Professional Pics

Finally got around to getting Connie's 3 year pictures taken. I did them at the same time as I took Karsten for his 3 month pics. I had a little bit of an excuse for waiting so long since I did have a baby right after his birthday and by the time I was getting my head above water he broke his arm and we didn't want that cast in there now did we? At this age, his main loves include bowling, golf and Thomas the Tank Engine so that's what we did for his pictures. I wanted to always remember the joy he got from those things when he was small.

Follow up on hair loss

Connie saw the pediatric dermatologist today for that hair loss he was experiencing a month or so ago. It took awhile to get an appt. and of course wouldn't you know that by the time the appt. rolled around we aren't seeing it much, if at all. It's certainly nothing like it was in the middle of May. She asked some background questions and determined that the cause of the hair loss was likely the body's reaction to a stressful event such as an illness several months prior. He did have Mono and croup and various other illnesses over the winter so that makes sense. The term for it is Telogen Effluvium. No more follow-ups are required. He was, as always, a good boy and very cute at the appointment.

Home Again, Home Again

We arrived home from Texas safely after 10+ hours in the car yesterday. We went down to visit with family, celebrate a niece's birthday and spend time on the farm. Celeste says she'd like to move to Texas now, Connie wishes to live on the farm and Mary Kathleen never wants to see another grasshopper as long as she lives! Traveling with four kids is a bit stressful. Now I know why people say they need a vacation after their vacation! Overall though it was a success and plenty of memories were made.

Cece posing before Daddy took her for a little ride on the 4-wheeler

Celeste and cousins starring in "Rockband" on the Wii

Mary Kathleen hamming it up at the pool

The boys all ready to swim. Now one just has to wake up!

Connie Update

It's been a few weeks so I thought I'd update everyone on the world according to Connie...
Since he's three now he was able to attend Vacation Bible School at our church for the first time. He calls it "Buhcation Bauble School". It's so cute when he says it. He separated very well from us and we got reports each day that he did great. We were a little disappointed to discover that he got pooped out pretty easily there. The first day he complained a lot at school about having a headache and his teachers were concerned. He had a couple of symptoms of maybe a little something weird going on with his heart so we put in a call. Dr. Bromberg was out of town but when he came back in he was great about having us come in to give him a quick once-over just to make sure everything was fine before we left for our trip to Texas. Nothing has changed with Connie's heart, but he explained that this heat we've been experiencing is hard on everyone, and especially Connie. We held off on giving his diuretic to him until after VBS the other days and that seemed to help some. That way he was plenty hydrated while he was there. Unfortunately for him we are vacationing somewhere even hotter than home! He's spent most of the time either in the a/c or in the pool! My brother has a playground and park right behind his house but Connie hasn't had a chance to visit it yet because of the heat. Hopefully we can get him out one evening if it cools off some.

At home, Connie has been swimming in our little 3 ft deep backyard pool and cautiously enjoying himself. He usually says he doesn't want to swim but we put him in anyway and he ends up having a blast.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. This summer is such a change from last summer when everything hinged on his health. Don't get me wrong. It's still on the forefront of our minds and does affect our plans and things, but it's not a critical level of concern like it was last year at this time. He had just been discharged from the second week-long stay due to arrhythmias and had been started on a pretty significant regimen of heart meds. We are so thankful that life has resumed to a much more normal level and we have more normal concerns like where to go on vacation! Thank you, Lord!

ICU at the Zoo

Children's Hospital invited all the kiddos who spent time in the Intensive Care Unit during 2009 to the zoo for a day of fun. We got lunch, entertainment from the clown docs, a photo slideshow of all the kids and free passes to a zoo attraction. Connie chose the train. He loved the fish, especially!

Recent Pics

Things seem to be settling down a bit here but there's always excitement. Greg is having two hernias repaired next Thursday, Connie is set to get this soccer ball cast off on Wednesday and possibly go to a short cast or just a brace and I'm still applying and interviewing for teaching jobs for next school year. Cece got glasses a few weeks back and practically looks like a teenager now! With summer comes lots of parties and events and we've been busy lately. Last weekend was Karsten's christening and this weekend we've been to the zoo, a BBQ bridal shower for Connie's godfather's upcoming wedding and a nephew's christening. Here are some cute pictures we've taken of the kids... Thanks for looking!
The girls enjoying the pool--girl in middle is neighbor

Karsten loved the water!


Karsten (left) and Cousin Jack

Mookie still loves her bunnies

Cece got smiles out of Karsten while waiting in the parking lot

Showing off his latest injury--"I got skinned."

Cousin Zoe (left) and Connie enjoying "spicy dip"

All four having fun

Zebras at the zoo

Operating the bulldozer at the public works fair

Cece after her piano recital

With Father Joe

Cardiolgy Visit

Connie saw Dr. Bromberg yesterday morning. He didn't have an echo or pacer check as he just had one in mid April after his little fainting spell/ER visit. He did get a chest x-ray as it's been awhile since we've done one of those. Connie was great. Dr. Bromberg feels that it was a good decision to go back on the diuretic, Aldactizide last week. We're trying to keep the big picture in mind and not over-scrutinize everything with him. However, even with his 2 lb cast on he now weighs a pound less than he did at the end of April without his cast. That, coupled with his puffier appearance prior to restarting the med tells us that he was carrying around a little extra fluid. We tried the little experiment and it didn't seem to work so this probably means that he'll be on some sort of diuretic therapeutically (long term). We brought up a concern that he was often clammy, even when sitting still. Since he isn't short of breath or huffing and puffing after playing or sweating profusely when playing, Dr. Bromberg feels like Connie may just be one of those kids that gets sweaty. He doesn't feel it's a sign of heart failure for Connie as he has no other symptoms! His exam is normal, his last echo was normal, his function is fine. Yes, his heart is enlarged and has been since his first surgery, but that's pretty much it. The doctor reassured us by saying that if we took him to 20 centers around the country and asked if they thought he was a transplant candidate they'd laugh us out of the building. By this he meant that we need to get that out of our heads. He can't guarantee us we'll never have to talk about it, but we need to get last summer's suggestion by SLCH out of our minds. He's not starting him on Carvedilol like we had considered so that's great news too. We will do a pacer check via the Carelink monitor in a month and then go back in September for the next appointment that will include the full work-up with echo, etc. Then he can compare that echo with the one from March and they will be a full six months apart. He also mentioned that at some point, he would like him to have biventricular pacing. In order to get that, he'd have to be opened up and another lead placed on his heart. He's not in any hurry, but thinks that this could be a big deal and a huge help and possibly the answer to all of Connie's problems so for now we're kind of thinking that whenever his conduit needs replacing we'll do it at that time.

We also brought up two other concerns. One was his head size. Greg felt like his head has grown recently. Dr. Bromberg measured it and according to the pediatrician, it is normal for a three year old. Our fear was that the headaches he's been complaining about meant he had too much bloodflow to his head or too high of pressures in the RV or something. Dr. Bromberg also reviewed the CT scan that was done when he fainted/fell in mid April and noted that the radiologist that read the scan remarked about the size of the front of his head but basically said it could be physiologic (normal). The other concern was a new fun oddity for Connie. He's losing hair. Not in clumps or anything, but he's shedding way more than I've ever seen anyone shed. When you run your fingers through his hair you get several strands each time. Dr. Bromberg urged us to discuss it with the pediatrician and Dr. Davis referred us to a dermatologist. We have an appointment for July 1st.

Home

Versed makes me so giddy!

Monkers got an ID bracelet too!

"I so tired."

"All done Dr. Bromberg's Hospital."

It was a long day but went well, I'd say. Arrived at 9:45 am and got discharged around 6:30 or so. They weren't in any hurry to get rid of him b/c of his cardiac history. The anesthesiologist was even going to admit him if it made us more comfortable. We all felt better giving him as much time as he needed and given how much morphine and benadryl that he received, he needed a lot of time just to be able to hold his head up and keep his eyes open longer than a few seconds! He woke up pretty discombobulated in the recovery room but settled down pretty well once they got me back there to see him. I got to hold him and rock him the rest of the hour and then back to the pre-op holding area. He drank a total of 2.5 small cans of sprite and ate doritos and teddy grahams. All was fine until we got on the highway heading home in a torrential downpour when he vomited all over. And I mean ALL OVER! So far he's not been sick again and we're crossing our fingers it's out of his system. The big problem now is going to be keeping him safe. We absolutely must to keep him from reinjuring that arm. Today Dr. Stazzone was able to do a closed reduction, but if this happens again he'll have to make an incision and put rods or pins in the bone. Today he might have even done that but he weighed the risks of potential cardiac complications with extended surgery time and decided that the alignment he was getting was good enough. He referred to the way the bones are placed now as "bayonetting"; meaning that they are not perfectly straight, but one is a little elevated and parallel. He says if it stays this way he'll heal just fine and have no long term problems. We go back in another week to make sure the bone is still in the right place. He says he'll have the cast at least another month and then he's putting him in a brace for a month. We're praying that we can keep him from acting like a boy for at least the next two weeks so that this bone can calcify some and harden.

He got tons of compliments on how well he handled the day. They say most three year olds don't do nearly that well. God sure blessed us, didn't he?

Surgery tomorrow

Just got back from the orthopaedic doctor's office. Should have known by how the morning started out what he'd say. First off, on my way there something hit the windshield and it's got a nice crack now. Then, I mistakenly went all the way in to the Ballas office when his appt. was at the O'Fallon-Progress West office. Then we get into the office and Karsten woke up starving. I guess I should have assumed we'd get bad news after the x-ray. Dr. Stazzone came in and laughing, asked if he'd fallen or hurt it again somehow. Yesterday he was ramming himself into the couch and did jam his fingers and at that time he complained about his arm hurting again. I'm assuming that's what knocked it out of alignment because it wasn't that crooked when he first broke it. The doctor said he has to get this done soon so that it doesn't permanently heal in a v-shape like the x-ray shows now. They split his cast and taped the outside to stabilize it somewhat until his surgery tomorrow. He has to be there at 10am for a 12pm surgery time. He will get anesthesia and then they will yank on it until they get it back into alignment. They said he'll be given a prescription for some pain meds as he will be hurting afterward.

Please keep him in mind tomorrow and pray that he won't be scared and that he won't start hating "Dr. Bromberg's hospital". Perhaps they should change the name of St. John's to Dr. Bromberg's Hospital because that's what he says every time we pull into the parking lot. He's agreed to get a soccer ball cast so hopefully he won't glow in the dark anymore (haha). We'll let you know how it goes when time allows.

Back on Diuretic

For a couple weeks Greg has been concerned about Connie getting clammy. We tried to convince ourselves he was just hot from playing too hard but he was getting like that even when he was sitting still-just playing on the computer, etc. Right after he stopped the diuretic I thought he got a bit puffy and gained some weight (2 lbs.) right away but told myself he'd had a growth spurt and it was just my perception that he was so big b/c I was used to holding the baby all day so of course he would seem bigger to me. He's also been sleeping better than usual; taking longer naps, sleeping in in the mornings and not waking so much at night. It was a welcome change, but unlike him for sure. He's due to go back for a check-up next Monday, but Greg was uncomfortable waiting that long to let the doctor know about these changes. We called the office and after talking with Dr. Bromberg, Nurse Kelly told us to restart his diuretic, Aldactazide. We're bummed a little, but hoping it does the trick to get him back to being his usual self.

He's still got the cast on and goes back for a repeat x-ray on Wednesday. If the bone is not aligned, they are talking about having to surgically correct it. Please pray that it is healing fine and that he might be able to get a waterproof cast on at the next visit. Two days after it was put on he got it wet at school and it had to be cut off and replaced!

We went to Mother's Day Brunch with Greg's side of the family. Here's a pic where you can see his cast. It's hard to miss as it's as bright yellow as they come! He picked it out himself.

Back to the ER

Connie went back to St. John's last night. This time for a broken arm. He was chasing Mookie and she ran down the steps. He tried to push her and missed and his momentum carried him forward down 12 of the 14 stairs. Thankfully his head wasn't injured! And sadly I have a feeling this still won't teach him any lessons about leaving her alone and refraining from constantly aggravating her. If he's anything like me, he'll just use his new cast as a weapon to hit his siblings with (I'm told I was pretty rough on my brother Terry when I had a cast at the age of two). His radius is broken clean through and his ulna has a buckle fracture. The orthopedic doctor thinks that because of his young age it should heal up nicely. He's got a splint cast on now to allow for the swelling and in a few days should get a real cast that goes above his elbow. ER doctor told us that he'll probably be in that one for three weeks and then if all is healing nicely he'll get a cast that goes just below the elbow for another three weeks. For now he can't get it wet at all. It's on his left arm and he's left handed by all accounts so we're not sure how that's going to play out with eating and playing, etc. The cast covers most of his fingers so he really can't use that arm/hand at all. I'm not sure how holding a cup to drink is even going to work. This could be very interesting! He was so brave in the ER and told all of the nurses and doctors all about how he did it all by himself, without me having to explain it for them. His speech sure is taking off. One of them mentioned what a big job he has now that he's a big brother and he associated that with his jobs at school so he told them how he gets turns to be line leader and clip board holder, etc.

Big Brother

Connie is such a doting big brother. Here are a few shots from Baby Karsten's 1st two weeks...

Connie's morning adventure

Around 7:15 this morning I was rocking and feeding the baby and Connie tripped and fell and said he hurt his head. He asked me to kiss it and seemed okay. A few minutes later he started crying uncontrollably about his head and gagging. After about a half hour he vomited. Greg was going to take him to the ER but then his eyes started rolling back in his head and we were afraid of being caught in rush hour traffic. Called 911 and they took him to St. John's. On the ride, he vomited again. While there, they did a CT, echo and pacer check and all look fine. He has no visible sign of injury on his head and is acting normal now. The explanation we've been given is that he had a fainting or near-fainting spell, which can account for the vomiting and severe headache. He's on a holter monitor for 24 hours to record all heart activity and he'll follow up with the pediatrician in the morning. Connie was so brave in the ambulance and at the hospital. He had the iPod to occupy him and the CT scan techs were so impressed with his behavior they told Greg they need to purchase one to keep there for their pediatric patients when they are undergoing testing.

We'll update again if there's any news after the holter monitor is read. On a good note, Dr. Bromberg did a thorough check of him and decided his heart is looking so good he doesn't need the Aldactizide anymore. Looks like there may be hope for potty training yet!

Karsten's Hospital Photos

Karsten Michael Beckemeier is here!

Last night I was sent to Labor and Delivery by the oncall OB because the baby got overly active for a long period of time. By overly active, I mean frantic, struggling type movements--the likes of which I've never experienced in any of the three pregnancies. They put me on the monitor and it was reassuring to hear his little heart beating away. They noticed that I was contracting some, albeit very irregularly. During these contractions, his heart rate kept decelerating so they decided to keep me overnight. If it was better the rest of the night the plan was to send me home. If not, I'd be induced today. By 5:45 am the contractions had gotten regular to every 6 minutes or so. Then they stalled. My OB came in around 9am and said that his HR was continuing to decelerate so he didn't feel comfortable sending me home. I was only six days away from my due date anyway so he wanted to go ahead and get things going. Pitocin was started at 10am and I was dilated to 2cm and 70% effaced. At 1pm they broke the bag of waters and at 2pm I got an epidural. By this time I was at 4cm, contracting every 2 minutes and in active labor. The epidural took quite a while to help, at least 10 contractions. I rested for a bit and then a little after 5pm I was complete and ready to start pushing. They had me try a test push and quickly made me stop because it was apparent that I wouldn't need to push for long. They paged the doctor and he got there and they got the room set up. I took one push on the next contraction and out came our little 10 lb. 12 oz. bundle of joy. He looks more like a toddler, really! Since he came so quickly, they had to suction out his nose and mouth to help him get all the fluid out. The doctor commented on how his arm was tired from holding him for so long and guessed he be closer to 10 lbs than 9 like the other two were. They put him on my chest and he was soooooo purple. I immediately thought it was heart related but they explained that the cord was indeed wrapped around his neck so it would take a little while for his color to return. Plus, being so big, he's a bit bruised as well. He's the perfect baby so far and seems to be nursing like a pro already. I guess so, he's so big he's probably going to be starving all the time! His APGAR scores were 8 and 9.