Stories

Thank you to all of you that have sent in their stories with Alli.  I'm going to post the eulogies from the family at the celebration of life first then post all the great stories that people have sent it.  To keep this on a more regular schedule I'm going to try and post 1 or 2 a week moving forward.  If you haven't had a chance to email me a story but wanted to please still email it in.  The email address again is Alli_Celebration@comcast.net.  

Alli's Helpers - Happy Mail facebook campaign page

One of Alli's friends, Tracy, started a facebook page to keep the Happy Mail campaigns going.  Please see her message below and sign up to help sending smiles around to make the world a happier place.  


"In honor of Alli, please join Happy Mail Campaigns to keep her joy and love of life flowing.  A facebook page has been created...https://www.facebook.com/happymailcampaigns and a couple of campaigns have already been initiated.

The page is off to a good start, but Alli's army is huge, and we need help getting the word out far and wide so Alli's magical happy mail is a success.

Please spread the word to family, friends, Alli's fans and any kindhearted person you know to like the page and to sign up for campaigns whenever possible.  If not on Facebook, e-mail HappyMailCampaigns@comcast.net .

Campaign details will be sent via e-mail, messenger, etc...no contact information will be posted publicly.

Sending a happy thoughts out into the world only takes a second and doesn't have to cost much...in fact, it can be free if you send an e-mail :)...Alli wanted to good vibes and mojo to flow, so let's be Alli's helpers and do this in homage to her."

Surreal and Celebration of Life/ Blog info

It still seems so surreal.  Like she has been on a vacation and should be walking through the door anytime now to give Malena and I a hug and a kiss.  We have had some rough spots and some smiles as we take things day by day.  I have gone to write a blog a couple times but I just can't seem to get my fingers to type what is going through my head.  I'm sure part of that is that it does seem surreal, like a bad dream I should be waking up from, but if I write it down then it has happened.  I keep thinking back to a blog Alli wrote long ago where she said something to the effect of its okay you don't know what to say I don't either.  I'm sure I will get my fingers to type in the coming time, they just don't know what to say yet.

I did want to share one detail with all of you about the celebration of life.  Alli meant so much to so many people and you all meant so much to her.  I want people to be able to share their stories of her; of all the nice things and inspiration she provided; of the interactions she had with people; of the amazing person she was from growing up, to school, to work... just everything in life.  At an attempt of levity... although it might not be too far off... the challenge is we might be there for a week or longer if everyone she did a nice things for came up to say something.  So at the celebration of life it will only be family speaking at the service but I still want people to be able to share and more importantly I want Malena to know all those stories people have with Alli and what she meant to everyone.

The best solution I have to solve that challenge is to use this platform for sharing.  In lieu of opening up the mic, I am going to open up the blog.  If you have a story, an inspiration, a nice thing she did, etc that you wanted to share please email to Alli_Celebration@comcast.net.  Include the blog title as well as the write-up with any pictures and I will start posting them here after the celebration of life.  It doesn’t matter if they are short or long, as long as they are genuine that is what matters.

I want Malena to be able to read about Alli, her stories, and her inspiration to others.  When she has a bad day as a teenager or she has a milestone in her future that she wants to celebrate; I want her to be able to read about her mom if she thinks that will make her day better or to celebrate an accomplishment that much more.  I always hear that we are telling our kids as a warning that what you but out on the internet lives forever.  I hope that comes that is true for this.  d

Celebration of Life Details

Alli's larger celebration of life will be held at 11:00am on January 26th at Trinity Lutheran Church in Tacoma with a reception to follow.  I did update the previous blog post as well but wanted to make sure a new post had the correct information.  

In lieu of flowers we are asking for donations to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA). Donations may be sent to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, P.O. Box 19023, Seattle, WA  98109-1023.  Checks may be made payable to SCCA with the indication that they are in the memory of Alli Hanson for melanoma research.  You can also call (206) 606-2070 or (877) 308-3117 to make a donation by phone.

Memorial Details

We are trying to finalize details for Alli's celebration of life but wanted to share what the plan currently is.  We are trying to make sure we have a place for her formal celebration of life that is large enough for all to attend and hoping to confirm that very soon.  

The smaller graveside service will be held in Hoquim at Sunset Memorial Park this Friday, January 11th, at 2:00pm followed by a reception at Saron Lutheran-First Presbyterian Church; also in Hoquim.  

The larger, formal celebration of life we will have in the Seattle/ Tacoma area most likely in early February.  Once we have firm details on time and location I will post another blog on here to share the details. 

UPDATE - Alli's larger Celebration of life will be held on at 11:00am on January 26th at Trinity Lutheran Church in Tacoma (close to Pacific Lutheran University).      

Also, in lieu of flowers we are asking for donations to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA). Donations may be sent to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, P.O. Box 19023, Seattle, WA  98109-1023.  Checks may be made payable to SCCA with the indication that they are in the memory of Alli Hanson for melanoma research.  You can also call (206) 606-2070 or (877) 308-3117 to make a donation by phone.

Allison Dana Hanson

Alli has put down her boxing gloves and is looking out over all of us from heaven.  She was the best wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, co-worker you could ever imagine.

Where we go from here

I think I've tried starting this blog about 5 different ways.  Maybe its just the realization that I'm having to write it that makes none of them read like they should.  As Alli and I had said to each other before, this wasn't supposed to be our story but it is our story.    

Alli's sodium levels have been stable enough that yesterday afternoon she no longer was deemed an ICU patient and today we were moved to a different floor in the general oncology area.  Their best idea is that the seizures that Alli had triggered her brain to release a hormone that made her kidneys retain water when they shouldn't have been.  As they retained more water she became more diluted, dropping her sodium levels lower and lower very rapidly.  With a second anti-seizure medication she has not had any more seizures and she seems to be able to keep her sodium levels elevated where they should be. 

While I'm sure the sodium contributed to the responsiveness over the weekend it was not the only factor to her mental and physical state right now.  Since Christmas Eve Alli has had some okay times and some not so good times.  In the okay times she can have a little interaction for a couple minutes at a time.  Her speech is still slurred and she struggles to find words or remember part of the conversation but it is so beautiful to hear her voice and hear "I love you" one more time.  The not so good times she really has a hard time staying awake, isn't responsive, and has some restlessness and delirium.  Regardless you always see moments where you can see it in her eyes that she knows exactly what she wants to say but her body just doesn't want to listen to actually do it.  

Each day and hour seem to be different and oscillate between those states.  Yesterday was a better day with more interactions and getting out of bed for the first time in almost a week.  Today was not quite as good of a day with a lot of sleeping, very little interaction with others, and seemingly more headaches and nausea.

With the sodium issue figured out we needed to work through what to do about radiation with her oncologist and the radiation oncologist.  No one could say they foresaw enough chance of a benefit from completing the radiation that it outweighed the risk that it would make Alli's condition regress to more pain, nausea, vomiting, and delirium.  With that the doctors and I made the final decision to not move forward with the radiation.  It was something I had discussed with the family yesterday but it was part of the hardest decisions I've had to make.  

With no other treatments available and Alli not being in a mental or physical state to travel to a clinical trial in Texas we have started worked with palliative care on a care plan for outside the hospital.  With the full time care that Alli needs for meds and physical support we are looking at different in-patient care/ hospice options that are close to our home.  In addition to Alli's care needs, I made the decision based on what I think will be the best option for Malena in the future.  When Malena and I had talked before we had talked about what could happen if Mom didn't get better.  I never wanted to take away from all of the great memories we all had in our house; the laughter, the fun, the love we all shared together.  I don't want those replaced or diminished with memories of nurses, hospital beds, medical beeps, alarms, etc with Mom and our house.  

I'm not quite sure how we are going to get through the coming months but I know we will and I know it will involve the support of all of you.  It has the last couple weeks as well as the last 8.5 years we have been fighting this terrible disease.  Wherever we fight you fight.