When I got to my surgeon's office the biopsy pathology results hadn't yet arrived. The receptionist called and was able to have the hospital fax the results over before I saw my surgeon. The results were both great and strange.
The great news is that the sample contained no malignancies, so the changes in my breast are not caused by any kind of cancer. Even though I figured that this was the case, it's nice to have confirmation that I don't have more or another cancer.
The strange news is that there was no sarcoidosis in the biopsy sample. Huh? The pathologist said that the changes are more like granular annulare of the interstitial type (whatever that means - could it be interstitial granulomatous dermatitis? I couldn't really find that part), which is apparently just a group of white blood cells that form and rise to the skin. This condition usually causes raised red rings to form on the skin, which is definitely what my thing looks like although it doesn't look the same as the pictures on the interwebs.
The report says that it's also possible that the breast changes are due to an interstitial granulomatous drug reaction. From what I can gather, this means that I`m having a rather unusual reaction to one or another of the drugs that I take. The most recent addition was the denosumab so of course I wonder if it's the one causing the problem.
How crazy would it be for me to have two distinct conditions characterized by granuloma formation: sarcoidosis and this other thing going on in the breast? Pretty darn crazy, I'd say. I'm fairly certain that I do have the sarcoidosis because it was confirmed by biopsy in my mediastinal lymph nodes and my elbow scar. Of course apparently sarcoidosis can look like these other conditions but apparently the pathology is usually different for each of them.
My surgeon is referring me to a dermatologist in Oakville because we need to figure out what`s going on with that one breast. The biopsy raised more questions than it answered, which seems to be par for the course. Hoepfully I'll be able to get some answers and maybe even some treatment.
3 comments:
sheesh that is so strange. i have never heard of the new condition, and it would suck so bad for you to have yet another similar condition :(. glad to hear it is not cancer though.
love,
vicki
i tried researching it with Dr. Google, and to this non-doctor it looks like a symptom of lupus. but it's never lupus ;)
love,
vicki
Well, lupus is an autommune disease, right? Both sarcoidosis and this other thing are basically autoimmune disorders as well.
I do wonder if I have an over-arching autoimmune disorder that's basically causing - or allowing to happen - these other skin conditions. It doesn't make sense to me that I could have two totally independent autoimmune skin conditions so I figure there's got to be something connecting them.
Hopefully the dermatologist will have some answers or be able to refer me to an autoimmune specialist (if such a thing exist).
Love,
Chantelle
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