Beckham back in the PICU (10/26-27/2008)

(This picture was taken just an hour or so before he had the seizure, he has decided to take daddy's hat for his own. Daddy is happy for him to have it)

UPDATE: They have decided to go with the heparin therapy and infuse platelets to combat the thrombocytopenia he is been going up against.

Being displaced from Beckham's room as they insert a central line catheter and unable to relax I've decided to use 'blogger' as a temporary mental release and update everybody to our last 5 hours. Today is his first time back in the University of Iowa PICU since transplantation.

When Kim returned to Beckham's room after finishing the update below this one she found Beckham unresponsive to verbal or physical stimuli despite normal vital signs. She got a nurse and called me. Fortunately I was already in Iowa City working on a conference for Iowa nursing students.

When I arrived at the hospital I found Beckham in a similar state. His pupils reacted poorly and eyes weren't assimilated. The right eye looked straight forward while his left eyed strayed left. He was given Ativan and Benadryl and began to move again after about 15 minutes. After a while longer he again responded to physical stimuli and even began to move around a little bit without being prompted to do so.

At this time a head CT was ordered and the staff called the PICU for a room. I went with Beckham and the healthcare providers to the CT. There he even opened his eyes a little and by the time we got to the PICU he had said 'daddy' and his favorite word, 'bubbles'. Though his actions were still sluggish and he would 'phase out' periodically. The next step was MRI, where he became so active they had to snow him with Morphine and Versed for him to be still enough for the images to get done.

So what is going on? After pediatric neurology looked at both the CT and MRI they've determined that Beckham has a right-sided venous thrombosis (a blood clot on the right side of his brain in the veins). What caused all this scare in the first place was likely a seizure resulting from the aforementioned clot. For now the treatment will be heparin and close monitoring. Hopefully things were caught before any long term damage was done, though it is too early to tell. If the Heparin works than we could possibly avoid any need for surgery.

One thing that brings all the pieces together is that this could be the cause of the uncontrolled vomiting over the last three weeks or so. Every time we seemed close to solving the puzzle of Beckham's ailment we would come up short. This recent diagnosis would override those shortcoming as an 'umbrella' answer to his symptoms.

As for the rest the family? Well we are frazzled, but relieved to have a diagnosis at the same time.

We will try and update any future chages or events.

Thank you to everybody offering their prayers and support. Our Ward is holding a special Fast for him today (10/27).

Beckham & Co.