Heart of Beckett

Tonight we are sleeping in our own beds. Today Beckett was much more himself and was moving around without pain. He only had mild pain when coughing. A sweet friend and former coworker brought breakfast and then stayed for hours while Beckett did homework, played numerous games of bingo with us, in which she perpetually lost, sorry Kelsey, and then even took him to the playroom. Such a fun morning into the afternoon and Beckett begged for her to come home with us. Before we agreed to being discharged, we did ask for a chest X-ray since Beckett has had a bad wet cough, which they obliged. It said a possible developing pneumonia but when cardiology looked at it they said it was nothing they think needed treatment. So, Beckett’s official discharge diagnosis was viral syndrome. So simple. So common. It is an abrupt and painful reminder that Beckett, a kid with congenital heart disease, truly is medically fragile and the smallest thing can turn his health upside down. We continue to thank God that he has brought Beckett through each and every health challenge, and with each time in the hospital we are acutely aware that there will probably be more down the road. But tonight we will relish in the fact that we are back under one roof. The brothers could not have been more excited as they were literally sitting on top of each other on the couch, leaning their heads on each other, saying they missed each other, and then Milo leaned in and unprompted, asked Beckett if his belly was feeling better. The precious boys! Thanks all for following Beckett’s journey and for continuing to support us as a family. And a special thanks to Mrs. Holder and her class who left a package full of get well letters on our porch today. We appreciate each and every one of you, and could not survive these days without you!

Update on today. While the CT scan was read as a bowel obstruction by two different radiologists, they are saying they don’t actually think Beckett has one since clinically he isn’t showing the normal symptoms. The scan did show some bladder wall thickening so we have sent multiple urine samples and I’m still waiting to hear if he has a UTI, which they said would be uncommon. He did appear a little dehydrated so he’s been getting fluids and tonight he finally ate some food around 8 and drank a large amount of water. That was a huge plus. He spent some time with dad today while I snuck in about two hours of sleep and then he slept most of the afternoon and evening. He still seems to have quite a bit of pain when he is up and moving and especially coughing, which he has a nasty one right now, but the pain seems controlled with regular doses of ibuprofen. We did spend a little bit of time doing some homework papers (thank you Mrs. Holder for sending them) which I think has helped ease his anxiety about missing school and tomorrow the Riley teacher is supposed to come work on some more. So, at the end of the day we didn’t really get any answers. We will see what tomorrow brings. Thanks for all the support!

Well this morning we find ourselves once again at Riley. Beckett did not have appendicitis, but rather a partial small bowel obstruction which is causing him a good deal of discomfort at times. Thankfully right now he is sleeping and we are praying that with bowel rest we can avoid more invasive interventions. His biggest concern, and what has upset him the most (in his words), “But I have to go to school”. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Hopefully we can get this boy back to school in no time!