ADH and PASH
Hi,
I'm new here. Just want to post something about myself. I am 27, Asian. No family history. Recently diagonised with ADH and PASH. English is not my first language, so I hope I don't make too much mistakes here.
I've spent some time learning about the two and I know ADH is the risky one.
I first found my nipple was bleeding in April, 2017. I didn't feel anything until one day my husband pressed on my right chest and the blood came out immediately (red clear blood). I got ultrasound and Mammogram but they didn't see anything, no sign at all. I thought I was find but my primary doctor recommended me to a surgeon. The surgeon is very experienced. Even though he didn't feel any lumps, he said I have intraductal papilloma and I need a surgery as fast as possible. He explained to me that women's breast has four parts, upper right, upper left, lower right and lower left. My lower left is the part causing bleeding and I should take it out no matter what it is. It would be wasting time for other imaging like ductgram or needle biopsy.
So I had my lumpectomy (breast excision) on Oct. 9, 2017. The hospital send the excision for biopsy. The result came back about 10 days later after the surgery. My oncologist later told me that if I didn't have the surgery I would most likely be a breast cancer soon.
Below is my microscopic description and diagnosis:
Microscopic description: Sections show breast tissue with fibrocystic changes in which there is a single focus of atypical ductal hyperplasia. The surrounding breast shows extensive stromal fibrosis with areas of pseudoangiomatous stromal hyperplasia. There is focal hemorrhage within ducts and hemosiderin pigment in the stroma, suggestive of a prior biopsy site. There is no evidence of malignancy. The submitted immunostains show the focus of atypical ductal hyperplasia to be positive for E-cadherin and negative for CK5/6and CD68.
Diagnosis: Right Breast: fibrocystic changes with focal atypical ductal hyperplasia and stromal fibrosis with pseudoangiomatous stromal hyperplasia.
I'm still learning more about all the information above, but I understood the whole idea that my ADH is the most dangerous one, even though it was taken out, I am at high risk of developing breast cancer later. Right now the module that doctors use to predict patient breast cancer possibilities is only for women above 35 years old. For young women, it is different and they haven't done enough research on young women with breast cancer risks. But it is generally believed that young women tend to have more aggressive cancer cells, and they die faster. It completely makes sense to me because young adults have stronger defensive mechanism. If something can destroy the strong defense, then it is gonna be stronger.
I want to find why my body has these changes. I don't have family BC history, I don't drink alcohol or soda, I don't even drink coffee. Then that leaves to 3 possible reasons: 1. Gene mutation, my gene is mutated somehow. 2. My lifestyle gives me too much stress. I am a small business owner, for the past year, I've been constantly giving myself pressure to grow the business. My husband is also an entrepreneur, so I had lots of stress worrying about his business and my business. I reduced my exercise frequency this year and stayed home most of the time to focus on work, which caused lack of social life too. But it doesn't make sense to me because Before July 2016, I worked out regularly and didn't have any stress. I found the symptom in April, 2017. So could such a short time period of stress cause cancer? 3. Hormone imbalance. I've had irregular period since my first period when I was 13. So it has been 14 years that I had irregular period and sever period pain every time during my period. I never got my period on time. The time between two periods could be 53 days, 64 days or 47 days....I also had 15 days when I was preparing for school exams. My period is also so pain that once I almost called 911, but I couldn't because I was too pain to make a phone call. (I din't use ibuprofen when I was young, so every time during my period, I still had to go to school even though I could stand or sit. It was stupid that nobody knew that you can take pills to reduce pain....) Whenever I tell my doctors about my period, they think it's not related to my breast. But I strongly doubt that the two are not related. You see period and breast growth and both regulated by hormones, if your period has been irregular and painful for 14 years, there is something wrong with your hormone balance. That been said, I am going to take a hormone test hopefully soon and see my estrogen and testosterone, prostate level. I also want to see the prostaglandin level because all these years period pain came from protaglandin.
My oncologist want me to take Tamoxifen to reduce my estrogen level. But that means I have to take pills for five years and can not have kids. So I probably won't do that. I will most likely go for a Chinese doctor. After my surgery I had a acupuncture session to treat my lower back pain, and I got my period the second day after my acupuncture. It is the first time for the past 14 years that I had a period in a perfect cycle (28-30 days). I got the feeling that the acupuncture is gonna help me. I started reading traditional Chinese medicinal books. It is very helpful and completely changed the way I see disease. Chinese medicinal talks about balance. Your emotion/mood is the key to treat things like this. Be happy and positive is the most important pill that you need to take. I used to believe and follow all the traditional Chinese health tips. But I forgot them after I came to United States. There are cases that western medicine is the way to go, like ibuprofen. There are cases that Chinese medicine will work better, like treating hormone imbalance.
I will try to update more.....Thanks for reading. Be happy:)