Woman camps in Coralville while receiving cancer treatment

Few people have it as rough as Kathy Evans, and even fewer are able to keep such a positive outlook on life. The Washington native is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for skin cancer at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

After two weeks of driving back and fourth from Washington, Evans asked her friends and relatives for a place to stay closer to the hospital. Her mother Mary Bruty and stepfather Bob Bruty lent her their motor home. Evans now lives in that motor home with her daughter Tiffany by the Coralville Lake. In spite of what she has had to endure, Kathy said she feels ?like a million dollars,? and is thankful she can spend time with her daughter.

Kathy is married to Alan Evans. About 13 years ago, they were blessed with the arrival of a baby girl. Their daughter Tiffany was born with three kidneys, one of which was not functioning. She went under the knife at 3 weeks of age for the first of many surgeries on her kidneys. One of her remaining kidneys was shutting down while the other was working too hard. Doctors told Kathy and Alan that Tiffany would not live past age 3.

Though it was a hard row to hoe, Tiffany beat the odds. In August 2008, the Make-A-Wish Foundation gave the Evans family the opportunity of a lifetime: to spend one week on the sandy beaches of Hawaii.

Apart from the issues with her kidneys, Tiffany has suffered from projectile vomiting since birth. Her most recent surgery was on her stomach to fix her acid reflux. It was surgery No. 34 for the young girl.

Surgery has solved many of Tiffany?s problems, yet others remain. She still suffers from severe hypertension and is allergic to the 10 most common antibiotics. If she gets infected, she requires special intravenous antibiotics. Not only that, but she has more surgeries on the way. In the next month or so she will travel to Minneapolis for surgery on a hernia in her abdomen.

This past year, Tiffany was not the only member of the family with medical problems. In fact, the last 12 months have been a trying time for the Evans family. On Aug. 1 of last year, Alan suffered a heart attack.

?Charles Yoder saved his life by driving him to the hospital,? said Kathy. ?If they had waited for an ambulance, he would have been dead. I called the Washington hospital to let them know a heart attack victim was coming so they could get everything ready.?

Alan was subsequently transported to the University Hospitals by ambulance. He had a stent put into his heart because he had 100 percent blockage in one artery.

On that very day, there was a going-away party for Alan?s son Michael Miller, who was about to leave with the 133

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Infantry for Afghanistan. Alan was released from the hospital in time to bid farewell to his son when he left two days later.

Tiffany has battled one malady after another, but in November of that year it was her mother who was given a startling diagnosis. On the day before Thanksgiving, Kathy learned she had skin cancer. She had an operation later that winter to remove the cancer. She thought she was cancer-free but earlier this spring she found out her cancer had returned. She would have to begin chemotherapy and radiation treatments at the University Hospitals.

The second cancer diagnosis was almost more than Kathy could bear.

?My daughter would get up every morning and say, ?I should be the one with the cancer,?? said Kathy. ?She was used to being sick, but not to her mother being sick.?

Kathy commuted to Iowa City for the first two weeks of treatment. She appealed to her friends and family for financial help. Her mother and stepfather lent Kathy their mobile home so she wouldn?t have to drive from Washington to Iowa City for each treatment. This is her first week of living in the mobile home, which is parked near the Coralville Lake. Private donations pay for her rent and her utility connection at the park.

?It is so much easier to come and go from the campground to the hospital,? said Kathy.

Tiffany has joined her mother at the campground, and that has made her ordeal more tolerable.

?Now she gets up with a smile on her face,? said Kathy. ?She doesn?t worry about me. I?m able to do stuff with her, and give her the summer she deserves.?

Kathy is in her third week of chemotherapy and has three weeks of it remaining. She undergoes chemotherapy once a week, and her treatment lasts just over 3 ½ hours. She undergoes radiation five times a week, and each of those treatments lasts 15 minutes.

She was told the chemotherapy would make her nauseated and want to vomit and that the radiation would give her diarrhea. She took medication designed to alleviate those symptoms for the first few days of treatment. However, she said the symptoms were not as severe as she imagined and therefore stopped taking the medication. During her chemotherapy treatments, she sits next to people her age and they talk through the whole treatment. She sees patients younger than she is at the hospital who do not take the treatment as well.

Kathy said she is fatigued after the treatments, but is able to lead an active lifestyle nevertheless. She and Tiffany go to the beach, go on nature walks, and do everything else mothers and daughters do together.

?I play computer games with her,? said Kathy. ?We watch movies together, and we like to look for fossil rocks in the reservoir. I?m not going to take this lying down. I have a 13-year-old daughter who needs a mother. I?m pushing myself. I can?t afford to be ill, for her sake.?