Guides
Practical guides for families navigating medical records.
These are the long-form guides we write for families who are trying to get a handle on a serious diagnosis, an aging-parent situation, or just years of scattered paperwork. Practical. No fluff. Written the way we wish someone had explained it to us when we needed it.
Medical records
How to organize medical records
The step-by-step guide for getting every scan, lab, and discharge summary into one place, and keeping it current.
Published May 13, 2026
How long do doctors keep medical records?
What HIPAA actually requires, how state laws layer on top, the special rules for pediatric records, and what happens when a practice closes.
Published May 13, 2026
How to find old medical records
The practical guide for actually finding old medical records: prior providers, HIPAA's right of access, closed practices, health information exchanges, state archives.
Published May 13, 2026
Making sense of results
How to read your lab results
A plain-English guide to reading lab results. The parts of the report, what a reference range really means, the common panels decoded, and which flagged values warrant a call today versus a question at the next visit.
Published June 20, 2026
How long do test results take?
How long CT, MRI, biopsy, and blood results really take, why the timing varies so much, why you often see results in your portal before your doctor calls, and what to do while you wait, including when a quiet stretch warrants a follow-up.
Published June 22, 2026
How to read a radiology report
A plain-English guide to reading a CT, MRI, or other scan report. Read the Impression first, decode the phrases that sound scarier than they are, and understand a cancer follow-up scan (stable, NED, progression, and "compared to prior").
Published June 23, 2026
How to read a pathology report
A plain-English guide to reading a biopsy or pathology report. Find the diagnosis line first, decode grade, margins, lymph nodes, and stage, tell the precancerous words from the cancerous ones, and hold the base rate that most biopsies come back benign.
Published June 23, 2026
What 'unremarkable' means on a medical report
A plain-English guide to the reassuring-but-confusing words on a scan or pathology report. What 'unremarkable' and 'grossly unremarkable' mean (and why 'grossly' is not the alarming word it looks like), how the phrase reads differently in radiology versus pathology, what 'no acute findings' does and doesn't cover, and the honest limits of a normal result. Written for the family member reading it first.
Published June 28, 2026
Reading your test results before your doctor calls
Since 2021, your test results reach your patient portal before your doctor has called, and the report was written for the doctor, not you. This is the manual the rule forgot: why immediate access is right and worth keeping, the honest cost it created for the most serious results, and a plain four-part method for reading a result in the gap before the call. Read the bottom line first, ask new-or-old before good-or-bad, tell the routine words from the alarm words, and never sit alone with a hard result.
Published July 3, 2026
What 'clinical correlation is recommended' means
A plain-English guide to the phrase that scares people most on a scan or report. What 'clinical correlation is recommended' actually means (a request to your doctor, not a red flag), why you are reading a note written for your doctor, the three situations it usually points to, how the same phrase reads on radiology, pathology, and lab reports, and how to tell routine from worth-a-call. Written for the family member reading it first.
Published July 2, 2026
What 'scattered fibroglandular densities' means on a mammogram
A plain-English guide to the phrase on so many mammogram reports. What 'scattered fibroglandular densities' means (category B, the second-lowest of four density levels, and officially 'not dense'), why your report now spells out your density at all, how to tell your density letter apart from the BI-RADS number that is the real verdict, and the honest answer to 'is this good, bad, or cancer?' Written for the family member reading it first.
Published June 29, 2026
What a 'sclerotic lesion' means on your scan
A plain-English guide to the word that turns a routine scan into a midnight search. What a 'sclerotic lesion' actually is (a dense, whiter spot of bone, not a diagnosis), why it is most often a harmless bone island, the one thing that has to be ruled out, how to read the words next to it to tell routine from worth-a-call, and how your doctor actually settles it. Written for the person reading the report first.
Published July 4, 2026
What a 'hypoechoic' finding means on your ultrasound
A plain-English guide to the ultrasound word that turns a routine scan into a midnight search. What 'hypoechoic' actually is (a spot that looked darker on the image, not a diagnosis), where it sits on the brightness scale, the honest answer on cancer, the TI-RADS or BI-RADS number on your report that is the real verdict, and how to read the features next to the word. Written for the person reading the report first.
Published July 10, 2026
Appointments & questions
How to get a second opinion
A practical guide to getting a second medical opinion. When it is worth it (the data is striking), how to ask without straining the relationship or skip the referral entirely, and how to actually get your records, scans, and biopsy slides released and sent, for yourself or for someone you are caring for.
Published June 25, 2026
Questions to ask your oncologist
A plain-English checklist of what to ask your oncologist at the first appointment: the diagnosis and stage, the goal of treatment, your options and clinical trials, the testing still to come, side effects and who to call, and the harder questions about second opinions and prognosis.
Published June 29, 2026
Questions to ask your doctor
A caregiver-friendly playbook for any appointment: triage your questions to the three that matter, bring the two documents that make a doctor faster, ask the questions that change by visit type, and use teach-back and the after-visit summary to make the answers stick.
Published June 30, 2026
Cancer & treatment
What to say to someone with cancer
If you're not sure what to say to a friend, parent, sibling, or coworker who just got diagnosed. A warm, practical guide to showing up: what lands wrong, what lands right, and how to keep showing up after the news fades.
Published May 13, 2026
Low blood counts during chemo
A plain-English guide to low blood counts during chemotherapy. What the white cells, platelets, and red cells each do, when a dip is expected and when it is an emergency, the short list of numbers that mean call your team today versus go to the ER now, and how to track the trend across cycles. Written for the family member doing the tracking.
Published June 27, 2026
How to tell your kids you have cancer
The one conversation no parent wants to start, with the actual words to start it. Age-by-age scripts for telling your children you have cancer, from a toddler to a teenager, plus the phrases to avoid, how to answer "Are you going to die?" honestly, and where to find help. Grounded in what the research and child-life specialists actually say.
Published July 9, 2026
Anticipatory grief
The grief that starts before the loss does, explained honestly: what anticipatory grief feels like, whether grieving early actually makes the end easier (the research says no, and that is oddly freeing), why the caregiver who reads the results carries the most, and what genuinely helps. For families grieving someone who is still here.
Published July 12, 2026
Need a guide we haven't written yet?
We publish new guides as families tell us what they were stuck on when they found KeptWell. If the situation you are in is not on this list, email hello@keptwell.org and we will write the guide.