Update 2/19/09

I liked Nate's title of the last post of "Rotivirus 2, Scadlock's 0," because now it's up to Rotivirus 3, Scadlock's 0 (bummer). Yeah, that's right, Rotivirus has claimed another victim in our family; little Gwen now is chucking and squirting out of both ends. What can I say but when it rains it pours! At least I am feeling much better and am hoping that Gwen will be back to her normal crazy self tomorrow. Just make sure to steer clear of our family for a while. I am not going to spread this nasty bug on!

Now for an update on Beck:
Nate forgot to add the updates on Beckham in his post yesterday so I will try to summarize up both of the last days.

After reaching smoking high temperatures where Beckham had to be given Ibuprofen twice (transplant patients are not supposed to have Ibuprofen), his fever has finally broken after 8 days. His vomiting has stopped (or lessened) as well and if we could only get his diarrhea to do the same then we would be on our way out of here (maybe). I wish I could say that he was acting better, but the truth is that he is lethargic, grumpy, super clingy (he has to ALWAYS be held...secretly I love it!), and sleeps most of the time. I remember this stage when he had the Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease and know that it takes his body a long time to heal. I will be patient.

Beck's blood culture from Monday still had not re-grown the Pseudomonas bacteria after 48 hours (not sure if that is the same today). This is still very uplifting news, but the doctors tell me that it will take a full five days to see if it is truly gone from his blood. The doctors also swabbed his circumcision site and that did grow the Pseudomonas bacteria. What this means is that the bacteria is on his skin and maybe it gives us the answer to how he got it in his blood in the first place. Nate and I are kicking ourselves right now for getting the circumcision/hydrocele surgery. We were doing the circumcision so that it would not be a source of infection for Beckham. Guess we were wrong.

Beck also had a PICC line put in his arm today. I think my heart stopped when they told me that he was going to the "Cath Lab," but they quickly explained that it was for a PICC line. Whew! When the Cardiologist put the line in his left arm (the side that was effected by his stroke) his veins were blocked off and he had to use a wire to drill through the blockage. Yuck! Because of this blockage, Beck has to go back on the Lovenox shots in his legs twice a day. Double yuck! The cardiologist passed the news of Beck's blockage off to the neurologist (who happens to be his wife) and she came to see Beckham later. Beck's neurologist is a tiny, 100 lbs, sweet woman who scares the crap out of me...in the sense that I am always scared that she is going to give me bad news. She will keep checking on him, but for now she is alright with his behavior, but still convinced that he has some sort of clotting disorder.

Another fun adventure of the day is that Beckham's Tacro or Prograf (anti-rejection med) level has decided to shoot up to <30. His level is supposed to stay between 6-10, and for some reason a virus makes is shoot up, thus making him super immuno suppressed and unable to properly fight off this virus and infection with the little immune system he has. For now they will lower his dose a great deal and also take him off of the Valcyte he takes for CMV. His CMV might come back because of this, but the other illnesses are more important to get rid of.

I think that is it for the update on Beck. I'll let you know if there is more. As of now they are deciding if they want to send him back to Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines to finish out his antibiotic's (once he is feeling a little better) or if they want to just send him home with the PICC line and Nate and I can take care of it ourselves. Truthfully, I am okay with either. I just don't want to go back to the hospital once we are home.

I know that the last 6 months we have had a lot of "update" posts and a lot with not-so-good news. I know it is not so easy to read and trust me it is not easy to write. I know that our little guy and the rest of our family has been through so much. And I know that it seems never ending. But in the midst of it all is an amazing inspiring story and a life that has touched and changed each of us for the good. I know it's been hard, but I know that it has been worth every second. Beckham is worth every bit of suffering that we have endured. Heavenly Father loves him, we love him, and you love him.

Take care!
-Beck & fam