Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Courtney Teller, Lee County Health Department

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Talk Line: Courtney Teller, Lee County Health Department · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley. You've joined the Waking crew here
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  Speaker 1: on FM ninety five one and AM fourteen sixty wix N.
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  Speaker 1: It's eight fifteen on your Thursday, January twenty ninth morning,
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  Speaker 1: and that means it's time for talk line and today
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  Speaker 1: I'm joined by our good friends from the Lee County
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  Speaker 1: Health Department. I'm speaking with Physicians Assistant Courtney Taylor. Courtney,
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  Speaker 1: how are you this morning?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing well, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: And you wanted to share some important information with us,
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  Speaker 1: But first, why don't you just go ahead and introduce
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  Speaker 1: yourself to the listeners and tell us a little bit
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  Speaker 1: about what you do.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm Courtney Tyler. I am a PA. I
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  Speaker 2: have been working at Lee County Health Department now for
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  Speaker 2: a little over four years, previously practicing at former KSB
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  Speaker 2: for almost ten years, doing kind of a variety of things,
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  Speaker 2: but a lot of women's and reproductive healthcare, especially here
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  Speaker 2: at the Health Department.
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  Speaker 1: And that kind of leads us to talking about our
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  Speaker 1: first topic today, which is ser Cancer Awareness Month.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, January is several cancer awareness months, so we like
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  Speaker 2: to just kind of remind people that we do have
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  Speaker 2: screening tests for circle cancer because you know, even though
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  Speaker 2: we do have a screening test, there are still about
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  Speaker 2: thirteen thousand plus cases annually with about four thousand best
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  Speaker 2: feats yere, which hopefully can be avoided by getting your
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  Speaker 2: routine screenings done.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And when is a good time to start
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  Speaker 1: those screens?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Perfect. So that's a great question because a lot
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  Speaker 2: of my patients and clients are asking that question, and
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  Speaker 2: so some of those guidelines are actually changing. We're still
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  Speaker 2: using the USPSTF guidelines, which is the Preventative Task Force
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  Speaker 2: that pap smears should start for most individuals at age
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  Speaker 2: twenty one and continue through around age sixty five. So
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  Speaker 2: the first one is generally done around twenty one.
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  Speaker 1: And do those conversations Is that something that doctors will
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  Speaker 1: usually kind of initiate with their patients or is that
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  Speaker 1: something that they should be marketing kind of you know,
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  Speaker 1: thinking about around that time and initiating on.
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  Speaker 2: Their own kind of both. I mean, I would think
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  Speaker 2: a good healthcare provider should be seeing, you know, hey,
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  Speaker 2: you're at that age and you're you know, have you
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  Speaker 2: had your cyvical cancer screening test done? Sometimes people, you know,
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  Speaker 2: they have so many things going on and so much
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  Speaker 2: on their plate, especially primary care providers. You know that
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  Speaker 2: remembering to do everything is you know, nearly impossible at times.
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  Speaker 2: So I think if you take you know, charge of
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  Speaker 2: your own health care as well, that you know, double
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  Speaker 2: approach is probably the best.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, this is early detection is usually so
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  Speaker 1: important when when it comes to these things. Is there
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  Speaker 1: is you know, getting kind of on the ball about
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  Speaker 1: this and you know, hopefully you know, unfortunately, if someone
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  Speaker 1: were to find out they had it, is is early
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  Speaker 1: detection kind of boost the chance of beating this or
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  Speaker 1: is this something that can't be beat but they can
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  Speaker 1: be managed?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Actually, it's so most cases are caused by HPV
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  Speaker 2: virus and so when we do your pap sme are
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  Speaker 2: oftentimes what we're finding are those pre cancer as cells.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, a majority of the time we'll see
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  Speaker 2: an abnormal pap smear showing some abnormal cells. And if
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  Speaker 2: we can really watch that closely and you're not missing
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  Speaker 2: your follow ups, most of the time we can treat
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  Speaker 2: these pre cancer cells far before they turn into cancer.
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  Speaker 2: So it's you know, really uncommon to see that transformation
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  Speaker 2: into cancer if you're really staying on top of these things.
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  Speaker 2: Because we definitely have treatment options to you know, help
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  Speaker 2: get rid of those cells before they turn cancerous. And
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  Speaker 2: then obviously if you have cancer, the sooner you find it,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you can take the cervix out, remove it
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  Speaker 2: with the hysterectomy or other treatment options as long as
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  Speaker 2: it hasn't spread those there are far better outcomes.
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  Speaker 1: Well, definitely better to you know, to take a pro
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  Speaker 1: active approach with this rather than a reactive better of
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  Speaker 1: your chances. So please, you know, go out there, get
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  Speaker 1: get those scheduled, have these conversations with your doctor. It's
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  Speaker 1: so important. And another conversation that you wanted to talk
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  Speaker 1: a little bit about today was was birth control and contraceptives.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's just a big part of my job here.
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  Speaker 2: We do, like I said, in addition to PAPSPI as
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  Speaker 2: well woman exams, we offer all forms of contraception with
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  Speaker 2: the exception of sterilization. So we you know, we provide
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  Speaker 2: birth control pills, patches, rings, IUDs, DEEPO shots, implants. We
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  Speaker 2: have all different varieties to be able to give you
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  Speaker 2: the choice in what can you know help play your family.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, it's it's really important again being being
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  Speaker 1: proactive in these matters, being able to make the decisions
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  Speaker 1: to lead the kind of life that you want rather
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  Speaker 1: than having to make choices later. Is really important. If
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  Speaker 1: somebody you know wants to take an advantage of any
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  Speaker 1: of these services, what's the best way to go about
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  Speaker 1: doing that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very easy. All we have you do really
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  Speaker 2: is just call into the clinic and we can get
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  Speaker 2: your scheduled. We accept pretty much all insurances with the
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  Speaker 2: exception of Medicare and a few things. But we just
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  Speaker 2: have you call the office, we get you set up.
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  Speaker 2: If we for some reason can't take care of y'all,
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  Speaker 2: we have lots of resources to you know, send you
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  Speaker 2: to someone who can, and it's it's pretty easy. We
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  Speaker 2: help you with funding sometimes or affordability. We work with
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  Speaker 2: some really great programs as well that can help with
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  Speaker 2: payment plans and things like that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, there you go, folks. It couldn't be easier. Make
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  Speaker 1: the call, Courtney, and the folks at the Lee County
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  Speaker 1: Health Department have got you covered on this. Take advantage
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  Speaker 1: while you can, court Is there anything else you want
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  Speaker 1: to share this morning?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So when we talk about cervical cancer, I kind
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  Speaker 2: of mentioned very briefly. HPV virus is the cause of
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  Speaker 2: cervical cancer in at least ninety percent, if now more
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  Speaker 2: than ninety percent of cervical cancer cases. So we do
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  Speaker 2: have a vaccination for HPV now, it's been out for
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  Speaker 2: a little over twenty years. Vaccination usually happens routinely in
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  Speaker 2: grade school, can happen as early as nine, oftentimes with
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  Speaker 2: the sixth grade physical. So getting that HPV vaccination before
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  Speaker 2: you're active can help prevent the risk of getting that
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  Speaker 2: HPV virus. And there are many different strains, but that
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  Speaker 2: virus can you know, cause the cervical cancer. So if
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  Speaker 2: you're proactive in getting those vaccinations, which I know is
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  Speaker 2: a hot topic right now, but getting those vaccinations can
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  Speaker 2: really help your body to prevent some of these things
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  Speaker 2: as well.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Well, you know, I'm just glad that these options
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  Speaker 1: are available and that you folks are there doing the
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  Speaker 1: work that helps, you know, take care of these things,
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  Speaker 1: prevents these things, and you know, it helps manage them
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  Speaker 1: if it's already gotten to a point. Courtan, thank you
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  Speaker 1: so much for coming on the show today, sharing this
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  Speaker 1: important information and for all the wonderful work that you
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  Speaker 1: and everyone else at the Lee County Health Department does.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you very much.