Max Chance. The Moose Lives.

Maxwell Chance McBride was born 10 weeks early. His mom had been diagnosed with Preeclampsia and HELLP after a routine ultrasound showed an anomaly. We were asked to walk below/across 611 and the diagnosis was made in labor and delivery. Consequently, we had to have an emergency C-section. Me, Katie, and Kelly (Katie’s twin) sat there nervous as the OR was prepared. We were panicked. Katie didn’t even have her baby shower yet. My truck was still at work. My sneakers were still all in his room around the crib and bureau. His were too, including his infrared Air Max 90s - 1 of 6 pairs that both me and him owned. They were our favorite. Katie and Kelly had just put his animal decals on the wall. What the heck was happening? I needed to break the tension and show confidence. Throughout the pregnancy, I would play songs for Max on his mom's belly. Ben Kweller, Wilco, Chance the Rapper. These songs sandwiched my important life lesson speeches like:

1) The proper ranking of the Rocky movies
2) Why Goonies should replace any need to watch Sesame Street

His mom would karaoke for him in the car on her drive to work. I am a huge dork so I blast my headphones before I have to lead a meeting to fire myself up. I quickly switched to one of his Mom's favorite Pearl Jam songs Given To Fly on my iPhone and placed it by Max's ears. I was going to pump her and Max up for the surgery. We jammed until they wheeled Katie out. It worked. Mom and Max killed the delivery. I held Katie's hand and close-talked her behind a great and powerful Oz curtain as she shook from the medicine. Max came out 13 minutes later at 6:04 PM. Perfect to us. From there, we just got bad news after good news after bad news. A runaway roller coaster navigated by varying bed side manners. His esophagus was somehow not connected to his stomach. His trachea was somehow connected to his stomach. Wait forget all that - that's not it - he's fine. Wait yes it is IT actually. Huh? It was a fixable birth defect (EA/TEF) that I had never heard of before. I only thought we had to worry about him staying in a NICU and breathing correctly on his own (which he did immediately). So me and Max took an ambulance ride down to CHOP through the zoo, a football draft, and a relay event. Max stiff-armed a lion, shook a college linebacker, and jumped a hurdle with me on his back (with tears in my eyes). When I held him before his first surgery, he told new dad jokes to make me comfortable and put me at ease. He absolutely HAD this. He had all this under control for him, for mommy, for me, for the billion family members inhabiting the ronald mcdonald family waiting room. Unfortunately, a second surgery became necessary - a heart surgery - this time hours after his 2 lbs 4 oz body had endured the initial surgery. Max eventually passed away after this surgery in front of me and Katie but not before he assured me that he would be OK and that he actually had in fact completed his Ironman transition during the surgery. "Check out this arc reactor, Dad. With his thing, I can make a ton of people feel better. Sick kids, sick moms. I’ll even use it to comfort our whole family who might feel depressed about me or anything else. I promise."

I used a lot of the concepts above in Max’s memorial t-shirt, which is heavily rooted in artwork created by Pat Moser of Glenside tattoos:

• the kicks I share with him - the pair he is buried with (swoosh left out for copyright reasons)
• the pump-up song
• his Ironman arc reactor heart
• his pound for pound championship status.

The moose comes from the nickname that I gave him early in the pregnancy (shoutout Spurs #19). Our "Moose" was loved and admired and still is now. It is our hope that these t shirts help cement Max as the badass cutie that he was. We are proud of him and we want to remind him of that everyday. With this second fundraiser, I want to use him and the strength he inspires to help women who develop preeclampsia and HELLP during pregnancy or post partum (Katie was rushed back to hospital again for a second stay a couple days after Max's passing). I want him to help Doctors find a preeclampsia cure while also helping make pregnant women aware of the symptoms they should sound alarm bells about. Most importantly, I want him to do all this for his mommy because I know he would have done anything for her. Please help us honor our Moose. #MAXSTRONG