2015 Recipient Tana Slawson

The Following Information was written prior to the Pig Bowl in August 2015…

Rick & Tana Slawson

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The Year 2015 didn’t not start out nice for the Slawson family. Rick came home from work on January 13th with a torn ACL and Meniscus in his left Knee. He has been laid off since that time and is expected to go back to work in October.

Rick & Tana

Then on January 17th Tana had her first seizer in Spokane while at her daughter’s house. She was released from the hospital, but was advised to seek a doctor. The next week Tana made an appointment with a doctor and was advised to get an MRI of her head. Tana went to see a neurologist and was told she had a brain tumor on her left temple lob. Tana was sent to OHSU for an additional MRI and they determined the tumor was about the size of golf ball. The size and the shape of the tumor didn’t really alarm them of being a typical cancer shape tumor .

On March 5th Tana had another MRI to see how close the tumor was sitting to the speech and memory part of her brain. On March 13 Tana was told that she could wait about a year if it was not cancer or fast growing. Tana asked them to remove it the sooner the better and surgery for was set for May 4th. Tana had her second seizer on May 1st just a few days before the surgery.

Tana Surgery

Tana went in for her post operation follow up appointment about a week after her  surgery and was informed that she had a grade III Anaplastic Astrocytoma. She was also told that the tumor had fingerlings and they couldn’t remove all of it.

Tana started undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments on June 15th. Tana finished the radiation treatments on August 3rd. Her chemotherapy was put on hold due to her platelets being too low. Once her platelet levels are brought back up, she will continue with the treatment.

On August 6th, Tana’s father passed away unexpectedly. His funeral services were held Saturday August 15th.

Tana will have another MRI on August 28th to see the results of her treatment thus far.

Tana was born in Goldendale and raised in Glenwood, Washington. In 1993 Tana married Rick Slawson. Together they have lived in Goldendale where they raised their two children, Carly, 21 , and Richard, 19. Tana has ties to The Dalles from working at Fred Meyers for the last 4 1/2 years. She has spent many years sharing her love of sports and improving the lives of children. Tana has coached volleyball at Goldendale Middle School for 6 years, JV softball at Goldendale High School for 2 years, and basketball at Glenwood High School for 3 years.

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