Update 3/6/09

Here we are again back in the hospital in Iowa City, but at least this time I was able to drive Beckham myself instead of traveling by ambulance. Beck is once again sick enough that he needs to be closer to the transplant team and other specialists and we cannot do that in Des Moines. Maybe our next step should just be moving to Iowa City...but I bet the moment we do, Beck will all the sudden not have any hospital visits. That's just his style.

After two days of blood draws (the first set clotted), Beck's labs came back with crazy low platelets. Crazy low meaning 10, which is almost nothing (a normal person should have a level of between 150-400). His platelets are even lower than they were around the time of his stroke and multiple blood clots. The thought behind his low platelets is that he has a condition called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia, that derived from his body building up antibodies to Heparin blood thinner products (Lovenox included)....meaning, after he was taken off of the blood thinners the first time, his body built up antibodies and is now rejecting them by lowering his platelets. Make sense? They are doing extensive testing in the morning to see if he tests positive for the antibodies. When I asked if this happens to other transplant patients, I was assured that this is common (more in adults that children though).

The dark purple bruises cover a lot of his body, but the small red dots (petechiae) cover his entire body (top of his head, thumbs, neck, back side, feet, so forth).

Right now Beck is actually super happy, super hungry, and super cute (minus the millions of bruises that completely cover his little body). I think this is the one thing that comforts me and the doctors right now. If he didn't look so bad (and he really looks bad), you would think that he was back to his normal self. The biggest obstacle right now is keeping him from getting anymore bruises. How are you supposed to do this with a toddler with a HUGE head (he got that from Nate's side of the family!), that continually loves to bang it on everything to express himself? Here is their solution:

If you can't tell, that is seizure bumper pads with pillows on top of them, covered with multiple blankets. This better help!

The plan is to be in the hospital until his platelets come up. How long this will take, we don't know. A platelet transfusion is not an option right now because if his body has antibodies, than he will probably just reject the platelets.

Keep our little man in your prayers. Thanks for all of your continued support. We have sure felt it!
-Family Scads