A little history

When did I start noticing all of this? Beckham had his 3 year old well check up this past June. He has always bruised easy, but it just seemed to be worse. He also started squinting one of his eyes from time to time. I brought up my concerns to his doctor and was told that we would watch it and to just note any changes. Nothing at this point was alarming.

About 3-4 weeks ago Beckham started getting some bruising around his eyes. It started with his left and moved to his right. After about a week and no real sign of improvement I started to think I should take him to the doctor. With concern from other friends and family I decided I definitely needed to take him in to see what was going on.

August 26th...
I called first thing that Monday. Luckily he was able to get in with one of the nurse practitioners. They looked over him and ordered labs to get a better idea of what was causing the changes in Beckham. After getting Beckham's blood work I was told that I should hear back from them that evening.

So, we went about our day. I had errands to run and needed to get Navy a new bed. I welcomed the busy day that I had. My mind is good at running away from me...I was sure that it was simply something like a vitamin deficiency. It couldn't be anything worse...just couldn't. I have to admit that I did have a feeling in the back of my mind that this wasn't good but, that thought was being pushed aside and I tried to not get too ahead of myself.

Around 5pm, I got a phone call from the doctor with the test results. As the store associate was loading Navy's new bed in the back of my car I decided it was fine to take the call.

That is when I was told that Beckham's platelets, red blood cell and white blood cell counts were low. I would be going up to Primary Children's the next day to meet with an Oncologist.

I eyes were burning and there was a lump in my throat. I had to fight back all emotion while the associate was finishing with his work. I didn't want my children or this stranger to see me upset. I just wanted to crumble though. Something could be wrong....very wrong for them wanting Beckham up at an oncologists office the next morning and to possibly to get a bone marrow scan.

Brian was still out of town at this point. Thankfully, his mother was able to go up with me and finding a babysitter for Navy was easily set up. We headed up early to the hospital. So many senerios were playing in my head.

The appointment went really well. After meeting with the oncologists they didn't think that Beckham had cancer and cancelled his bone marrow biopsy and decided he needed more blood work done. Cancer was off the table. This was great news, but for whatever reason did not settle my racing mind. I still felt like something was very wrong, but chalked it up to being a worrisome mom.

Left and right I was getting words of encouragement and positive affirmations. It felt good to hear all of this. (We really do have such am amazing support system.) I still had that nagging thought in the back of my mind...something is really wrong.

Beckham had more blood work done at Orem Community Hospital. The ladies in the lab are simply amazing. Beckham held so still that first follow visit and barely cried. They told him he was such a brave boy and loaded him up with treats and toys. Beckham always made sure to get some extras to give to his little sister.

We had to go back a couple times last week. When we pulled up for our next visit it broke my heart to hear Beckham cry saying that he didn't want to go in and that he didn't like this place. After the labs that day I called up to primary children's and asked them if there was any possible suggestions to what was going on. I told him that Beckham still had the darkness around his eyes and it didn't seem to let up. With that info they decided to do some more testing. One test in specific was a urine test to check his hva and vma levels. If the acids were high, then it was a sure sign of a tumor.