Evan. Continued

Evan had a fairly normal baby life after his first surgery. He progressed somewhere near normal. The doctors kept a very close eye on him. Stacy and Cameron were very good with him, administering his medicine, reading his symptoms and keeping a close eye on him. Stacy let it be known very early in the game she was never leaving OKC. She was not going to leave Dr Elkins. The family agreed whole heartedly. We all had grown to love and trust Dr Elkins. They had been living temporarily with Stacy’s parents. Something had to be done about living conditions and Cameron’s duty station. The Marine Corp had been very cooperative but he had obligations. He asked for and received a transfer to the recruiting office in OKC. When we left Charlotte under emergency conditions both Cameron and Stacy’s car had been left there. Cameron flew back and retrieved Stacy’s car but his pickup and their furniture was still there. It was in the care of his fellow marines. Now for a place too live. They were able to purchase a house in Moore using Cameron’s GI Loan. Then Cameron flew to Charlotte again secured his pickup, rented a trailer and brought everything back .I was very proud of how well this young couple handled a very difficult time.

The plan was for Evan to make it to about 18 months then another surgery would be done to give him a better chance at a normal life. He didn’t quite make it that far. On July. 3 1998 he had another open heart surgery. By this time Stacy was pregnant again and was due later in July. Talk about carrying a heavy load. But they did it and I was so proud of them. This time a procedure known as ” the Ross procedure ” was done. The aortic valve was removed and the pulmonary valve was moved to its place. Then a donor valve was installed where the pulmonary valve was. The reason for that is. The donor valve will not grow with him and having it in the pulmonary valve place would make it much easier to go back and change as he out grew it. Evan had a harder time coming out of this surgery. It took him several days to wake up. We were very concerned but he finally did wake up. He was hospitalized for a couple of weeks and sent home but he didn’t thrive. Fact is he went through a very difficult time. He was very pale and weak. I remember watching Stacy trying to feed him and he couldn’t even hold his head up. It was so sad. He slept a lot and he never smiled. He was so sick. He was back in the doctors office almost all the time. The doctors explained to us that now that the other valves were functioning as they should,too much pressure was being put upon the mitral valve and it was failing. The remedy was another surgery to replace the mitral valve but the little fellow was too weak to survive another surgery. It was awful to watch. We all tried so hard to get him stronger to no avail. Finally they decided to hospitalize him in order to get boosters in him with IVS. One time during this hospital stay a nurse came in to change his IV. She did her thing with Stacy watching closely. When she finished Stacy told her she had done something wrong and she must fix it. She insisted it was right and ignored Stacy. Stacy raced out of the room shouting for a supervisor. The supervisor came running, thank god, and discovered the mistake and fixed it. We were told that if Stacy hadn’t called for help when she did it would have been fatal. That’s how close Stacy watched him. She was unbelievable. I’ve never seen a mother work harder caring for a sick child then Stacy and she did it his whole life. Finally they decided he was strong enough for another surgery. This time they went in to replace the mitral valve. They replaced it with a mechanical valve. He came through the surgery just fine and the improvement was almost immediate. He had energy, he played he laughed it was fantastic to see him so much better. We pulled him all over the halls in a wagon. It was so much fun.

Keep in mind during all this on. July 22 of that year Stacy delivered another baby. Evans little sister Ashton Blaine came into this world perfectly healthy. Amazing. To think all this going on and a new baby at the same time. Stacy girl you are one tough mama.

From this point on Evan thrived. He joined the ranks of a normal child. He ran, he played he did all the things little boys do. Throughout his early years he had a bit of an attitude but he had a very sweet nature. What he lacked in Brawn he made up for in brain. He was extremely bright. He was a hoarder, he saved everything especially money. He loved money. He loved those gold dollar coins and we made sure to give him and Ashton every one we came across. Somehow he always managed to con Ashton out of hers. Evan always knew that he couldn’t play any contact sports. No football but baseball, soccer, and basketball were fine. He tried baseball one summer but never really liked it. He played soccer a couple years but basketball was his favorite.. I loved to watch him play because he would give it his all. Even though he wasn’t a great athlete Evan had a remarkable knowledge of sports. He became our go to guy if we had a question about a player or a coach or any other question about professional or college sports. I called him my little Lou Holtz. He could explain football or basket ball plays. Tell you what a particular players assignment was and if he did it correctly. He was amazing. His favorite basketball player was LaBron James. His favorite football team was OU. He could name the players, their year of eligibility, had they red shirted and on and on. All this was very interesting to him but his favorite thing was money. He started carrying a wallet at a very young age. One time he showed me his wallet. I looked in it and he had over $500. I said what are you doing with so much money. He said I saved it. He insisted on having it with him. He absolutely loved to swim. H was so fun to watch. When they would come over to swim he would put on his bathing suit before he came. When he got out of the car he would run as hard as he could, never stopping for a hug or anything he would streak through the house and straight for the pool and into the water. While the others were making their way into the house Evan was already in the water and it took great effort to get him out. Of course after 3 open heart surgeries he had scars on his chest. When he was young he called them his tattoos. As he got older he was self conscious of them. When he was 10 we took the whole family to a resort in Mexico for a week. It was a beautiful resort where you could feel safe just watching the kids run and play. Evan would swim all day go to the show until about 10 pm then hit the disco. At the time he had three cousins close in age and they had a ball. It was difficult to slow them down long enough to eat or sleep. It was the best week of my life watching them have so much fun. Especially Evan after all the struggles he had been through.

Evans health during this time was good. His blood was tested often because he was on thinners and it needed to be monitored at all times. Other than that he only had normal colds and things like that. He enjoyed anything that challenged his mind. He was great at table games even poker. He was very competitive, hated to lose at anything. No one ever called Evan a good loser. If he lost he was angry and was eager to challenge you again.

Once again Im gonna have to take a break.