Catch-up #1 (Beck's Birthday)

I need to "catch-up" everyone on the other stuff we did this summer besides stay in the hospital. Beck is doing great right now so I am going to take advantage of it. First and foremost....

Happy Belated Birthday Beckham!

Our little rock star turned one year old on August 1, 2008.

We were fortunate enough to be in Utah over his birthday and celebrate with our families. Beck was lucky enough to get two birthday parties.

Eating cake at the Scadlock grandparent's home

Schaalje grandparents party

Here are some fun facts about Beckham:

1. Favorite word - "ball"
2. Interested in walking? - Not in the least bit!
3. Favorite foods - anything (this kid is an eater!)
4. # of teeth - 8
5. Favorite thing to do - steal stuff from his sister and then crawl away as fast as he can (it's pretty cute because Gwen is bawling and Beck is laughing).
6. Least favorite thing - getting blood draws. This happens quite frequently and he never gives up fighting it. You think that he would after all this time.

What a year this little guy has had. We are so grateful for everyday that we have had him with us. He is our little miracle baby and we love him more than we can express. Happy Birthday buddy!

Dylan's Dragon Walk

Hey all you Iowans...

A special Walk for the Help-A-Heart foundation is coming up on Saturday, September 27th at the Wagner Park Bandshell in Ankeny. Help-A-Heart is an amazing organization that helped us out so much while Beckham was in the hospital in Iowa City. This walk is in honor of Dylan Hooper, who passed on June 30, 2008. We met Dylan's family while we were in Iowa City for a follow-up appoinment for Beckham and instantly fell in love with them. Dylan was such a fighter and our hearts are broken for his family. Dylan's mom and another mom of a CHD baby founded the Help-A-Heart foundation to offer finacial assistance to familes with children who have CHD's, who have to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time. This event is such a great fundraiser for such an amazing foundation. If you are available please come! I would love to organize a team in honor of Beckham, but I don't know if that will be possible due to limited amount of time we have. If you are intersted in being on a team for Beckham please let me know. Below is race info:

Registration is a donation of $20 for an individual & $40 for a family including 1 or 2 T'shirts. You can pay an additional $10/shirt if you need more. The individual & team who are the highest fundraisers will receive special recognition the day of the walk. There is a limited supply of T-shirts so please pre-register to guarantee your shirt. Register for the race here.

The last news interview...

At the beginning of July we attended an award ceremony for Methodist and Blank Childrens Hospitals where they received and award for their success rate of families deciding to donate their loved ones organs. We did a post about this event in July but we could not post the news clip because it had not been posted to the news station website. We finally received the news clip. We think they did a pretty good job. Hope you enjoy it as well!

Update 8/27/08

Just a quick update to let everyone know that Beckham is finally home after his 17 day hospital visit. He is feeling and looking much better, but he still is having problems with eating and taking his meds by mouth. Because of this he was sent home with a NG tube. We are hoping to get that out soon. We wanted to upload a picture to this post so that you could see how much better he looks but our computer is acting up. I will post more later.
-Kim

Update 8/22/08

Beckham is still in the hospital but he is doing much better. His fever finally broke and that has helped him get a little energy back and helped his blood pressure get more stabilized. His sores on the outside of his face still look pretty bad but they do look much, much better. Beck was also able to get his IV out because he is now off of fluids and they have changed him from Morphine to Loritab. He is now getting paid meds "when needed" and we hope to ween him off of those soon. The biggest thing that is keeping him in the hospital is the fact that he still won't eat by mouth. Although the sores on the outside of his face look better, the sores on the inside of his mouth are still quite bad. I tried to feed him some bread and cheerios yesterday and as soon as he brought them to his mouth his whole body started to shake because it was so painful. He tried really hard to eat them, but soon after getting them in his mouth he spit them out with a mouth full of blood. Poor guy! He is still being fed NG and that is going...alright! He pulls the tube out every chance he gets. He is now getting Pediasure through the NG tube. They bumped up his calories from 27 to 30 and it has really made a difference. When we brought him into the hospital he weighted 19.13 lbs and now he weighs 21.4 lbs. He still is pretty swollen and I am sure some of his weight gain is due to that but he looks pretty cute with a little chub on him.

Beck has also started to smile again! His smiles are small and infrequent, but we will take what we can get. He is also getting pretty stir crazy at the hospital (that makes two of us) and he is ready to go home. We are hoping to get to go home this weekend. Hopefully that will happen. Nate starts school on Monday and my parents need to leave this weekend. I don't know if I can handle Gwen all day at the hospital if Beck does not get to go home. Lets pray that he starts to eat and can come home!

Thank you so much to everyone that has reached out to us during this time. I am so grateful for the meals that have been brought to me while Beck has been in the hospital. Hospital food is pretty nasty and expensive and it has been so nice to have a home cooked meal every day for lunch and dinner. We are so lucky to live in such a great place with such great people.

We will keep you all posted on Beck's progress. Keep him in your prayers. Please also keep this little sweetie in your prayers. Mia is a little newborn that was born with a similar heart defect as Beck and is waiting for a heart transplant. I have been able to get to know this family and they are amazing and have so much faith. Mia is such a cutie and such a fighter.

Thanks again for everything.
-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck

Update 8/17/08 & 1 year transplant anniversary

Greetings from the hospital (unfortunately). Actually now it is greetings from the PICU. We were on the general floor before, but Beckham is requiring a little more care and PICU seemed like the best alternative because the other alternative was being transferred to Iowa City. I love the hospital in Iowa City, but I really want to stay in Des Moines, especially while I still have other sick family members.

Beck is doing somewhat better. He has not spiked a fever at all today. He has had a fever for almost 10 days straight and not getting one today would be a big milestone. He sores are also looking better but worse at the same time. They now look like huge open sores instead of large blisters on his face. It seems like all you have to do is barely touch one of his sores and he is gushing blood (seriously). But I know that his sores have to get to this stage in order to get better. I did try for the first time in a week to feed him by mouth instead of the NG tube and it was very unsuccessful. I will give him a couple more days before I try again. Beck's ear infection also looks better. We switched him to a new med because of his allergic reaction and so far he has reacted just fine to it. His Tacro level is also a little more under control. His dose was cute in half to compensate for the large spike and his level has finally started to slowly drop to the normal range. Hopefully this drop in Tacro level will give him the immune system that he needs to fight off this virus.

The rest of us are also doing a lot better. Gwen is pretty much back to normal. My parent are here helping us while Beck is in the hospital and I am grateful that they will be able to watch Gwen so that Nate can continue to mend. Nate is doing a little better. His fevers have stopped, but he has a mouth full of sores to deal with. I think that he has a whole new appreciation for how sick the kids have been because he can barely talk and eat. I am also doing better. My brain was a little fried from having to be in the hospital again with Beck. It brought back a lot of frightening memories from last year. My mental state must be taking a beating because on Friday I went home to visit Nate and Gwen for a couple of hours. When I got back to the hospital I sat down on the chair next to Beckham's crib and looked down and I was wearing two different shoes. I don't know how I did not notice because they are not even the same height as each other. Oh well, that is very typical Kim behavior!

Beckham's 1 year anniversary of his transplant was yesterday. It was a very bitter sweet day for us. Bitter because we had to acknowledge the passing of the sweet baby who's heart went to our Beckham and also because we had to celebrate this anniversary in the hospital. But it was so sweet to celebrate the precious gift that gave our baby life. We don't know how to express our gratitude to the donor family for the choice that they made to donate their baby's organs....but all we can say is "thank you" for giving us the gift of life when a life was taken from you. Thank you for choosing to take a tragic, heart breaking event and turn it into a miracle. We love our little guy more than we can express and we treasure everyday we have with him and we owe it all to the donor family. We would also like to thank all of the hospital staff that worked so hard to save our little man. We sure love you all and can't even begin to express our gratitude to you.

What a year it's been eh? Truthfully, I know that we would not change anything. This year has changed us and made us completely different, better people and we are so grateful that we were chosen to be Beckham's parents.

-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck

Update 8/15/08

Beckham is still at the hospital and I don't see him coming home anytime soon (darn-it!). His body does not seem to want to let go of this virus and other problems seem to show up daily...sometimes hourly. The most important thing is that so far none of those new problems have to do with his heart (big sigh of relief). I think it is more my heart that is suffering because I can't stand watching him suffer so much. But I am his mother and that is my job!

Beck looks pretty awful right now. He is so swollen that he can't open his right eye and I am sure it will be that way for the left eye soon. His blisters are now in the "scab" stage and crack and bleed, but this is a good stage because it means that he is on the mend (from the blisters). He has also been diagnosed with an inner and outer right ear infection. They went to treat the infection with Rocephin and about an hour after he was given the med he had an allergic reaction to it and broke out in a huge rash. He was immediately given Benedryl to counteract the effects of the Rocephin. Because of a combination of the Hand, Foot and Mouth virus and the ear infection, Beck has completely refused to eat by mouth. An NG tube was put in his nose yet again. He has already pulled out 5 NG tubes previous to this one and I am sure that it will not be long before this one has the same feight. Beckham also is still having super high fevers. They are so high that he has been given Ibuprofen on top of the Tylenol. Transplant recipients are not supposed to have Ibuprofen, but we have been given permission to let him have it so that we can get his fevers under control. Another problem that has come to pass is that is Tacro level is totally out of whack. Beck's Tacro level needs to stay between 9-16. His level has been around 11.8 and because of this they lowered his dose by .6 so that he could have more of his immune system to fight off this virus. When they went to check on his Tacro level (thinking that it would come back low and they did not want it to be too low) it had for some reason risen to 30. Now we had to stop his Tacro until we can take another level and see if it has changed at all. All in all, Beck is remaining pretty comfortable. He is on a continuous Morphine drip (they had to change the Fentanyl to Morphine because the Fentanyl was making his blood pressure rise) and sleeps most of the time. I am just glad that he is too small to remember this when he is older. I wish that I could say the same for me.

I am not totally sure but I think that is about it to report on (I could be wrong, but it is 4:00 AM and I do not have to best frame of mind right now). I have been staying at the hospital pretty much non-stop with Beck because Nate also has the Hand, Foot and Mouth disease and is quite sick. He is a super hero and has been taking care of Gwen on top of being so sick. I saw them both for a little while yesterday and it was so nice to see that Gwen is getting better.

Thank you so much to all of the those that have reached out to us during this time. I hope that I have not offended anyone by telling them "no" to their offer for help. The only reason I have said no is because I do not want anyone to catch this virus from us. It is very contagious and obviously very miserable. Thank you to those that have not taken "no" for an answer and have come and visited and brought us meals and so forth. We also appreciate all of the prayers on our behalf. Please continue to keep Beckham in your prayers. He has a long way to go. He is super sick, but he is not as sick as he was at this time last year. Tomorrow with mark his 1 year anniversary of his heart transplant. I have such tender emotions at this time for all that we have been through this past year and for the sacrifice that was made so that my precious baby could still be here. I have so much gratitude for all that we have. Please also pray for the donor family of Beckham's heart. They are also going through an anniversary of loosing their sweet baby and I can only imagine their heart ache.

I am going to try and get some sleep now (good luck to me!). Thanks again!
-Kim

Update on our House of the Damned...

It has been a long time since I posted on here, but Kim is at the hospital and I've joined the kiddos in the ranks of the sick so I'm stepping up and doing the mommy-blogging.

Gwen just started tonight to feel a little bit better. She is still sick and her mouth sores are still really hurting her, but today I got the first smile and even laugh out of her since the day we took her to the ER last week. I have to admit though it was easier for a sick person to watch another sick person than one in pain, mad at the world, but starting to get some energy back. When she was sick and just rolled around like a slug she couldn't get into much trouble...I'm sure she'll come back with a vengeance.

Beck on the other hand isn't feeling so hot. He is still in the hospital and has become pretty lethargic. Because of the pain they have him on a continuous Fentanyl drip and that goes into an IV they had to start yesterday because of dehydration threat. His medical team in Iowa City has lowered the doses of his anti-rejection medications temporarily in order to give a boost to his immune system.

Kim is super-mom, as always, and hanging out with the little guy. Because of my state of being she was able to call our bishop tonight and he gave Beckham a blessing.

As for Kim and I we are trying to figure out what horrible acts we performed in past lives to warrant this sudden onslaught. I mean what could we have done? Were we Nazis? Mobsters? BYU Cougar fans? What?

We debated posting the picture of Beck, but decided it shows how bad this hand, foot, and mouth has been to him. Hopefully a few days from now he'll start to look like our little dude again.

(How Beckham looks when taken over by sickness...

...and this is a picture of Gwen when sick and in pain)

Update 8/9/08

Sorry for the lack of posts. We have just barely returned from our vacation in Utah. We had a great time, but we are thrilled to be home!

Upon being home just one day we had yet another hospital visit. The surprising part is that the visit was not for Beckham, but for Gwen. Gwen spiked a super duper high fever on Tuesday evening and by the middle of the night her fever had reached around 104, she was inconsolable and drooling like crazy (very odd). We thought that it was best to take her to the ER. Once at the hospital they discovered that her white blood count was elevated and she was diagnosed with the Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. This illness has only effected her mouth (so far). We can't say the same for Beckham because he woke up yesterday morning with a fever and sores all in his mouth and on the bottom of his feet. We had to take him to the ER last night and he was admitted to the hospital. He will hopefully be released soon if we can get his fever under control and he starts eating and taking his meds. They put an NG tube in him three times already and he has pulled out every single one. I can't say that I blame him because I would sure hate something up my nose. Let me tell you that this sickness is awful. The kids are just beside themselves in pain. Their mouths are covered with sores everywhere (literally). Poor little Gwen and Beck just want to cuddle all day (very, very odd...but really cute for Nate and I). We will be grateful when this is over. I am sure glad that Nate has not started school yet and that he can be home with me to help me with our sickies.

The rest of us are doing great. Beck had a cardiology appointment yesterday and his heart looks great. His Tacro level is also stable for the moment. He really is doing remarkable for what he has been through in his little life (can you believe that it has almost been a year since his transplant?). While we were in Utah we kept getting comments on how Beck looks like a normal, healthy, happy baby. Everyone expects a "sickly" looking child and that is just not even close of a way to describe our little guy.

That is all for now. I will post pictures from our vacation soon...well, as soon as my little kiddos get feeling better and Beck is out of the hospital.

-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck

Update 7/13/08

Good news, good news, and more good news!

Good news #1:
Beck did not throw up anymore and he did not have to go back into the hospital. He also did not lose as much weight as I thought from his stomach virus. Way to go little champ!

Good news #2:
Last week we attended an award ceremony for Methodist and Blank Childrens Hospitals. These hospitals received an award because of their success rate of families deciding to donate their loved ones organs (this was the same award that the University of Iowa received in January). To receive the award a hospital has to have a success rate above 75%. Nate was asked to speak at the ceremony. We love speaking at events like these so that we continually thank all those that saved Beck's life and honor the donor of his heart. The news came for this event and did a clip on Beckham. It was shown on the 5:00 PM news on Channel 13 (NBC). I have tried to find the clip on their website so that I can post it, but they must not have uploaded it. They are going to send us a DVD with the story. I will post it on the blog when it comes.

One really neat thing that happened at this ceremony was that we were able to meet a family who had tragically lost their child and made the unselfish decision to donate her organs. I have never talked to a family who donated the organs of their child before and this was...quite the experience(in a positive way)...to say the least. Both Nate and I were very emotional when we heard them talking during the ceremony and telling their daughter's story. The best part was talking to them after. I sat with the mother of the little girl and we both cried as she told me about her daughter and about why they decided to donate her organs. Their reason for donating was one that I had never thought about...and one that brought me more comfort than anything else has. She told me that when they lost her their hearts were so broken and they knew that if they donated her organs it would mean that other parents would not have to feel the same pain they were feeling. Isn't that incredible? I know how heart broken I was when I learned how sick Beck was and I never ever want someone else to feel that pain...but I did not lose him. I never had to feel that pain. He his here and healthy and happy. This is all because someone else made the unselfish decision to donate their child's organs. I am so grateful to have been able to talk to this family. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Good news #3:
We made it to Utah! Yeah! We are actually on a vacation...away from our home!

There may be a lack of posts while we are here. Thanks so much for all of your prayers while Beck was in the hospital last week.

-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck

Update 7/6/08

Just a quick update to let you all know that Beckham is out of the hospital. He was released on Friday afternoon. When I picked Nate and him up at the hospital on Friday Beckham was all smiles. I was hoping that this meant that he was all better and no more vomiting. Not the case. A couple of hours after we brought him home he got really cuddly and quiet (not a good sign) and as soon as we tried to feed him something it all came back out. The next morning we tried again to feed him something and he vomited it everywhere. I called the transplant team and his pediatrician and a prescription of Zofran was called in for him. I was also given the instructions that if he continued to vomit then he would need to be readmitted to the hospital. So far today there has been no fireworks (meaning there has been no fireworks coming out of Beck's mouth). Lets hope and pray that it stays that way. At least we know that we are in good hands at the Blank Children's Hospital. While Beck was in the hospital he was actually placed in the PICU. He was not ICU status, but since Nate works there and they had room, Beckham was able to be cared for there. The staff in the PICU was so sweet and caring to him. They referred to him as "our Beckham." Thank you Blank PICU staff!

We'll continue to keep you all posted on any changes. As for now, we have decided to postpone our Utah trip by at least a week. Let's hope my tooth that needs a root canal will hold out that long.

-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beckham

Update 7/3/08

All that I can say is that when it rains...it pours!! This has definitely not been the best couple of weeks here in the Scadlock household.

First:
Last week the summer sick bug visited. It started with little Gwen spiking a fever and getting congested. It soon passed on to Nate, me, and unfortunately little Beck. Beckham actually seemed to handle this cold like a baby with a normal immune system...meaning that he spiked a fever for a couple of days, had nasty congestion, and seemed to improve by the third day. I was feeling so excited because he always takes at least 3 weeks to get over the smallest cold. Nate also developed a huge mouth sore. It was so bad that he could barely talk (it actually sounded so funny. He was so mad that I kept making fun of him). He had to give a presentation at work and had to try and talk through the whole thing like a normal person. What a trooper!

Second:
I went to the dentist on Monday to get a cavity filled (one of three that I have to get filled in the next two weeks). While drilling the tooth the dentist saw that the cavity spread all the way to the nerve and gave me two options to fix that and they were to either have the tooth pulled or get a root canal. I opted to get the root canal and was then told that Medicaid will not pay for a root canal on a back tooth, plus the tooth would also need a crown which Medicaid would also not cover (what the heck? Do they just expect us to have no back teeth?). I still opted to get the root canal and crown without insurance over getting the tooth pulled. The dentist then took my x-ray into the other dentist in the office and they both agreed that the cavity was so bad that I would need to go to a specialist. I have to get this done a.s.a.p because now that the tooth has been opened up I have developed an infection. I woke up the next morning feeling like I have the flu and I am in a lot of pain in my mouth.

Third and definitely not least:
At 2:00 AM on Wednesday morning I woke up to Beck crying. When I went into his room to check on him, I reached in his crib to grab his binki and found that it was soaked with vomit. I quickly picked him up and woke up Nate. Beckham continued to throw-up for a little while and I noticed that he had a fever. We debated on whether we should take him to ER or not. We opted to wait until morning and take him to his doctor first. Beck seemed to do better in the morning and took a bottle and later his meds. I still decided to take him to the doctor and right when I walked into the waiting room at the doctors office Beckham started vomiting everywhere. I did not know what to do because it was all over both of us and the floor. They quickly got us back to the doctor who sent us right to the ER. Beck was pretty dehydrated at this point and extremely lethargic. He was quickly given and IV at the ER (they got it in with only two pokes..that is a record) and fluids. He was admitted so they could watch him over night. He threw up a couple more times after that, but he was given Zofran to help stop it. I also woke up last night to check on Beck and there was blood everywhere because Beck had pulled his IV apart (the IV is on his head and he really hates it). I quickly called the nurse who fixed it right away. I stayed with him last night and most of today. It was so sad because he feels so sick and all he wants to do is cuddle. We thought that he might be doing a little better today and we gave him a little bit to eat. Nate and I ended up with what he ate all over us and he was given more Zofran and his IV was turned back on. Beck is going to stay at the hospital again tonight. Lets hope and pray that tomorrow Beck will be able to keep something down, start to feel better, and we will be able to go home and watch the fireworks...on TV or something:) Poor baby!

Wow, is all I can say. To look at the bright side, Beck's heart still looks great! What a relief!

Have a great 4th of July everyone. I have always loved this holiday and even if we have to spend it at the hospital we will at least be able to spend it as a family.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support.
Much love,
-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck

P.S - We are thinking that we will have to postpone our Utah trip for a couple of weeks. For those that we are coming to see...we still want to see you...just a little later. We have to all be healthy first!

Update 6/23/08

Beckham had a cardiology appointment this past Friday. This was the first time he did not have to get and EKG or an x-ray. He was only required to get an ECHO and see the doctor. The ECHO looked great and showed that Beckham's ticker is working great. Beck also has had a negative CMV test for the past three months so the doctor took him off of the Valcyte! I can't tell you what a difference this makes in his behavior. That med is really harsh on his system and he is acting like a different baby now that he is off of it. We also took him off of another med and that means that Beck is officially on only 2 meds (knock on wood)! The doctor seemed really pleased with him and even said that it would be alright for us to take him on vacation. Yeah! Now all we have stopping us from visiting Utah next month would be if he got an illness. Lets pray that he will stay healthy. I am not sure if that will be easy because Gwen woke up with a fever and congestion this morning. She is cutting her 2 year old molars...so lets hope that is the cause of her sickness.

This is Beckham's new face he makes. Again, doesn't his scar look awesome?

Beckham's Tacro (Prograf) levels have been a little harder to regulate lately. They have upped his does quite a bit. I am not sure if it is a side effect of Tacro with the combination of being off of Valcyte, but whatever it is, it has caused Beckham to be constantly hungry. He even wakes up hungry during the night (oh joy). You can imagine how hard this makes the three hour period where he cannot eat during morning and night med times. I was hoping that because of this I would see an large increase in his weight at his last appointment...but it was minimal. We will just keep hoping that he will plump up some time. Our name for him right now is "a fat boy stuck in a skinny boys body."

We pretty much have only good things to report (knock on wood again) and we have mostly been up to enjoying the beautiful summer weather. Now that the flood waters have started to recede, we have been going out a lot. Nate's brother Trevor recently visited us and we were able to go to the Omaha zoo with him. The Omaha zoo is one of the best zoos I have ever been to. If you are able to go, do. You will not be disappointed. Here are some highlights of our zoo trip.

I'll leave you all with a fun video of my kiddos.


-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beckham

Guess who's 2??

GWEN is 2!!!

Gwen turned 2 yesterday. I can't believe that our little, feisty, sweet, little girly is 2. We celebrated her birthday with a super duper fun party with some great friends of ours here in Des Moines. We served her favorite foods: hot dogs and Caesar salad. Isn't it weird that I have a 2 year old that loves Caesar salad? What a girl.

Most of our posts or updates are about Beckham and this is fun to do one solely about our little Gwen. Here are some fun facts about her.

1. Full name: Gwenyth K Scadlock.
2. Born: June 18, 2006 and weighed 7 lbs 2 oz (she was due June 28th).
3. Favorites: Elmo, The Wiggles, shoes, her blanket, and her binki (we are really trying to break her of that. Currently she only gets a binki at night and when she steals it from Beckham).
4. Famous phrases:"What doing?," more pees (please)?, " "okay," and "bless you."
5. Dislikes: Nursery (we are hoping that changes soon...it would be really nice to go to Sunday School), sharing with Beckham (we are hoping that changes also but we are pretty sure it won't anytime soon), milk (she takes after her mom on that one) and riding in the car.

We are so glad that Gwen is ours forever. She is the sweetest and cutest daughter and the best big sister to Beckham. Her adventuresome spirit, feisty nature, and contagious laughter is the greatest gift we could ask for. While Beckham was in the hospital she was so good. She did such a good job when she stayed with our parents (whom she hardly knew because they live in Utah) while they were here to help us. She continues to do so well (most of the time) with all of Beckham's care.

Happy Birthday Gwen, we love you too much
for words.

Here are a couple of pictures from her party. Enjoy!

Gwen got a tricycle for her birthday. She loved it so much that she would not even get off of it to blow out her birthday candle. We had to bring the cake to her on the bike.


Blowing out the candles with her friends


She loved the cake...even though she does not look like it!

What the weather?

What a crazy couple of weeks we have been having here in Iowa. I hope that everyone out there is aware of the flooding (I am speaking to those out of the state...of course!) that we have been having in this state. I have been a little disappointed in the national news in the way they have shown footage of the floods because they are SOOOO much worse. Here are a couple of pictures that truly show the devastation that has happened here because of mother nature.

Downtown Des Moines

More Des Moines

Iowa City

Cedar Rapids

More Cedar Rapids

These picture only show 3 out of the hundreds of cities effected by the floods.

I have had a lot of people inquire about us (thanks for caring!) and just to let everyone know...we are fine. We live in West Des Moines and not near any rivers. I feel very fortunate to live where we do and I am grateful that we chose to buy a home here instead of near Nate's school in Des Moines.

Please pray for the people of Iowa. 83 of the 99 counties in Iowa have been considered a disaster area and billions of dollars in damage have been done. Today our church meetings were cut short so that we could volunteer our time to pass out supplies that were shipped here from the church headquarters in Salt Lake City. I felt a wave of emotion as the bishop explained how devastating the floods have been and how many people are out of their homes, and without power and clean water.

Wow...I can't believe that this has happened in the town that I call home.

-Kim

Answer & Info

I thought that I should probably answer the "where are you moving" question that I posed in my last post. The answer to that question is that we are not moving away from Des Moines....at the current moment. Nate does not graduate until December and has not yet applied to grad school. He has a list of about 8 masters programs that he will apply for but he cannot apply until he takes the GRE. He is scheduled to take that in GRE (good luck Nate!). We are selling out place because of two issues. 1 - because we have out grown it and 2 - so that we can hopefully have it sold by the time we do move (where ever that will be).

On another note...check out this blog. My friend Erica is quite the blogger and every Saturday she does a post entitled "Saturday's Someone" where she spotlights a friend. This week she chose me to spotlight. I feel so flattered. Erica is such a great friend. We had a tornado scare here in Des Moines this week and Erica and her husband made sure to call us and make sure we knew about it so that we could go and hide. Good thing they called because we did not know about the tornado warning. Thanks so much Erica.

-Kim

Update 5/31/08

Sorry that I have been such a blogging slacker. This has been a much better week here in the Scadlock household. Beck seems to be feeling so much better and is showing it by getting into everything. Beckham has always been more calm then Gwen and we figured that he would remain that way....WRONG!! He is just as active as her! I can't believe how fast he is learning and growing. Last night he was watching Gwen climb on the coffee table and in no time he had figured out how to climb on the coffee table as well. His new favorite thing is to climb up the stairs in our house. I just hope that he does not follow in Gwen's footsteps and walk at 10 months...but I would not be surprised if it happened. No one would be able to guess that this little guy had a heart transplant only 9 months ago. What a baby!

The only real sad thing that happened to Beck lately is that he fell and tore his Frenula (a membrane connecting the inside of each lip to the corresponding gum). The interesting thing is that the week before he tore it, we took the kids to the dentist. The dentist checked out Beckham's gums to make sure that he did not sustain any permanent damage while he was intubated in the hospital. Beck's gums looked great, but the dentist noticed that Beck had a very large Frenula and he told me that he would most likely tare it by injury. Sure enough, a week later Beckham tore it. It bled quite a bit and was pretty painful for him. On the bright side, at least they will not have to clip it when he gets older.

I thought that this might be fun. Here is a couple of fun reasons why Gwen & Beckham are truly our children:

1. Beck recently had his nine month check-up and here are his stats - 90% for height, 10% for weight and 75% for head. Just like his daddy (tall, skinny, and with a big head - well the big head was when he was a baby)!

2. For those that read this blog and don't know me that well probably don't know that I have a little obsession with Michael Jackson. Don't get me wrong, I think that he is pretty weird dude, but man do I love his music and dance moves. The other day Gwen was being picky about which DVD she wanted to to watch. I decided to try something new and put on my Michael Jackson DVD. Below is a picture of the way Gwen remained during the entire DVD. Yeah...definitely my child!


3. Nate is a huge soccer fan (if you could not already tell by our son Beckham's name) and he has recently been teaching Gwen how to kick a ball. Gwen was practicing kicking with my large yoga ball last week and she walked up to Beckham and kicked the ball as hard as she could, exclaiming "catch" as she did so. The ball hit Beck right in the face and re-injured his torn frenula, resulting in another bloody lip. Gwen is taking right after her daddy and is a kicker!

4. I was feeding Beckham breakfast the other day and all of the sudden I noticed that he was falling asleep while eating. I quickly grabbed my camera and recorded it. So cute! He is just like me...I can fall asleep anywhere and I sleep like a rock.

That's it for an update from our house...wait...speaking of house, we are soon going to be putting our townhouse on the market. If anyone (those that live in Iowa that is) know of anyone who is interested in a cute little place PLEASE let me know. The best part about our home is that it has a two car garage. Yeah!! Trust me, you want a garage when you live in Iowa and the temp gets to -30.

Our cute little home! We are going to be so sad to leave it.

Have a great week!

Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck

Update 5/18/08

We made a trip to the ER today for our little Beckham. He spiked a high fever yesterday and it continued through the night and into today. The funny thing is that we had a great "first" half of the day yesterday. We all woke up early and went to the Farmers Market (for those that live here in Iowa that have not been to the Farmers Market all I can say is that you need to go. It was super fun with lots of great food and much more). After the Farmers Market we went to a graduation party and then came home and played around. It was after all of that when I noticed that Beck was acting a little lethargic. I picked him up and that's when I noticed that he was smoking hot. I took his temp and it was around 103 degrees. He was also grabbing his ear (crap..not again!) and it was also oozing some. What the heck (I know the "heck" term makes me really sound like I am from Utah!), why can't I keep Beck's ears healthy? He was also refusing to eat or drink anything all day. I called his transplant coordinator and we both agreed that it would be best to just bring him into the ER because Beck always seems to catch the weirdest viruses/infections. So we skipped church (we felt like this was a good reason), dropped Gwen off at our friends house (thank you sooooo much Bret & Erica!) and headed to the hospital. To make a long story short, they concluded that our little man has another outer ear infection and a fever. He was given two shots of Rocephin, a prescription for another antibiotic, and sent home. It is strange to me that all of Beckham's ear infections only effect his outer ear and not his ear drum. I guess that is our Beckham!

Other than that we have all had a great week. The C.A.R.E. race last week turned out great. It poured rain, but that was not a problem. Nate ran with both of the kids in the jogger stroller and finished in around 30 minutes. Nice job! I volunteered for the race and stood on the corner directing traffic and telling the runners which way to go. The problem was that I forgot to ask which way the runners were supposed to turn and when it came the time to direct them I just had to guess. Luckily I guessed correctly.

Nate running with the kids

Beckham is growing so much. He now crawls like a normal baby and pulls himself up to a standing position against furniture. I can't believe that my baby is already 9 months. We will leave you with a fun video of our little guy. The video shows Beck's new trick.

Love,
Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beckham

Beckham on the News

Here is a link for the story they did on the little guy in anticipation of tomorrow's Donor Awareness 5k.

Organ Donation Gives Infant Normal Life

(Nate made us a logo for the race)

Update 5/7/08 & info

Last week we had the opportunity to participate in 2 Iowa Donor conventions. The first was held in Iowa City and the second in Des Moines. Our part of the convention was to tell Beckham's story and do a sort of "show and tell" with our little guy. The convention in Des Moines was such a neat experience because the lady who picked up Beckham's heart from the location of the donor, was able to meet Beckham for the first time. Nate already knew her from work but this was my first time meeting her as well. She walked up to Beckham and held him and cried (I cried as well, but there is no surprise there!). She never gets to see the donor recipients after their transplants and it was so touching to her (and us) to be able to see what miracles come through her job. We are so grateful to be able to participate in donor awareness programs. It is our way of trying to say "thank you" and to let others know how amazing the gift of organ donation truly is.

A great update is that Beckham has not thrown up in a whole week! Yeah! I think the reasons for this is because we have switched his Prilocec to Prevacid (which we can mix with food), he is finally over all of his ear infections and his tooth that has been bugging him has finally popped through his gums. Lets hope this continues. Beck has also gained back all of the weight that he has lost. Way to go little buddy! Upping his calories has really helped...in most ways. The only bad problem it has added is that Beck now has quite the gassy instrument on his back side and it is deadly!! I did not know that a 9 month old could make that kind of noise and smell that bad.

Some bits of info is that our cute little guy is going to be featured on the news tomorrow night. Sorry that this is such late notice but we just found out about it. Dan Winters from WHO-TV 13 (NBC) is coming by tomorrow to tape a segment that should be featured on the 6:00 PM news. The segment is pertaining to the C.A.R.E. organ donation awareness run on Saturday. We will put the segment on the blog after is airs.

Speaking of the C.A.R.E. run, let us know if you are planning on running with us. You will want to sign up as an individual because we are not signed up as a team but we have cute little "Team Beckham" stickers for everyone to wear (if you want to). Thanks in advance for everyone who is participating. Let us know if you need further information about the run.

One more bit of info is that we have met a great family who is expecting their third child, a girl who they are naming Mia. Mia has been diagnosed with Critical Aortic Stenosis (the same diagnosis as baby Noah) and will require a heart transplant upon birth. Our hearts a prayers go out to this sweet family and I look forward to getting to know them better. One neat thing is that they can list this little baby when her mother is 36 weeks along. Please pray for them all.

Much love always,
-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beckham

C.A.R.E. 5k & 10k

Hey all of you Iowans (and outside Iowa is you are interested) please come to the first annual C.A.R.E. (Compassion for Awareness, Remembrance, and Education) 5k & 10k in Waukee, Iowa on Saturday, May 10th. This race is to spread awareness about the importance of organ and tissue donation and to give thanks to the donor families for their unselfish gift of life to the donor recipients. What a great cause to run for! The race is sponsored by the My Angel Foundation. Register to run here. You can walk or run in the race or even push your kids (in a stroller of course). It begins @ 8:00 AM. We hope to see you all there.

Update 4/28/08

All ready for warm weather (if it ever comes!)

We visited the GI doctor today and I think that we might finally have some options (hopefully). The GI doctor actually was very impressed with Beck's size even though he has lost some weight. His exact words were "he's a chunk." Beckham is only in the 25% of weight for his age but he has such a big head and such huge cheeks that people think he is super chunky. Well, I guess that he is chunky next to our little Gwen.

We actually were really excited this weekend and full of hope because Beckham went 3 days without vomiting but then Sunday he got really mad during med time and vomited. Maybe I should look at the 3 days as progress. The GI doctor said that this is a "learned behavior" issue (which we already figured) and that he thinks the G-tube would be a bad idea because with the tube we would be putting the meds directly into his stomach and if he gets ticked off he can still vomit all of his meds. He does not rule out a G-tube, but wants it to be a "last option" resort. His suggestions were to first- add extra calories to his food so that he can re-gain the weight he lost and second - we are changing one of his meds (Prilosec) to a powder form so that we can mix it with his food. He hates the Prilosec and a lot of the time that is the med that sets him off. The doctors third suggestion was that we have a Speech Pathologist come in and work with Beckham to help him not react to his meds and anger with vomiting. We'll see if any of these work.

Beck was playing on the floor the other night and suddenly stopped.
I went to check on why and this is what I found. SO CUTE!!

We have a pretty busy week with doctor appointments, speaking events for Iowa Donor and lots of other stuff. I will report on the happenings soon. Enjoy your week.

-Kim, Nate, Gwenyth & Beck

Update 4/22/08

Beck's culture for his ear infection came back yesterday and showed that it is a Staff Infection. Yucky for our little guy, but at least it is not another crazy bacteria infection that his doctors have never heard about. His meds seem to be helping a lot (when we can get them down him) and the creams also seem to help. Beckham's ears ooze not only on the inside but behind his ears and besides the oozing they crack and bleed. We have been given a couple of creams for these issues and I think that we have finally found the one that works.

On to the vomiting issue. Nate and I are at a complete loss on what to do about this. Beckham now not only vomits when we are giving him his meds but whenever he gets mad as well. His vomiting started happening a little over a month ago and at first it was once and week and it has now evolved to almost every day and sometimes twice a day. Because of the large amounts that he is vomiting his weight has gone down and now he now has to have weight checks every two weeks. His weight loss is not the issue that most concerns the doctors, but the fact that he is vomiting his meds. He has to have his meds and there is no way around that. We have used every trick that his doctors and others have come up with. Some of them include flavoring his meds, a binki that you can give meds through, a bottle with a syringe that you can place meds in, spacing out his meds, and on and on and on. You can basically name it and we have tried it. Our baby is just to darn smart and he will not be tricked. This basically only leaves one option and that is a GI tube. We are meeting with the GI doctor soon to discuss this and see if he has any other options. I am truthfully okay with the GI tube because I know he has to have his meds and I know that the GI tube will be temporary. I just hate that Beck will have to get another scar on his little body. But the way I look at it is that if he has to have some sort of set back I think that this is the best option.

A great thing for us to report is that he had his cardiology appointment on Friday and everything looked great. His heart looks awesome and the doctors can't say enough about how amazing he looks. A neat thing that happened at Beck's appointment was that the cardiologist who first saw Beckham after he was born and diagnosed him, stopped by the room we were waiting in. When I first met this doctor he was very "professional" (that is probably the best term to use because he was kind but not overly friendly and I am sure that was because he was delivering very bad news to us and did not want to give us false hope) and this time when he was completely different. He came into the room, went over to Beckham and smiled and played with him. He was so sweet and in awe of how well he is doing. His last words to us before he walked out was "miracles do happen." I was so touched by this because he is right. Miracles happen. My little Beckham is a living miracle. I always wondered what makes a person want to become a doctor (more particularly a specialist in something) or a surgeon or so forth and take lives in their hands and see such sad things. Now I know that moments like when he saw Beckham make his job all worth it.

That's all for now. We will keep you posted on anything else. Have a great week!

-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck

Update 4/16/08

Sorry it has been so long between posts. Here is an update on the last couple of weeks.

Last week the "sick bug" visited the Scadlock household. Nate came home from Texas with a cold which soon passed on to Gwen, Beckham and myself. Gwen and I felt sick, but it was "a normal cold" sick. Little Beck's cold was of course much worse and I took him into the doctor (because of the severity of his cold and of course because I am paranoid!). The doctor said that Beck's cold was also a "normal cold", just intensified because of his immuno suppressed state (duh). He did not seem to get too much better and by Wednesday he had spiked a high fever and was clutching his ear. By the weekend I noticed that his ear was all red and was oozing (not as bad as the last time but I did not want to wait for it to get worse). I took him in to the doctor again today and they did another culture test and sent us home with more meds, drops and creams. We should get the results from the culture back in a couple of days.

On a happy note we had a couple of exciting events this weekend. On Saturday we all went to Costco as a family. Yahoo! This may seem insignificant to some, but to us this was a real treat to be able to go somewhere as a complete family. It seems like the only time we ever go anywhere all together is when we go to doctor appointments. I can't even express how fun that is (note my sarcasm). Also, on Sunday we went to church as a family. We sat in the back and we did not attend all the meetings but we did go at least. It was especially nice to sit next to Nate at church and have his help chasing Gwen. My next project will be to arrive on time for church. I have never had to get two children (and myself) ready for church at the same time and I completely underestimated how much time I needed.

Another exciting event is that Beckham is finally sitting up. Yeah! I worked really hard at this. I would sit Beck up and feed him cereal pieces one at a time. He would not notice that he was sitting up because he was concentrating on eating and soon enough he had the hang of it. Way to go little dude!

Beck sitting up all by himself!

One frustrating thing that happened this week is that Beck has developed a very bad habit. I mentioned in an earlier post how we are struggling with giving Beckham his meds....well that has evolved into a serious problem. Beckham now gets so angry when we give him his meds that he throws up. This does not mean spits up but actual projectile vomiting and large amounts of it. It is so frustrating because 1 - we just have to re-give all of his meds and 2 - he has a 3 hour period around meds where he cannot eat and when he throws up everything in his stomach it makes him hungry and there is nothing that I can do about it and 3 - he has been losing weight because of it. I am not quite sure what to do about it. It has happened almost every night this week and I am at a loss. I feel so bad for the little guy but there is nothing I can do about it because he has to have his meds because they are keeping his body from rejecting his new little heart. We have tried spacing his meds out so that we are not giving them all at once but that makes him just as mad more often. We have also tried every product imaginable to help trick Beck into taking his meds. I am scared that the next step will be a G-Tube (gastronomy tube). Truthfully, I can deal with that. I will to deal with anything to help my little Beckham. If anyone has any suggestions I would be thrilled to hear them!

I'll end on another happy note. Nate's finals are next week and I cannot tell you how excited he is for this semester to be done. I know that the kids will love having their daddy at home more often. Yeah for summer break, yeah for warm weather and yeah for no school until August.

Looks like Gwen is getting ready for finals as well!

Here is a fun little video of the kids. They are starting to play together and it is so cute. I caught this video on the tail end of them playing so it is not the best. Please ignore the fact that Gwen has no pants on. She takes them off the moment I put them on so I have given up. Please also ignore the fact that Beckham's outfit won't snap up all the way over his backside. We are at that awkward "in between" sizes phase. He is grown out of 6-9 month clothes but does not fit in 12 month clothes.

That's it for now. As always, thanks for all of your prayers, thoughts and kind words for our little family. I know that saying "thanks" is not enough to express how grateful we are but it is a start!

-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck

Update 4/2/08

Happy Greetings from the Scadlock household. I would love to say "happy greetings from the Scadlock yard" or "happy greetings from the Scadlock's, enjoying the great outdoors," but no...Iowa is still cold and we are still stuck in doors. Iowa was even kind enough to kick off the month of April with snow. Lovely! It's alright because I am sure that the warm weather is just around the corner and soon I will be complaining about the heat.

Gwen enjoying the snow

Everything here is great. Last week Nate traveled to Dallas, TX to attend the National Nursing Association meetings. This was a great opportunity for him and his career. Last year for a school project Nate and a few others wrote a resolution about how they believe that it should be a law that all coaches are CPR certified. His school liked the resolution so much that they sent him and another to the Iowa Nursing Association meeting to present it to the board. The Iowa board liked it so much that they sent him and another girl to Dallas this past week. They completely paid for the trip and put Nate in this amazing hotel (rooms are from $750-$1,500 a night). Nate's resolution passed with a 99% rate. Way to go! During this time Nate was able to meet with many different people from top schools in the USA. This will help immensely when it comes to the time where we will make the decision on where to move for Nate's doctorate or masters program. Our top choices (right now) are: University of Utah, University of Iowa and the University of Michigan. Nate will start applying this summer so we will keep you posted. I am leaning toward the University of Iowa because I am little nervous to leave Beck's doctors.

Nate's hotel (not quite a Super 8!)

While Nate was gone his aunt Kally and his cousin Miquel came to stay with me. I know...I am a wimp when it comes to staying alone and I am so grateful that they were here to keep me company and entertain my children. Actually this was a great thing for me to have them here. Nate's aunt Kally just celebrated her 19th year of having her heart transplant. I know that I probably drover her crazy talking transplant...but I can't express how much it helped. I am still such a basket case when it comes to Beckham and it is great to know that I am supposed to feel that way. Kally is a great photographer and she took such cute pictures of my kiddos.


Other then that, we are all doing great. Beck is getting a tooth and is not the happiest camper but he is doing pretty well. We got his results back from his CMV test yesterday and he tested negative! Yeah! This does not mean that he will be able to come off the Valcyte, but it does mean that the med is doing its job. Beckham's ear also finally stopped oozing. Yeah again! Here is a couple fun facts: Beck weighs two pounds less than Gwen and they are now in the same diaper size. I love it!

Look at Beck's scar. You can barely see it!

That's all from us. Wishing you all warm weather very soon!

-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck