Update (10-25-07)

Back in the hospital....but not for long!

Yes, that is right, Beckham is back in the hospital. The good news is that it is not serious and he should be released later today (whew!!). The bad news is that we are back at Mercy Medical Center (nothing against the hospital itself or the staff) where Beckham was transferred to on the day he was born. This hospital brings back many painful memories of when Beckham was so sick and we did not know if he was going to live. At least this time we can make new positive memories.

Now to the reason for Beck's hospitalization. Beckham is currently on three medications. Two of the meds suppress his immune system and the other is for blood pressure. His main immuno suppressant medication Tacromulus (Prograf), is a very strong medication that needs to remain at a certain level. His levels are checked often and have been very stable and have not needed to be adjusted since he was released from the hospital in September. Beckham's level was checked on Monday and it was so low that it did not even register. His Tacro dose was doubled that night and his nurse would check his level again on Wednesday. Wednesday came, level was checked, and the same thing...level so low that it would not register. This immediately concerned Beckham's doctors and Beckham was admitted to the hospital that night. He was given a very large dose of Tacro and many tests were run to make sure that he did not have any signs of rejection. His Tacro level was checked again this morning (at 4:30 AM I might add) and his level had risen to an acceptable range. His tests also came back and he has no apparent forms of rejection. This is GREAT news for us!!

Our thought and the doctors thought for the reason for Beckham's low Tacro level is that he received a bad Tacro prescription. Two weeks ago I refilled Beckham's Tacro at a pharmacy here in Des Moines. This was a very frustrating task because Tacro is not a common medication carried by pharmacies and it is also a "compound" medication and only certain pharmacies make compound prescriptions. I had to go to three different pharmacies before I found one that would be able to fill it. We think that when the prescription was mixed at the pharmacy the Tacro was left out. If this is the case than this is a very serious mistake. Tacro is Beckham's most important medicine and it is a medicine that he will take for the rest of his life. We are going to have the old bottle of Tacro tested at the University of Iowa Hospital when we go there next week. We will now fill Beck's Tacro at the hospital. I guess that I should have realized that something was up with his medication. Beck's symptoms were actually positive ones (ironically). Since he was started on Tacro he has had a constant diaper rash (I should probably call it open sores) and a serious case of thrush that comes back as soon as we treat it. These are both common side effects of Tacro in infants. Both of these symptoms mysteriously went away when I started him on the new dose of Tacro. Even though this was probably comforting to Beckham, he unfortunately should have these side effects. I am sure that if he could talk that he would tell us that he would rather have these effects then rejection.

Other than this, we are all doing great. Our biggest trial now is learning to cope with being inside in out home all day. Our home is starting to look like a prison (well not quite). Gwen is really struggling with this and frequently throws large fits to let us know that she is fed up. We are also keeping Gwen away from others at this time because of the risk of her catching something and then passing it on to Beckham. We are allowed to take Beck out in the open air, but sadly Iowa is not warm year round.



Thank you again to everyone who has reached out to our little family during this time. We are so blessed to have such incredible friends and family. I wish that I had a chance to hug each and everyone of you. If you are reading this than consider yourself hugged!

Love and thanks!
-Kim, Nate, Gwen and Beck

P.S - We were able to have professional pictures taken of Beck. Thanks Erica for taking such great pictures...and thanks for your patience while doing so (we know that Gwen was not the most cooperative!!).

Warning: Not for those with a weak stomach.

We have been pretty busy here with the Beckhamania of frequent visits to Iowa City and Des Moines area physicians, but the good news is that we leave every visit knowing that our kiddo is doing very well.

A few weeks ago we had the unique oppurtunity to view Beckham's old heart and we thought that we would show a couple of pictures that we took of the defective organ.

This first picture shows Baby Beck's old heart on the right compared to a normal heart, lungs, and trachea that are the correct size for a child the age Beckham was at the time of transplantation. As you can see there is almost no comparison in color or size. Beck's old heart is as large as the all the other organs combined and the darkened tissue on his heart is necrotic (in Greek necrosis = dead) cardiac tissue.

This next picture is a transverse view of the tricuspid (left) and Mitral (right) valve. Looking down into the left and right atria you can see the white hardened tissue of the stenotic valves. I originally was going to post pictures of a healthy Mitral valve along side his former organ, but I understand that everyone else might not enjoy this little anatomy lesson as much as I do. Suffice to say that those valves did not function as they should.

If nothing else seeing his old heart gives us a greater appreciation of the blessings that we have received over the last 2 months (and six days).

Again thank you for everything,
Nathan, Kimberly, Gwenyth, and Beckham