Update 3/8/09

We've had a busy, yet long couple of days here at the hospital. Not much progress has been made by our little guy, but we still have plenty of good and bad news to share. I'll start with the bad news since it's always nicer to end with something good.

Bad news:
#1 - As of yesterday Beckham's platelets dropped from 10 to 5. This was a frustrating turn, but not completely unexpected. When labs were re-drawn this morning, they had once again dropped to 4. Beck is really starting to show the drop with so much petechiae, that it looks like millions of bloody freckles covering his whole body. He has also started to bleed excessively when he has blood draws. Just this morning he had a finger poke blood draw that took him a half an hour to stop bleeding from. This is a huge concern, and makes it vital that week keep him from injuring himself, causing more bruises or cuts. If he does start to bleed excessively he will have to be given a platelet transfusion to stop the bleeding. The transfusion will only boost his levels for only a couple of hours before they are 'eaten' up by the rest of his body.

#2 - One of Beckham's test results checking for anti-bodies from blood thinners came back negative this morning. When his cardiologists told the hemotologist about this, he was not surprised because that test is not very 'sensitive' to the anti-bodies. The other test checking for anti-bodies will not come back until the end of the week. I sure hope it comes back positive. The cardiologists did say this morning that with Beck's low platelet count, low hemoglobin, and low white blood count, there might be something else that is causing all of this. His hematologist on the other hand is very confident that Beckham has heprin-induced thrombocytopenia. Hopefully we will know more tomorrow, and hopefully his platelets will have risen some. Hopefully.

The good news:
#1 - Beckham is happier, more active, and eating better than he has in the last couple of months. If he didn't look so bad, you would never know that something was wrong with him. He is even saying new words such as "thank you" and "bite." He is so active that I am pulling my hair out trying to keep him entertained in a small hospital room. I was finally given the clearance to take him out of the room and for a walk in a stroller. This has been so great, except for the constant stares from people, wondering if my child was in a horrible car accident or is being abused because of his bruising. I love when they give him this pitied look, which Beck responds to with an emphatic "hi there." They then have no idea how to respond, and they smile, wave, start to walk away, to which Beck again responds with another emphatic "bye there." It's super cute.

#2 - Beck also had an IV placed this morning. It took only one poke, draws blood, and does not seem to bug him. Yeah! To bad it's on his head and has to be held on with a netted hat. The hat just makes him look more like an abused, car accident patient.

#3 - Nate passed his nursing boards! Wait to go Nate. You're a rock star in our book.

Again, the game plan is still to stay in the hospital until his platelets come back up. We are sure praying hard for that to happen. It needs to happen soon for this kiddos sake because he is going crazy in this hospital. As strange as it sounds, it was so much easier to take care of him when he has the Rotivirus and Pseudomonas bacteria because he just laid around. It's not easy to take care of a crazy 19 month old that is super sick and does not even know it!

Oh, one more thing. Just thought I'd mention a great "Kim" moment of the night: As I changed Beckham's stinky diaper tonight, put away his wipes, and threw out his diaper, I noticed that his Desitin tube was missing. I searched everywhere for it, even in the garbage, to no avail. About a half hour later I picked Beckham up and stuck him on my lap and noticed a huge lump in the leg of his pajamas. I freaked out, thinking that this was a blood clot (because he had been favoring that leg a few minutes earlier), and as soon as I unzipped his PJ's, the Desitin tube fell out. Duh Kim. We really need to get out of this place is all I can say!

We'll continue to keep you posted as always!
-Beckham and Fam