{"id":6193,"date":"2011-02-20T18:50:33","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T01:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/?p=6193"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:32:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:32:43","slug":"results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2011\/02\/20\/results\/","title":{"rendered":"Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got a phone call at noon on Thursday with my biopsy results. The news wasn’t the worst, but it’s not the best either. I have Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia<\/a>. In simplest terms, this means there’s a spot on my breast with too many cells growing in the duct that are taking on suspiciously irregular forms. It’s not cancer, yet. But it’s one stage below Ductal Carcinoma In Situ, also known as DCIS. DCIS is also not considered dire, because it means the cancer is not yet invasive. But neither is a situation in which to sit back and do nothing.<\/p>\n

On March 3 I meet with a surgeon, because yet another biopsy is required. This will be an excisional biopsy, I think with general anesthesia; they will remove more tissue for testing. If they find cancer cells, then we proceed from there. If they find nothing, then I will be closely monitored. I plan to ask about taking tamoxifen as a preventive measure. I also plan to seriously consider getting tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations<\/a>. (BRCA is a gene known as a tumor supressor. A harmful mutation greatly increases risk.) I believe that having the BRCA1 mutation also puts one at a 20-40% higher risk for ovarian cancer as well.<\/a> With a family history (my maternal grandmother and my mother had breast cancer), and this condition, I feel like my breasts are a minefield. If carry BRCA1, I’d also consider an oophorectomy (removal of my ovaries).<\/p>\n

Lots to consider. Lots of tumultuous feelings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got a phone call at noon on Thursday with my biopsy results. The news wasn’t the worst, but it’s not the best either. I have Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia. In simplest terms, this means there’s a spot on my breast with too many cells growing in the duct that are taking on suspiciously irregular forms. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motherhood","category-nature","category-science"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6193"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6204,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193\/revisions\/6204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}