The incredible Alex Hanson

Columbia Falls teen remains upbeat while battling diseases

Columbia Falls High School sophomore Alex Hanson has his driver's permit and is anxiously waiting to get his license. He also wants to buy a rifle to do some target practice.

Typical stuff for a teenage boy, but it makes his mother uneasy.

"In my mind, Alex is forever 12," Kathy Emerson confided about her 16-year-old son.

Hanson was 12 when the course of his life was forever altered by a diagnosis of the most severe form of leukemia, followed by a flesh-eating bacterial infection and a core-blood transplant. And that was just the first year of his illness.

Ever since, he's battled one affliction after another with a measure of grace and acceptance that have helped him work through the complications of his varied illnesses.

He posted his motto on the door of his room awhile back. The sign reads "I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it."

Hanson will need plenty of that gutsy resolve as he confronts his continuing medical problems.

After spending nine months at Children's Hospital in Seattle to conquer the flesh-eating infection and undergo the core-blood transplant, Hanson weathered various complications and eventually stabilized with the leukemia in remission.

But two years ago doctors performed a lung biopsy and discovered he had the adult form of lymphoma. Hanson was the first child in the United States to be diagnosed with this particular lymphoma.

"Once again, Alex is breaking ground," his mother said.

He completed a treatment program of chemotherapy and high-dose steroids, but later was diagnosed with graft-versus-host disease, an illness related to the core-blood transplant that he still battles.

The blood cells he received in the transplant have attacked nearly every part of his body.

"His cells don't live harmonious in his body yet," Emerson said. "It's a fine line between the cancer and the graph disease, but he's feeling pretty good right now. He's a tough kid."

Hanson has been in a wheelchair for much of the past 3 1/2 years because the steroids that keep him alive also cause avascular necrosis, literally "bone death." He had one hip replaced and gets the other hip replaced during the upcoming school spring break.

The complications seem never-ending. He has a stent in his heart to prevent blood clots that are prone to calcification because of his treatments, his gall bladder was removed, his thyroid and adrenal glands were destroyed by cancer treatment.

"The liver they haven't touched yet," Hanson said with a smile. "Or my fingers or toes."

A bout of pneumonia kept him out of school for much of this quarter, and that frustrates Hanson.

"I don't have the grades I want," he said. "I got straight A's last year, so I got my letter [for academic achievement]. I'm thinking about joining speech and debate next year."

That might be a good extracurricular activity, his mother said, adding "he's very opinionated."

Hanson was homeschooled some at the onset of leukemia, but he has attended public school when he can.

"I missed half of sixth grade, all of seventh, half of eighth and half of my freshman year," he said.

Instead of trips to Seattle every other week, Hanson is now down to checkups there every other month. Children's Hospital handles the lymphoma; the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance treats his transplant and leukemia.

"Lymphoma doesn't have a cure, but they have a way of making it dormant," Emerson said.

Adults with lymphoma have a life expectancy of between 5 and 10 years after getting the disease. Because Hanson is the first child to be diagnosed with it, his doctors don't know what to expect.

"We live one day at a time," Emerson said. "There's a flip side to every tragedy, and we see the good things, the bonding, the friendships."

While Hanson's illnesses can seem dire at times, there are always families in worse situations, she added. They met a family in Seattle not long ago in which the father had died of a rare cancer and two of the couple's young daughters had unusual cancers.

"I look at her [the mother] and say 'here you are doing this by yourself,'" Emerson said.

But Emerson's life has its challenges, too. Finding a full-time job with the flexibility she needs for trips to Seattle was difficult, but in July she started work at Stewart Title in Kalispell and has appreciated the company's willingness to accommodate her schedule.

She went through a divorce since her son got sick and was married in December to Dennis Emerson. Finding ample time for her two other children, Jordan, 15, and Megann, 6, is also important to her.

Emerson is thankful for the community support she has received in many different ways, both in cash donations and volunteer help in building a handicap-accessible home.

"People came out of the woodwork to help finish the house," she said.

As for Hanson, he's looking forward to Camp Mak-A-Dream this summer and wants to go paintballing. Beyond that, he has plans to become a nurse one day, or a zookeeper, he mused.

"God has a plan for Alex," his mother said. "With the power of prayer, he's done really well."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.