Take a good look at my son.  I mean, really look at him.  He looks like a typical little boy, doesn't he?  I mean, he has big, blue eyes.  A thatch of thick, light blonde hair that is like mine: wavy.  Freckles sprinkled on his nose and cheeks.  A winning smile.  Handsome, isn't he?

I happen to think so.  I also know that Evan Nathaniel is not like most boys.  

For one thing, he has severe allergies.  He is allergic to just about anything: most foods.  Plants.  Trees.  Pollens of numerous kinds.  Animals (their fur or dander).   Most medications.  Even water and diect sunlight.  He has to stay in during the day (especially on sunny, warm or hot days) and at night he can play for a few hours before pollen or other ingredients in the air drive him inside because he is once again gasping for breath.  Evan has severe, uncontrolled bronchial asthma.

Another thing, Evan also can't eat like you or I can.  He is fed through a tube in his belly (or by IVs); most foods (especially processed foods) make him violently sick, so sick, in fact, he ends up in the emergency room in a full anaphylactic crisis.  Time is of the essence: it Evan's face, neck, or throat swell and big, pink hives bust out all over and he starts coughing and/or gasping for air, it's time to get him to the ER, fast, if Evan is to have any chance to survive.

At night he has to be on oxygen.  His beathing is often worse at night.

The medication and foods he gets are carefully screened and checked before we can even THINK of giving it to him.  We don't want to risk our son's health any more than what it already is.  We are constantly in close contact with his doctors and specialists to ensure that whatever he gets in his feeding tube (or IV's) won't kill or poison him.  It is a neverending, ongoing battle a lot of the time and sometimes I wish Evan would just die, so he wouldn't have to suffer any more.  

Evan is only eight years old, but he's been through so much more than adults twice or three times his age.  Yet despite all the heartbreak, Evan is a delightfully happy child who loves to play, romp around, tease his little sister Payton (she's four), and watch "The Transformers" or "The X-Men" on television.  He loves to play with his action figures and wants to join the military when he is old enough.

Well, I hate to run, but it's time to give Evan his latest round of medications and give him his snack (PediaSure, his nutrition snack, via his G-tube).  I will write in here again with another update soon; until then, this is Colyer Patterson saying so long!  Keep my boy in your prayers; pray that something can be done, so he can have a more enjoyable life where he can go outside and play just like any other eight-year-old boy!  Thanks in advance!

Colyer, dad to Ethan (and also Payton, who is, by the way, perfectly healthy).

P.S.: When Ethan comes in contact with water, he gets big, painful blisters and it looks like as if he has been burned.  It takes a long time for him to heal from these blisters.  It is a very rare thing; very few people are actually allergic to water, but there are a few who are.  And my son happens to be one of them.