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