OKC Race for the Cure

Please join us at the OKC Race for the Cure on October 20th. We will have another team this year and we would love for you to join us. Just go to www.komencentralok.org, then click on the "Registration has begun..." link. Next, click on "Join a team" on the right side of your screen. Type in "Team Evans" and complete your registration from there.

You can do the 1 mile or 5K, walk or run either. Last year we had over 60 people on 'Team Melinda," we hope you'll join us to make an even bigger team and bigger impact for the research and treatment of breast cancer.

Additionally, we will be selling team t-shirts that honor Melinda. I don't have a final cost yet, but we think it will be about $15/shirt. If you would like to purchase any t-shirts, please let me know here how many and what sizes. They will not be available until mid-October, but we need to take orders to know how many to get. Any money made from the sale of shirts will go to help two of Melinda's friends, Kathryn Rutledge and Carrie Ferguson, do the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk in San Diego in November. 100% of that money will go directly to breast cancer research through the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. For those of you who would like to make a direct donation to either of these ladies, you can go to www.the3day.org. Melinda had hoped to do the 3-Day next year, I know several of us plan to go in her place in 2008.

Last year was a great experience, we hope you and your entire family will join us- moms, dads and kids!

Autopsy Results

Mark received the results of Melinda's liver autopsy tonight. She had cancer in over half of her liver causing liver failure. The cancer was very aggressive, she had a pet-scan (not sure if that is correct spelling)in April and everything looked great. And when she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer she had had a mammogram only a year and a half before which also looked great. Some of you may know that Melinda was told a recurrence of cancer would likely be in her lungs, brain or bone. The Dr. said that this just shows they don't know everything about this terrible disease and sometimes it just does not follow the likely path.

I want to thank you on behalf of Mark for all your prayers, love and concern during this time. I know he feels very blessed to have such a wonderful church family and friends. He was very comforted by all the hugs at the funeral.

I would also like to thank all of those who have been there for me during the loss of my best friend. It is so hard to be without her but I am comforted to know that she is not suffering anymore is so happy to be home. We love you, Melinda!

What You Can Do

We will continue to use this site so we can let you know if there is anything you all can do to help. So many have been asking and wanting to help. Here is one thing you can do: Share your memories with us. We would like to put together a little something for the kids so they will always know who their mom was. Any story, significant or not, that just shows who Melinda was. How she made us laugh. How she couldn't fix her short hair. How she helped people. How she talked about her kids. How she wouldn't eat roast, but was too nice to say anything... Truly, we just want your stories. You can post them here and we'll put them together.

Funeral

Services for Melinda will be at 10 am on Wednesday, August 22nd at Alameda Church of Christ (801 E. Alameda, Norman).

Donations

Many of you having been asking if the Evans family would appreciate flowers. Mark said it would mean a great deal to him and the family if you were inclined to send flowers to send a donation to the Susan G. Komen foundation instead. You can donate online at www.komen.org.

Services for Melinda are still pending. We'll let you know when all the details are worked out.

Thanks for the generosity and love you have poured out to all of the Evans/Watters family, as well as to all of her friends.

Gone Home

Our dear, sweet Melinda passed from this world earlier this evening. She was surrounded by your prayers and lots of family and friends at the hospital. I cannot believe that I am delivering this news, but I know that God is taking care of her now. I know many of you are hurting as you read this, I don't know what to say other than we are all blessed and better for knowing her. We will all miss her spunk, her wit, her smile, her kindness, and her love.

Please continue to remember Mark, the kids, and the rest of their family in your prayers. They face a hard road, but they know they have all of our support.

We will post details as soon as we find out what her arrangements will be.

Goodbye, Melinda. We love you and we miss you.

Prayer Service TONIGHT

So many have been asking what they can do for Mark and Melinda... I know we all feel a little useless right now, but there is something you can do. We are going to have a prayer service for Melinda tonight at the church at 7:30. Please come and join us in lifting Melinda and her family in prayer. I know a lot of people do check the blog, but if you wouldn't mind contacting your life groups to let them know about the prayer service, I'd appreciate it- we don't want anybody to miss the opportunity to gather with friends and pray for Melinda. Thanks for all your comments and prayers already!

Visitors

Several people have asked me if Mark would appreicate visitors at this time. I talked with him and he said it is not needed right now. This is obviously an emotional time and I think he would feel he had to talk to the visitors and he is just not up to that right now. Melinda's family is there to help him. All we can do right now is pray.

They did another scan at about 12:30pm but had not received the results yet. Once they get them they will do the biopsy.

Biopsy

Melinda has too much ammonia in her blood due to her kidneys not functioning properly. I beleive that is due her body being overloaded. They are doing the biopsy of her liver today after all b/c they have to find out what is wrong as soon as possible.
They are giving her more blood to help with the surgery. I think once they get her loaded up on blood products they will do the surgery. They gave her med to knock her out because she was being combative (due to the ammonia build-up). This very is serious so please pray her and for Mark. They need our prayers.

Pray

A nurse f/Mercy called me this morning at 6 am and said they were puting Melinda on a respirator and asked me if someone could go stay w/the kids so Henry could come to the hopital. That is all the info I have. Please Pray!!

Thursday Update

I just talked w/Mark and he said Melinda is doing about the same. She seems to be more tired and the are infusing her w/red blood again. He was not sure if they will do the biopsy tomorrow. Mark feels, as well as another Dr., that she is not ready for the biopsy. They would like her to be stronger. So they are just waiting again.
Thank you for everyone's help. Mark and Melinda feel very blessed by your support.

Update

I think there might be some confusion on Melinda's status. Everything is under control. She is still receiving blood products more frequently due to the bleeding from the surgery. They were prepared that this situation would be a possiblity and therefore the doctors on top of it. They moved her back to ICU to monitor more her closely - which is a very good thing. In ICU the patient ratio is much lower(usually only 1-2 patients per nurse) than on the regular floors which can be around 7-8 patients per nurse.

She is just not doing as well as she was before the surgery but I talked to Mark a few minutes ago and Melinda is resting and eating small amounts of food. So she is doing okay and I'm so sorry if people read more into it.

The doctors want to do a biopsy of her liver through her jugular vien Fri. (this option will be used so she doesn't have clotting issues) They are waiting until Fri. to see if she improves w/the transfusions and to see if the expanders might have been an issue as well. So hopefully, the biopsy will tell them something.

Not Doing Well

Melinda had her surgery yesterday and the doctors said it went well. They gave her a lot of blood products b/f , during and after surgery to help with clotting. They held off on giving her anything for a while to see if she would clot on her own like she had started to b/f the surgery. Last night she started bleeding a lot from the right side where the hematoma was. They have been giving her blood all night long and she is not doing well. They are planning to move her back to ICU.

Henery and Julie (Melinda's parents) are at the hospital with Mark and Mitzi is watching the kids. If you might be available to help with kids please let me know. I'm not sure it is needed at this time but I would like to have options just in case.
Thank you and continue your prayers.
Chasity

Melinda's Surgery

I talked to Mark at 1:30pm and he said that Melinda was out of surgery and awake. The doctors said she did as well as expected under the circumstances. I did not get to talk to Mark very long b/c he was dealing w/familys so I don't have very much info. I will keep you updated.
Please continue your prayers today.

More Surgery

Melinda will be having surgery tomorrow morning (Tues) at 11am to remove the expanders she had put in on July 26th. The doctor believes it is too risky to leave the right expander in b/c of the very large hematoma under the expander. It is pushing the expander out of place and will cause more damage if left in. They will also take out the left expander as well since they already have her on the operating table. The latest theroy is that the expanders may be causing the problem with her liver.

She is still receiving blood products but not as frequently. For the surgery tomorrow they will be giving her blood products b/f and after the surgery to help with her blood clotting problems. As you can imagine she is very scared but they will be monitoring her very closely.
Please pray a special prayer for tomorrow.
Thanks

New Room - 438

Melinda has moved to room 438. She is starting to get some strength back. She walked around the ICU twice yesterday before she moved rooms. She is planning to take another walk today on her floor. She is still receiving blood products.
Please keep praying for a fast recovery.

Some Good News!

I spent a few hours at the hospital with Melinda today. She had her first full night of sleep last night, which was badly needed. She was also able to get a good nap today. The doctor came in and woke her up from her nap and decided it would be okay for her to move to a "normal" room. She will be moved to a room on the oncology floor as soon as one becomes available, either tonight or tomorrow. She will only be on the oncology floor because those nurses are better able to handle the blood needs, not because they think she has cancer again. Melinda is thrilled to be moving out of the ICU... one step closer to home!

She is still having some trouble breathing because of her lungs, but they're working on getting her up a little more to help with that. Other than that, things are about the same- slowly improving. Still no cause for why all of this is happening, but Melinda is really encouraged to be moving rooms!

Keep praying for a full, speedy recovery!

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Melinda received another 10 units of blood products today... now a total of 52. Her platelets are increasing slowly. She had a CT scan this morning which showed what they already knew about the fluid on her lungs, etc. The good news is they have not seen any tumors (praise God!). They are still unsure what is causing the problems with her liver, but continue to be optimistic about her full recovery.

Some of you have asked whether or not she is conscious, etc. Yes! She is completely awake and aware of all that is going on (in fact, she wishes she could get more sleep!) and very able to talk, etc. She is just very tired and ready to go home. Please keep praying for a speedy recovery. Thanks for all your sweet comments!

Welcome to the Update

This site has been created to help keep the friends and family of Melinda Evans up-to-date on her health condition. So, here's a recap of the latest news:

Melinda entered the ICU at Mercy Hospital on Sunday, July 29th, just a few days after her second reconstructive surgery. A third of her liver was not functioning properly and she was bleeding internally. Her blood was not clotting as it should. Without getting technical: because her liver was not functioning properly, her platelets were low, so they began giving her blood. Doctors are not sure what caused the problem with her liver, there is a possibility surgery had something to do with it, but Melinda had begun feeling ill just before the surgery.

As of now, Melinda has received over 40 units of blood products. While she is no longer receiving red blood cells, she continues to receive platelets. Since entering ICU, she has gained almost 25 pounds from all the fluid they have given her. This, of course, is causing other problems. She is on two blood pressure medications now because her bp is so high from the swelling. Doctors are giving her diuretics now to help with the swelling, and it has gone down a little, but she is still quite uncomfortable. She has also developed fluid on her lungs from being sedentary for so long now. She has been doing breathing treatments to help with the problem.

Another concern is a large hematoma that has developed on Melinda's right side where she had surgery. Doctors are very concerned about this but are unable to do surgery because she is not in stable condition yet. They will continue to monitor this very closely.

Though a lot of this sounds bad, Melinda IS improving slowly and doctors DO expect a full recovery. Please pray that she will continue to heal, and quickly! It's so hard to be away from your home and your family. I know Mark and Melinda truly appreciate each of your thoughts, prayers and all that you do for them.

Posted by Pam Robeson