman you have helped get through a very scary time. I much preferred having statistics and educational material over supposition and panic!
Thank you again, Valerie S.
January 28, 2016. Dear Dr. Halls, I wanted to reach out and thank you for your website https://breast-cancer.ca/.
I was diagnosed with Stage II synchronous bilateral IDC last month and I have found that your information is presented in a terrific way, especially these three points:
1) The site answers the questions that I have as a patient, in the way that I ask them. It feels like it was written just for me and my fellow patients.
2) It helps me explain my disease to my loved ones. I must have come back a hundred times to find the right wording about each topic as it unfolds.
3) It is compassionate while staying completely honest. It’s a tremendous thing to find that right mix. Oddly, in this entire ordeal, I have found that your fellow radiologists really hit that note perfectly. In fact, they have-to a person-all gone out of their way for me, calling each other to fit me immediately between other patients without an appointment and so forth. And I’m not even a dire situation!
So, thank you for your good work and know that you made a difference to at least this patient.
With kindest regards,
Tracie Z
February 2, 2016. I just wanted you to know that I had been diagnosed with complex cyst and cyst clusters. I googled Complex Cyst and I found you and the Moose!
Your explanation and of course the Moose was so very helpful for me to show to my husband and daughter so they understood why I was following up with my GYN and why he may decide that mine were going to be watched!
I had 2 mammograms and 2 ultra sounds just to confirm the finding. I had a great radiologist and she explained that the first time she took the pictures they could see the thinking of the walls between 2 cysts. She was focused on getting all three cysts that made up the “mass” on one breast that she should have taken a few more pictures, she said she wanted to see my “Snow Globes”.
So as I laid quietly for her and the DR to return and watch the show I was to able to see the specific area of concern and some of the validation of the snow globes or floating particles as you explained it!
This reference of a Snow Globe fits in perfectly with some of your explanation and thought the Moose could use it!
Thank you again and liked your FB page and I did register and Join Waiting for the Moose!
Sincerely, Helen M
February 11, 2016. Hi Dr,
I have recently had a full ultrasound of both breasts. I also had a mammo, which showed nothing. The ultrasound showed numerous complex cysts in each breast. The radiologist recommended 6 month follow up with ultrasound. She said it’s probably benign due to the fact that there are so many. Everything I read says they should be biopsied. I saw the breast surgeon and she also agreed with the radiologist. What are your thoughts? I also have copies of the reports.
I love your website.
Thank you!
Rosa S.
April 10, 2016.Great website and thank you once again for helping people around the world.
Kind regards, Joel
April 15, 2016, By the way, I am a big fan of your work with the websites. Thanks for sharing.
Warm regards, Pipa
First, I want to let you know how much I appreciate your website and the work you do to help everyone. Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity with all of us…..
With best regards to you (and to Moose, too 🙂 ), Katherine L.
April 19, 2016. I really appreciate your candor and openness in providing much needed information on cancer and weight loss. Your work is a gift. Thank you. Carly.
April 20, 2016. Dr Dr. Halls!, Thank you for your very informative and helpful website about breast cancer. (… questions about fibroadenomas …) Kate
April 26, 2016. Dear Dr. Halls, First of all I’d like to thank you for providing So much helpful information on your site. In doing so, you have undoubtedly saved a lot of people from unnecessary anxiety- myself included! … Again, Thank you! Sara M.
April 28, 2016. Hello Dr. Halls, Your website is one that I continue to return to. It has a lot of information, yet manages to stay light. Bravo. Jennifer F.
April 30, 2016. I love you, Moose! Your humor about breast cancer helped me more than any source out there. Robin S.
May 1, 2016. BTW, your site has provided very helpful info – my dcis was so small (found and gone in a nipple excision) that I grapple with exactly what was it! A big nothing – but a nothing that changed my life. i’m in a good place now, and your info really helped. Liz M.
June 1, 2016. Hi Dr.Halls, I would like to thank you for putting together such an amazing and comforting resource. You can tell it is a labor of love and I’m sure others, like myself have found it to be helpful is so many ways. Melody =
June 1, 2016. Hi Dr. Halls, I stumbled upon your website as I looked for information for breast cancer patients and I have used it many times as the Breast Patient Navigator and I use it now as the Oncology Navigator.
Everything is so easy to understand and it is not foreboding or overwhelming. I have rewritten information I have found because some of it scare the beegeebees out of the poor patients who are frightened enough as it is. I had one young man with a lovely wife and kids have a breast biopsy which had to be sent out to three different places to confirm a diagnosis. Angiosarcoma was one of the possibilities and this poor couple became frightened after reading information presented on several reputable websites.
I was worried about them and went to their home after work and gave them some information that included your website. I checked back in with them a few days later and they were much more grounded after reading the information you posted.
Everything worked out well for them after waiting almost one month to find out the report of pathology. I watched everyday for the results and made certain the surgeon had them immediately. I admit….I called them with the results because the surgeon was up to his armpits in patients and alligators and I didn’t want them to wait any longer. Before I hung up with them after giving the good news, the wife thanked me for the information and giving them your website. She said it really helped and she will use it in the future.
I told her I have it saved as a favorite on my work computer, too. Stay well and wonderful!
Laura U.
June 18, 2016. Waiting for post- operative PA results on triple negative tumor with ” non mass like enhancement” ,(23-06 os D-day..) I found your site very helpful. And very witty and humourfull, which is helpful too!!
Kiss moose for me. Jeannine v D.
July 5, 2016. I received the news from my doctor over the phone today and thought he said capillary, but it was papillary. I found information about papillary carcinoma on your website that has been very helpful in understanding what it means. This whole situation it totally new to me and going to your website makes it easy to understand. I just had my surgery July 1 and it’s almost as if the website updates with the information I need at the time. Thanks Wanda S.
July 22, 2016.Hello, you don’t know me but I wanted to write you a quick message to convey my gratitude to you for what you do. I am 32 and was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Although I have had many relatives with it, I knew very little about it when I was diagnosed. It was all very confusing and hrs to understand, and your website helped us tremendously in filling in the gaps in our knowledge. I still read on it all the time and have read some of the pages 2-3 times. I’m sure you have a lot of people tell you the same thing, but I felt the need to tell you, too. From what I can tell the site is a labor of love, and it is definitely appreciated. Danielle K.
August 5, 2016. Thanks so much again for taking the time to talk to me, help explain the process. It’s enormously valuable to hear such info from a professional. And your pages are to the go-to place for detailed info—so much better and easier to read than anything else out on the internet. Esther B.
August 8, 2016. Dear Dr. Halls, Just wanted to follow-up and say you were totally correct, and I was totally wrong. Got a call today and was told I have atypical ductal hyperplasia. They automatically went ahead and set up an appointment with a surgeon for me on Friday, and also sent my pathology and records over to them. I wasn’t told anything other than that so I suppose I’ll find out more later. I was a little surprised on that finding, as well as how swiftly they arranged it. I’ll now have to read your pages to find out exactly what ADH is, as well as what to expect.
Again, I’m deeply grateful you took the time to share your knowledge, opinions and facts with me. It did change my viewpoint a great deal. Though I still feel a bit out of control since all of this is seemingly happening so fast without my input, I do feel a little more relaxed and confident knowing that these professionals have my best interests at heart–which is quite a big step for me.
Again–my sincerest appreciation, Esther B.
August 10, 2016. I can’t remember the last time I read a cancer site that made me grin. Love the moose, I agree bacon is better than a milkshake and I am waiting for the biopsy results, suspect it is cancer (ultrasound looks a lot like one of the cancerous ultrasounds at the site) but still grinning about the moose. Go figure. I am sure I will be back to the site – thanks.. Susan D.
August 18, 2016. Thanks for a timely and wise recommendation. You and your website have been so helpful during a very stressful and difficult time. With appreciation, Karen S.
Sept 1, 2016. Thank you for the fantastic web-site! Craig H. General Surgeon, Rural Minnesota
Sept 12, 2016. Just a shout out to you for a great website. I’ve had a suspect growth and it has been a valuable source of information and reassurance for me. It seems to be kept very up to date and the information is easy to understand and accessible for a layman like myself :). Thanks for what you are doing – it’s appreciated – and keep up the good work! Kind regards,
Nicky R.
Sept 16, 2016. Hi Dr. Halls I’m working on a case report for patient who was diagnosed with squamous breast cancer who had our GPS Cancer test run….and found your website very helpful! Thanks! Regards Shankar S, Ph.D.
Sept 20, 2016. Hello Dr. Halls, I just wanted to send a thank you for your website. It gave me information in a light-hearted way at a time when a few complex words on my test report produce inexplicable anxiety. Thanks for your refreshing approach to the topic!!! Cris O.
Sept 21, 2016. Dear Dr. Halls, I am a family doctor in Toronto. I have a baby and a toddler and recently noticed a breast lump becoming more prominent. The radiologist called it BIRADS 4 on ultrasound. Although I know the stats on mobile round smooth lumps in young women, and recite them many times a day to others, and was pretty sure it had something to do with breastfeeding (I’m still occasionally nursing the 13-month-old), I just dropped off a CD of images to Princess Margaret because I’m having a biopsy. After I dropped off the films, I sat down to have a bowl ramen at 11 a.m. because (these were my exact words to myself) if I’m going to die of breast cancer then why not?
Anyway, I’m sitting here watching the ramen get cold because while I was waiting for my order, I Googled “breast cyst breastfeeding” and came across your galactocele page. It was perfect. Informative, detailed, and most importantly, clearly referenced. It is hard for me to describe why it was so useful, since I regularly counsel patients NOT to Google their diagnoses. I am breathing easy because of the part where you talk about radiologists being confused by the image if they don’t know you’re breastfeeding (which is exactly what I think happened to me). I’m not scared I’m going to die anymore, and I know I would not have read the kind of insights I found on your page elsewhere.
I’ll be reading the site in detail today and likely recommending it to my colleagues at the academic teaching practice where I work, and my residents.
Thank you, from the bottom of my personal and professional heart for helping me enjoy this bowl of soup, and the next few weeks of my life in general, a lot more than I would have had I not come across your page.
Kind Regards, Sabrina A.
Oct 8, 2016. Hi, I am in the agonizing process of waiting for breast biopsy results. This weekend anxiety is what is going to do me in. LOL. (not any type of cancer) Just wanted to say thank you for your website that calculates risk. Its easy to use and it’s hysterically funny. I also look for the “funny” in life and your site is the best medicine! Many many thanks!!!!!! You are awesome! Francine B
Oct 13, 2016. Dr. Halls, Was reading your website on breast cancer & cysts and found it easy to understand and reassuring. Feel confident I am dealing with a cyst and will find out next week. Thanks for taking the time to write this. I really appreciate it. Ann S.
Dec 20, 2016. Hello Doctor, I want to commend you on your website! I have family members that have passed of bc and myself suffer a great deal of anxiety in an effort to find information and be preventative. Your website makes it easy to understand and gives some great suggestions on how to seek follow up care – if you are available to evaluate mammograms as a second opinion – please let me know where I can send documents. In the meantime, I thank you again for a wonderful resource that I hope you’ll continue! Ms. C. Paige
January 11, 2017. Omg, just want to so Thank-you so much for your work bringing easy to understand straight-forward information to me with a perfect touch of humor. Just found out I have breast cancer and lymph node involvement. Not sure of much more at this point, just diagnosed but I love your knowledge and humor Steven B Halls. Thank-you so much for doing what you do. xo
May 4, 2017. Good Afternoon Dr. Halls, My name is Christine and I too live in Canada. I have had a rough journey the past 8 weeks and would like to personally thank you for the incredible website that you have created. I am 36 years old with no risks of breast cancer but alas I had found a lump the size of a tangerine in my left breast. MRI and ultrasound ratings were originally a BI Rad 5 rating which left me terrified. It was during this time I found all of the amazing information that you provide. How reassuring it was to find such an array of easy to read information at such a confusing time… (questions ensued)…
May 16, 2017 I stumbled across your web page looking for information that was scientifically correct and I could understand. Thank you for providing this service. Every year I have to go back for a “call-back” and usually a biopsy and I know the routine, however, my anxiety kicks in and my brain tries to take over. I appreciate your facts and statistics. It helps me tremendously. Thank you again!! Laura K.
May 16, 2017 Dear Dr. Halls, Your website has a lot of readable information on it, and while clinical, it feels like there is a real person behind the information, as though you remember that people are finding your site out of need and a personal connection to the disease. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, though dire to learn, in the case of my sister-in-law. Cathleen S.
June 19, 2017Dear Dr. Halls, I want to thank you for writing and sharing all the information about breast cancer and related topics, on your website. It is an incredibly generous service on your part to people around the world and I hope you know how your work/experience is a knowledge resource to so many others. With sincere regards, Saumya
August 16, 2017I am writing from New Zealand. I came across your website while searching the net having just received a callback following a recent mammogram. Thank you so much for your informative website. I will not worry while awaiting my callback appointment and I feel well informed. I enjoyed the humour as well. I am grateful. Susan O.
August 18, 2017I really appreciate your site and the way you make it so easy to understand BC. Thank you so much. Robyn.
August 29, 2017. Your site is the most honest straight forward discussion of Breast Cancer on the Internet–I read it often… Phil S.
August 29, 2017. Big fan of Moose & Doc. Have referred many patients to that site for BC related info and explanations. Keep of the good work! Dean C.
Sept 14, 2017. Hi, I’ve just been reading your website and found it’s probably the only one I can understand as it’s explained for people like me who don’t underdstand the medical wording. Kind regards, Kiley B.
Oct 4, 2017. I have been reading through your site https://breast-cancer.ca/ I love all the information you have provided and it really helps those of us trying to understand our test results. (question…) Thank you Katrina L.
Nov 29, 2017. Congratulations on your online work, from a colleague far, far away! Antonios L., MD
Dec 3, 2017. Dear Dr. Halls. I very much enjoy your website! You clearly love your topic. I have a question for you…()… Great Educational website! Edward D. MD
Jan 12, 2018. Hello Dr. Halls. A big thank you for your wonderful site. to my utter disbelief, i’ve been diagnosed with high grade dcis and invasive grade one. my nature is to read and learn about every aspect of the cancer and treatments, even down to whether implants have grippy ridges.
your site, approach and style, and easy to understand information is a breath of fresh air and much appreciated.
re joining your facebook page, i’m hesitant for privacy reasons.
thank you again for your interest in helping the world’s women (i live in london, uk). it’s a pleasure to find some sanity in this crazy world.
happy new year to you and yours.
very kind regards
sam
Jan 20, 2018. Dr. Hall, I am a huge fan, found Doc and Moose a year ago with a dx of breast cancer. Best site, best information and best method of communicating. You helped me a lot. KRL
Jan 30,2018. Hi Dr Halls, I just wanted to say thanks for creating such a wonderful website. I developed a breast abscess a bit over a week ago that I was hospitalised for (I’m not a new mum, so it’s been rather mysterious and both myself and my general practitioner). Your website has been a great resource for understanding what is happening and answering a lot of the anxiety-inducing questions I’ve had (e.g., what is going on? should I be worried about cancer? how on earth did this happen? why does my body hate me? etc) It’s also given me some ideas to take back to my very baffled GP for my follow up appointment. The conversation bubbles seemed a bit silly at first, but I soon noticed that they often were answering the questions I was too afraid to ask anyone. You’ve done a real service to the whole internet laying out thorough, factual information in a reassuring and easy-to-understand format. Many, many thanks, Lucie J.
Jan 31,2018. Hello, I’m a 3-year breast cancer survivor who just spent the last few weeks undergoing tests and waiting for results in another scare – all benign this time, thank goodness. I just wanted to thank you for your website, which is unpretentious but extremely informative. It’s a hard combination to get right, but you do it perfectly, and of all the thousands of sources of breast cancer information out there, yours is the site I keep coming back to. Thanks for keeping it updated and available.
Best regards, Molly M.
Feb 6, 2018. Wonderful. LOVE your site! It is substantive, yet readable and reassuring. I am frightened of breast cancer..but this is something I can read to further educate myself. Thank you! Erica F., RN
Feb 9, 2018. Your web site with its humor and information was just what I needed. Your simple way of explaining things is exceptionally good. (I am a former second grade teacher.) Thank you for going to the trouble. I am going to tell my girlfriends about the site. Sincerely, Patricia F.
Feb 16, 2018. Hello Dr. Halls I have been a follower of your website since I had my first mammo that resulted in biopsies and surgery in 2015. I have found your website so informative, easy to understand and not intimidating like most pages about this sort of thing. I have referred many friends to Moose and Doc. Jennifer
Feb 17, 2018. I think your website is the most informative site I have ever read on breast cancer. You are clear and detailed in layman terms. You do not scare people, you try to inform and define all the scary possibilities that are in a persons head. By defining all the new terms and words that a person is exposed to in this journey, you give hope that although you might be faced with a challenge ahead of yourself, there is hope for a cure. I am spreading the word about your site and I wish I would have found it back in 2004 when my sister started her journey and in 2008 when I started my journey.
Sometimes you don’t have questions prepared on a visit and/ or the question you asked is answered in medical terms, so it leaves you more confused. Your site lessons the confusion and anxiety. Thank you for dedicating your time to be informative in a way that really does ease a person’s anxiety. I love the Moose! Thank you for your time and all your great efforts! Jackie B.
March 13, 2018. Dr Halls. I just wanted to send a quick note of appreciation about your site. I was recently diagnosed with ALH and, quite frankly, struggled to be able to put this information into (a data-driven) context. Your site was of great help, while injecting some much needed humor into an otherwise scary experience. The combination of basic, educational information, experienced perspective and data is one I wish were more common. Thank you again. Jenn F.
Nov 30, 2018. Hi Dr. Halls, I came across your breast cancer website when doing a search and it was so informative, humorous, and well organized that I felt compelled to tell you. Wow! Thank you for creating a resource like this! Best regards, Bevin S.
Dec 4, 2018. Dear Dr Halls, I need to compliment you with your site. I am from the Netherlands and got diagnosed with breastcancer in July this year. Every time I am looking for info I end up on your site; informative but also with a twist of humor. Thanks! Monique v.d.A.
Dec 13, 2018. Dr. Halls, Thank-you for your wonderful website “Moose and Doc” on breast cancer. As I go through the confusing process of a lesion investigation, your common sense way of explaining the pathological terms on the reports are very helpful. I am a HCP and need detailed information all along this journey, and time and again I am revisiting your site to define terms and understand their importance in arriving at a diagnosis. In a weird way this actually reduces my anxiety. Thanks, Wendy P.
Dec 29, 2018. Dear Dr. Halls, My 75 year old wife had DCIS 10 years ago in her right breast. She was treated with breast-preserving surgery and radiation. All turned out well and life went on gloriously. Last week she had her annual breast MRI (which our long term treatment plan included with annual Mammography, each 6 months apart, due to a strong, multi-generational family history of breast cancer) and the scan revealed two issues in her left breast: (1) a 5mm enhancing mass, demonstrating fast persistent kenetics and (2) a segmental non-mass enhancement extending approximately 3cm.
Of course, I panicked! Reading all those words that I didn’t understand meant I was confused and frightened by what was going on with my dearly beloved of over 30 years. Where would this lead? Yes, to the inevitable, but sooner than we had thought. Of course, our oncologist was on vacation. And even when she’s in the office, she’s basically unreachable by phone. The doctor-patient communication is brief and superficial, conducted in 15 minute office visits. We were alone, drifting in an ocean of fear and concern.
I dove into the internet, reading all these “abstracts”, trying to keep my head above water, but they were not much help. On the second day of searching and reading, I came upon your wonderful site, “Moose and Doc”, where EVERYTHING YOU WOULD EVER WANT TO KNOW ABOUT BREAST CANCER AND ITS DIAGNOSTICS could be found in very easy to understand Moose Language, which BTW, I speak, in addition to a fairly fluent English. The fog lifted. I began to understand the reports, the potential diagnoses, as well as their possible implications. My spirits felt brighter. I went from sleepless and fearful to understanding and finding perspective. I can’t thank you enough for your help with this and for your willingness to share your medical knowledge in this thoughtful and human way. I feel as if we were rescued by you and the Moose.
Our MRI biopsy is scheduled for 1/15. It feels like a long time to wait, but as long as I have some information that makes sense, I can better tolerate the days of not knowing what’s ahead. After all, nobody has a crystal ball. At least not one that works! Gratefully, from A New Fan, Karl E.
Feb 18, 2019. I had breast cancer 5 years ago (treated at Cross) & am still fine. Your sites have really helped me & I appreciated your moose & humor (& reassurances that helped when the new wasn’t ideal.) I especially appreciated that although I found it impossible to find the survival rates past 5 years at that earlier time, that you made that info available to me when I was needing a return to a sense of control & a sense that ,while no guarantees with stats, at least I had a clue as to what I was dealing with. Better the devil… as they say. So….GOOD JOB! Signed… A fan.
March 12, 2019 Dear Dr. Halls, A quick email to thank you so much for the breast cancer site. My wonderful sister died at 37 years old in January from secondary breast cancer leaving two young children. I found your site to be so helpful over the last two years since her initial primary diagnosis. Being fantastically dyslexic I found the information easy to absorb, and helped us to explore different treatment options. You gave me hope, alongside a good dose of reality, which I am sure helped me to make the most of the time I could have with my sister. Thank you (and the moose). Amy S.
March 13, 2019. Your website is extremely informative. It seems that every time I was searching for the meaning of something on a pathology report, etc., your website was on page one of the Google results. Certainty, your website has very good base SEO. It rises to the top because it is also packed with really good articles. I appreciate that your content is easy to follow for those of us that are learning about breast cancer real-time as we are diagnosed and go through treatment. That said, it also doesn’t leave out the science. I’m a research hounds and need the info. both ways. Since the doctors don’t have time to educate patients, websites like yours are critical. Holly J.
June 26, 2019. Hi Dr. Halls, I am writing to thank you for your breast cancer website. This was one of the first sites my wife and I looked at when she got a message to schedule an appointment “either the beginning or the end of the day tomorrow” after a breast biopsy. Your site was helpful to us in getting a bearing on what was possible and what was likely in that terrible time of knowing it was cancer but not knowing what the staging etc. was. You put things in terms that the lay reader could understand, both in describing conditions, and describing probability.
We appreciate the use of humor and the beautiful moose imagery too. It helped us keep from getting too ponderous as we pondered. I am sorry to read that some people have taken offense (actually, I found the “complain” link easier than I found your regular contact information – that’s the only reason I know people complained; all I can say is there are lots of feelings around ill health and I imagine some of them are unfortunately being misdirected to you.
My wife has had a lumpectomy, and a whole lot of chemotherapy, and a lot of radiation as well, and has now moved on to hormone blockers. She has gained more knowledge – your site helped her to make good use of her doctors’ time at the appointments, too (as an informed patient, not as someone second-guessing a doctor!).
df Thanks again for your helpful site, it is really a good thing you are doing and you have helped many many people but you know that already. Andy S.
Sept 10, 2019. Dear Dr Halls, Two years ago, I had a phyllodes tumour. Your site, Moose and Doc, was the ONLY website I could count on, to guide me in finding information – it was referenced and went into the detail needed! I am an attorney with a biomed background. I would love to follow your work. THANK YOU. Simcha U.
Sept 5, 2019. Dear Dr. Halls, I’ve worked in the production of patient education material for more than 30 years. Over that time I’ve seen examples of materials containing both good and bad examples of presenting information. But never before have I seen a site like yours! I don’t even know how to express my appreciation and gratitude for the effort you’ve taken to demystify the complex, sensitive and emotional topic of breast abnormalities and cancer. Â
I must admit that at first I found the moose to be a bit off putting, but then realized that it helped me as a reader to ground myself and view the site from a more rational and balanced perspective. The details contained in the diagnostic sections are well done, few people understand how challenging it can be to translate clinical information into language that can be used by an average reader. The small conversational inserts helped that greatly and answered many of the most common questions faced by those who are in the midst of understanding the complexities associated with abnormal findings. Although some may find your site to be silly, I appreciate it greatly and am thankful for the respect and empowerment it offers to readers. Take care, Kathy M.
Dec 19, 2019. Hi- I am recovering from a breast biopsy performed 6 hours ago. Since November 9th, and an abnormal mammogram, I have (as my husband puts it) reached the end of the Internet with my research. I’ve also had 3 mammograms, a core biopsy, and now a surgical biopsy and with each procedure there is more medical jargon to understand. Your pages have been by far the most helpful and comforting in everything I have read. After all of this it is likely my surgical biopsy will confirm my core biopsy of fibrous, benign breast tissue. Your page on that connected all of the dots for me and made me feel so much better, both waiting for my core biopsy and now as I wait for surgical confirmation. Thanks again, truly. Katie.
