On Friday June 8th Alanna went into the Emergency Care Center in Ketchikan Alaska. From there it was determined that Alanna was in renal and heart failure in addition to extremely high blood pressure; she was emergency medevac'd from Ketchikan down to Harbor View Medical Center the same day. The past few days a lot of things have been ascertained - Alanna's high blood pressure has caused potentially permanent damage to her heart and her renal function is 4% and her kidney's have been found to be failing.
Over the next few days Alanna faces a lot of challenges and choices. Now that her blood pressure is under control her heart functions are expected to improve. However, even with those improvements her kidney functions continue to decline. Moving forward it appears that Alanna will be going into surgery for dialysis tubes and being placed on a donor list for new kidneys. Those of you who live in Ketchikan understand the challenges that dialysis brings - there's no center available and even taking the home care option has it's challenges as she will need to travel monthly to a facility to check her tubes.
I'm not certain what else to say. Those of you that know Alanna know the compassionate person that I'm writing about. The doctors are at a loss for how this decline has happened given the timeline considering the healthy and clean lifestyle that she works to maintain - we're hoping that her biopsy today will pinpoint an underlying treatable disease.
At this time Alanna and Charmaine have lost their income source; their daycare Peeps and Cheeps has had to be temporarily shut down while Alanna recovers. Please feel free to donate to this website if you are moved to do so. Also, you are free to make donations directly to Alanna's bank account at Credit Union 1 in Ketchikan. We've already had several people reach out to offer a kidney donation. Alanna is overwhelmed that someone would make such an inspired donation; if that is a course your interested in taking please confirm with your family doctor that this is an acceptable medical procedure for you.
I understand this may come as a shock to those of you that know Alanna. I know many of you may to reach out to Alanna personally - please know that prayers are always welcome but that personal phone calls are difficult at this time. I am making myself available to help communicate on behalf of the family while I'm in Harbor View - feel free to call and text my cell as needed.
