January 6, 2005

Alicia and Greg both attended the consultation appointment with Dr. Dietz. During this appointment we learned that things were much more serious than we thought. Alicia is facing surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy all this year. Surgery options include either a lumpectomy or a mastectomy. Radiation is only required for the lumpectomy option. Radiation options include external beam radiation (a "tanning bed" type treatment) (once a day, 5days week for 6 weeks) or Internal radiation (a localized catheter approach) (twice a day for 5 days). The length of the chemotherapy is really dependent on the results of the sentinel lymph node test. If the sentinel node test is positive, Alicia will have 8 cycles of chemo, if negative she only faces 4 cycles of chemo. We really need prayer that the sentinel node test is negative.