A tale of a press conference, the US Secretary, and a whole load of crap

With Beckham we have had on occasion the opportunity to speak at a few events in order to promote Organ Donation and support the people that did so much for us and our little guy. It is a way in which we can "pay it forward" and show our gratitude. Well, today we had the opportunity to speak at an event headlined by the ex-Governor of Utah and present US Secretary Mike Leavitt. It was a conference used to promote the utilization of electronic systems in the health care industry and the importance of electronic health records.

The event ended up being a bit different than we expected. We arrived at Des Moines University to see three suburbans surrounding a car. We walked by and there were still guys in the suburbans, but not in the car. As we walked in we saw various 'suits' walking around hurriedly and then a bunch of Secret Service guys running around. I have to admit I didn't expect that for the US Secretary of Health and Human Services. We asked where Leavitt was and were told that when he came in that he was immediately escorted into a little room with 'key-card' only access. There was a guy with the little mic in ear guarding it. So we sat and waited. A few minutes later a woman escorted us into our own room close to the conference auditorium where we could wait with Beckham.

We waited a while and an occasional person popped in to tell us "Secretary Leavitt will be here in 20 minutes" then 10, 5, a few, etc. At about the 5 to 10 minutes Kim smelt a familiar odor and handed Beckham to me. Problem is that when I went to change him we found an explosion of sorts. It reached from the middle of his back down to his 'now green' shoes (no kidding). And it left a strong 'virus-enhanced' stench. Of course it had to happen today. Kim took his pants to the restroom to do a quick clean up job and I kept my efforts on stinker. I cleaned him up the best I could, but the only real way to hide his new look was to wrap his blanket under his armpits and let it drape down. Kim got back with his un-salvageable pants at about the same time a Secret Service guy poked his head in to say "Secretary Leavitt will be here in 30 seconds". At that same time some other political representatives began filtering in. More than one had that look on their face...yeah that stink look that the slight explosion of a baby in a small room can cause. Kim tried very hard to get the smell out by using hand sanitizer on everything, but that smell did not want to leave. It was all we could do to keep from laughing as next USS Leavitt came in and shook our hands. He was nice and we just talked about Utah for a couple of minutes before being escorted into the conference.

We went in and first an old Governor of Iowa and apparent buddy of Leavitt spoke and then the Secretary himself took his turn. The first five minutes of each speech involved professing their respective man-crushes upon each other...don't you love the customary butt-kissing of politics. Then I spoke in order to add a personal touch to the statistics and logistics that had been previously discussed. During this time I was holding Beckham...blanket kilt and all...fortunately it never dropped to expose his less the white onesie.

Overall it was a good experience...blow out and all. Beckham just doesn't seem to have much respect for politicians.

Sorry that we do not have any pictures of our event. We of course forgot to bring our camera. Go figure!

Nate, Kim, Gwen and stinky boy Beck

Update 1/19/08

We visited the GI doctor at the beginning of January to hopefully find a reason for Beckham's bloody stools. We had three different theories by three different doctors (CMV, medication side effect, and lactose intolerance) and we just wanted to know which one or if all of them were the cause. The GI doctor quickly ruled out lactose intolerance because when Beck initially went into the ER at Thanksgiving his tests came back showing that his body had no allergies and irronically when tests were run a couple of weeks later (when he was switched to the soy formula) they showed that he had developed allergies from the new formula. No wonder he hated it. The doctor also ruled out CMV as the cause for the blood. His theory was that he had bleeding nodes inside his colon. If this was the case then it was not anything serious to worry about. The doctor wanted to do a sygmoidoscopy (placing a small scope inside the first 6 inches of the colon...yuck!) to make sure that this was the cause. Beck had the sygmoidoscopy on 1/14/08. They did not sedate Beckham for the procedure because of his age and because it was not a serious procedure. I am sure that this was very uncomfortable for him because you should have seen his face and the size of his tears when they brought him back to us. Poor little guy! The procedure showed that Beck had a perfectly normal colon with no bleeding nodes. This was good news. I guess that medication side effects in the cause for the blood after all.

On 1/11/08 we made a trip to Iowa City. This trip was not for a doctor appointment but for an award ceremony for the University of Iowa donor team and critical care team. The team received this award because of their success rate of families deciding to donate their loved ones organs. To receive the award a hospital has to have a success rate above 75%. The University of Iowa team has an 81% rate. That is incredible! Our family was asked to come and tell Beckham's story and personally thank the donor and critical care team. We felt that this was a privilege because this was the least that we could do to thank the team that helped save our sons life. A man also spoke who had a sister that passed away and his family made the decision to donate her organs. This was such a neat thing for us to meet a member of a family who had chosen to donate life. This man was so incredible and gracious. Since his sisters passing he has become an spokesperson for the Iowa Donor organization. We feel so blessed with the gift of Beckham's heart. We cannot express our gratitude in the least amount to the family who donated their child's organ during a time of their morning. We have been given a gift that is priceless and we will be eternally indebted to the donor family, the Iowa Donor organization and the team of doctors and medical staff who work so hard to save our baby Beckham's life. The award ceremony was featured in the local Iowa City News and paper. Please click below to view the news clip and newspaper article. Don't be alarmed because the news clip has some technical difficulties and freezes half way through...at least it does not freeze before it shows Beckham's piece!

Iowa City Donor News Clip

Iowa City Donor News Article

Nate came home from work on 1/14/08 with a bald head. This was very unexpected but for a very noble cause. Some very good friends of ours (The Hancocks) have a three year old son Elijah who has just been diagnosed with Leukemia. Elijah is a very sick little boy and could use all of the prayers we can give him. Nate along with Elijah's father, two uncles and another family friend decided to shave their heads in support of Elijah's recent hair loss. Please read about his story at Elijah's blog .

Beckham continues to do very well. He is a sweet, calm and happy child. I know that we have mentioned this before, but you would be shocked at how good he is. He loves to sit and watch all of us especially Gwen. The only thing that has been an issue lately is getting his Tacro level in the appropriate range. He is growing so fast that his Tacro needs to be adjusted quite frequently. Beckham is in the 12% of weight, but the 70% of height. He is definitely a Scadlock (tall and skinny). Gwen is also doing well and has three times tried crawling out of her crib. Ahhh! I was not ready for this. I am so scared to put her in a bed because she is so busy. I know that she will be out of that thing the moment we put her down for bed at night. We knew that we were going to get to this stage...we just did not want it to happen yet. I guess that it is for the best because now we can put Beckham in the crib.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you again to everyone that has reached out in anyway to our family through out this 5 1/2 month period. Our hearts are so full of gratitude.

Love,

Kim, bald Nate, Gwen and Beck

Tadhg Michael Kilgore

A sweet family in the University of Iowa PICU lost their little baby boy last night. Tadhg (pronounced like tiger without the "er") Michael Kilgore was on the heart transplant waiting list for over three months. He never received the precious gift of a new heart, but he showed what an amazing spirit he had to fight and hang on for as long as he did. The Kilgore's situation was so similar to ours. Just like with Beckham they had no idea that there son had a heart condition prior to birth. They also have a beautiful daughter just like Gwen.

We feel so fortunate to have been in contact with this family and to have been in the same room as little Tadhg. Please pray for this little family. You can read about his incredible life at Tadhg's blog

-Kim