{"id":424,"date":"2026-06-02T22:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T22:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/?p=424"},"modified":"2026-06-04T23:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:38:43","slug":"a-hug-a-little-attitude-and-a-lot-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/2026\/06\/02\/a-hug-a-little-attitude-and-a-lot-of-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"A hug, a little attitude, and a lot of hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A few new updates on Evelyn. Yesterday, Evelyn developed another GI bleed and passed a significant amount of blood. It&#8217;s caused her quite a bit of pain, and the team restarted Protonix, stopped her feeds through her NG tube, and significantly reduced her blood thinner to help slow the bleeding. She ended up needing a unit of blood given back to her.The difficult part is that reducing her blood thinner increases the risk of clotting in her LVAD circuit. One of the doctors explained it in a way that made sense to me: right now, they&#8217;re willing to risk a machine failing before they risk Evelyn&#8217;s body failing. If a clot develops in the LVAD circuit, they can replace tubing and components. Their priority is helping her body heal.Even with this setback, Evelyn continues to amaze us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She is still on the breathing tube, but with the help of 5 people Evelyn was able to sit up and give me a hug. It was one of the best moments we&#8217;ve had in a long time. When we asked if she wanted to lie back down, she shook her head no. She was comfortable, enjoying being upright, and wanted to stay there.I&#8217;m so incredibly proud of my daughter.We&#8217;re also seeing more and more of her personality shine through. She raised her fist at the GI doctor when she was mad, has been swatting people away when she&#8217;s had enough, and is letting us know when she needs suctioning after coughing. Those may seem like small things, but to us they are huge victories. They are reminders that our strong, stubborn, determined girl is still fighting.Please continue to keep Evelyn in your thoughts and prayers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We still have a long road ahead, but today we got a hug, a little attitude, and a lot of hope. \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491156637-610x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-419\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491156637-610x1024.jpg 610w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491156637-179x300.jpg 179w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491156637-768x1289.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491156637-915x1536.jpg 915w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491156637.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491154472-576x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491154472-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491154472-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491154472-768x1365.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491154472-864x1536.jpg 864w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6643\/2026\/06\/FB_IMG_1780491154472.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-you-can-help\">How You Can Help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re getting ready for the big fundraiser garage sale for COTA for Evelyn\u2019s Heart starting next Thursday! Thank you to everyone who has donated items to the garage sale!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>THURSDAY MORNING JUNE 4th: Join us for coffee and donuts available for donation to COTA for Evelyn\u2019s Heart and shop our amazing items from our community!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Garage Sale Details:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>June 4-6<br>Location: 7040 Eagle Trail, Centerville, MN<br>Time: Thurs. and Fri. 8am to 5pm<br>Sat. 8am to 12pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wl.donorperfect.net\/weblink\/weblink.aspx?name=cota&amp;id=27&amp;dpgid=COTAforEvelynsHeart&amp;dpgsol=PTOL&amp;dpg_frname=Evelyn+Otto\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click Here to Donate Now<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bonfire.com\/cota-for-evelyns-heart\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Get your &#8220;Hearts for Evelyn&#8221; T-Shirt<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Hearts-for-Evelyn\/61567380579056\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Join our &#8220;Hearts for Evelyn&#8221; Facebook Group<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What makes our partnership with COTA so great is that they will be with Evelyn throughout her lifetime. Every dollar donated to COTA in honor of Evelyn goes to transplant-related expenses. Thank you for being here with us for Evelyn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few new updates on Evelyn. Yesterday, Evelyn developed another GI bleed and passed a significant amount of blood. It&#8217;s caused her quite a bit of pain, and the team restarted Protonix, stopped her feeds through her NG tube, and significantly reduced her blood thinner to help slow the bleeding. She ended up needing a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2374,"featured_media":419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A hug, a little attitude, and a lot of hope - COTA for Evelyn&#039;s Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforevelynsheart\/2026\/06\/02\/a-hug-a-little-attitude-and-a-lot-of-hope\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A hug, a little attitude, and a lot of hope\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few new updates on Evelyn. Yesterday, Evelyn developed another GI bleed and passed a significant amount of blood. It&#8217;s caused her quite a bit of pain, and the team restarted Protonix, stopped her feeds through her NG tube, and significantly reduced her blood thinner to help slow the bleeding. 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