Buddy Check December 2011: Understanding PASH
By: Kyla Campbell
Updated: January 3, 2012
Two biopsies this summer turned up calcifications called pseudoangiomatous stromal hyperplasia, or PASH for short. Zubris says for most patients, those calcifications never turn into cancer. For others, PASH can be found with the disease.
For Karel, doctors decided to use a titanium chip to track the progress of the calcifications, which are still benign.
"It's a marker, and it's tracking the calcifications so on the next mammogram they can track progress," explained Karel. "If there's something suspicious there, they will suggest surgery."
She'll head to the doctor for a follow-up next month. In the mean time, it's the Coal Street ice rink that's giving Karel a break from the worry, if only briefly.
"It's a good place of zen," she said. "You can come here and only think about the ice."
She says skating and teaching lessons there help keep her mind off the PASH diagnosis and what it could mean down the road.
In the mean time, her doctors say this new diagnosis of a breast condition requires consistent documentation and follow-ups.
