ADH

Donna-angel-123, like you my journey started off with a similar diagnosis , ALH, and like you was told that it was benign. After a lumpectomy I was once again told that everything was negative only to find out while reading my path report that LCIS was found. I immediately contacted an oncologist and she repeatedly assured me that I did not have cancer but but now I was to be considered a high risk patient and would be monitored as such. Part of the "treatment" would be the inclusion of Tamoxifin but since I had a history of having had a pulmonary embolism a very long time ago , she decided not to take the chance of possibly another one. If you haven't already done so , you should make an appointment with an oncologist just to have someone keep tabs on you. She/ he may want you on Tamoxifin. As far as I can tell , people on this med don't generally lose their hair but rather there may be some thinning of the hair. Then again , this does not happen in every person. Also, you've got to remember that MRI's are very sensitive so they are going to find a lot of" stuff" in your breasts that doctors won't be sure of just what it it is , so there's a good chance of multiple biopsies being performed.At some point some women just say enough and opt for more invasive surgery. This is another reason why you need an oncologist to talk with.

Lastly, I'm a big believer in crying . In fact I like to yell a lot to while I'm crying. Gets out all those bad feelings and gets you ready to face whatever is ahead of you. Take it one step at a time and don't spend your days on the computer just yet. Plenty of time later on.



Barbara

Hi Donna, I'm a little confused by your posting.  As I understand it, you had a diagnosis of ADH made three years ago  Were you told that you now have ADH again, based solely on an MRI?  I don't think that's possible.  That's why they have to do the MRI-guided biopsy.  You may not even have ADH again (hopefully not).  Of course, if you do, you will need the surgical excisional biopsy.  I had ADH diagnosed twice.  The first time was 18 years ago, via surgical biopsy, and I didn't undergo any special surveillance, other than yearly mammos and sonos, as well as twice yearly meetings with my surgeon, which dwindled to once per year.  I had two other intervening surgical biopsies, which were completely benign, and then last year (17 years later!), they found ADH on a stereotactic core biopsy.  The follow-up excisional biopsy found DCIS (a lot of it).  I kind of do regret not being followed by a surgical oncologist as a high-risk patient.  I think that the DCIS was missed when it was smaller, but that was because the mammos weren't always studied with a fine tooth comb. 

So, continue with the surveillance.  Yes, you might have multiple biopsies, but as was stated earlier, prophylactic mastectomy is a big step.  Hopefully this biopsy is benign or only ADH. Let us know.