An amazing fright....please read!

The last couple of weeks have been filled with a fair amount of stress as the hustle and bustle of getting our house ready to rent, packing for our move to Iowa City, and all of our other normal family obligations, have consumed our time, thoughts, and money. Through all of this we have felt an overwhelming urge to scream "can't we have a break?" or "are you serious?" when another thing goes wrong. But, luckily, we have been comforted and fueled by a knowledge that this will all end, that this will all be over soon, and that we have something so much bigger, so much more important, so exciting, and so....umm....amazingly frightening, coming up for our family.

In less than two weeks we will travel as a family to Madison, WI, where Beckham will compete (well, kiddie compete) in the Transplant Olympic Games, and where we will, for the first time, come face to face with the donor family of Beckham's heart, the Campbell's.

About a month ago I was able to speak to Holly - the donor mom of Beckham's heart - for the first time on the phone. I don't have the proper words to say how amazing and neat our conversation was, so the best word that I can use to describe it is "special." And boy was it special! Most of the conversation was filled with tears, which was to be expected (we are females!), but the best part was that Beckham was able to get on the phone and say a happy "hi Ha-wee (Holly)," and "hi Handy (Andy)," to both of the donor parents. It was awesome, to say the least!

Holly has been chosen to sing at the Opening Ceremonies for the Transplant Olympic Games, where they would like Beckham to be on stage while she does so (talk about a HUGE tear jerker). The song she has chosen is the last song that she sang to Jake before he was taken to give his precious life saving gifts, and a song that I used to sing to Beckham right after his transplant to comfort him through his pain episodes and drug withdrawals (we did not know before that we sang the same song to our sons). Please view the link to her video submission below. I hope it touches your heart as much as it has touched ours.

We can't wait to meet you, Campbell's! And while we know this is only the beginning of our personal meetings, I have come to a complete knowledge that our little family is so blessed and so changed to have your family as part of our lives, not only because you gave us the precious gift of Jake's heart that beats so strong in Beck's chest, but because you have given us a complete view of what this life is all about - love, endurance, acceptance, patience, and joy.

Beckham update

It's about time that I posted a "Beckham update" and let you all know how this little guy is doing. So to get right to the point, Beck is doing great....but it has sure taken a lot of time and a lot of meds to get to this point. I'll explain.

After Beckham finished his 4 weeks of Rituxin, we (and his hematologist) were hoping to see much less bruising and some signs that the med had done its job. Unfortunately, no such luck. In fact, his bruising was worsening, and to make matters worse, his iron levels were dropping like crazy. It was decided at that point to give Beck a couple more weeks to respond to the Rituxin, but in the meantime, receive 4 weeks of IV iron.

After 3 weeks of iron, Beck's iron levels had risen, but he looked terrible, with bruises from head to toe, and he was also starting to have trouble with bleeding from his PICC line (not a good sign). When I took him into hematology later that week (this was 3 weeks ago), it was decided to put Beckham back on steroids (boo) and to give him a dose of IVIG. Luckily, the steroid dose was only a 4 day "blast" - 4 days of a super duper high steroids - instead of the normal 2 to 8 week steroid protocol. This meant less moodiness and no weight gain!

After the steroid infusion, Beckham, seemed to respond well....until I decided to play "nurse" and mess with his PICC line, causing it to bleed like crazy and almost come completely out of his arm (seriously, I am mom of the century). This required me to run him into Nate's ER, where Nate tried desperately to save his PICC line, but we eventually had to take him back to Blank Children's Hospital for a new line placed (which they were luckily able to get in the same hole as his previous one - meaning no extra pokes!). Awesome, Kim, awesome!

The great news is that as of this week, Beckham, is finally showing signs of having his antibody under control. His bruising is very minimal and he is helmet-less! Yeah! He is, however, super immuno suppressed, and we are being as careful as always. Let's hope to keep this kiddo healthy so we can make our big move to Iowa City, and for our trip in a few weeks to the Transplant Olympic games, where we are going to meet the amazing donor family of Beck's heart. I guess that means lots of sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer!

Until then....
-Beckham & Co.

Happy Birthday, Gwen!

My beautiful, little girl recently turned 4....well, that is if you count June 18th as "recently." I know, I know - I am way behind on posts. Things are a little crazy in the Scadlock household with fixing up our place to rent, packing to move, taking Beck to his endless hospital appointments each week, and having to be on semi bed rest because I have Placenta Previa. Yikes! We're all doing great though, and I promise that I will update soon with a summary of the last couple of weeks. But for now, I have to do a little shout out to my 4 year old princess.

How did my little Gwen grow up so fast? I still remember when she was born and how excited we were to finally have a baby of our own. Nate, especially, was in heaven - he was able to sit in the hospital, holding his new born daughter, and watch the World Cup at the same time. To him, that was Heaven (such a typical male!). And now, 4 years later, she still brings us just as much excitement and joy.

Here's a couple pictures of her little party (I tried to upload a video of the party, but Blogger hates me right now and is not letting me. Sorry!).

Gwen's Scooby Doo cake. She loves Scooby Doo!

Gwen blowing out the candles (with a little help from Beckham!).

We love you, Gwen! Thanks for being ours. You have no idea how much you have blessed us with in your four years of life!