My mom and I flew home on Tuesday, September 29th. My dad did not want us to drive for 5 hours in the car so we went ahead on the small plane. In one hour I was home. It was so great to be back home. I had missed my bed and my dogs! We finally made it!!! The first night I did pretty good. By Wednesday night I was starting to cough again and by Thursday I had a fever. I was not feeling good again. I cried all night on Thursday and could not sleep. My mom put me in the stroller at 4 am to see if a ride would calm me down and nothing helped. That morning my mom called the doc and she suggested that we go ahead and come back in for a check up.
Thank goodness my parents were smart enough to buy all the necessary equipment for my respiratory problems. We bought a nebulizer, oxygen meter, aspirator and a tank of oxygen. They were able to give me a nebulizer mask before we headed to the airport. My oxygen level was reading okay but my heart rate was high 150. They decided to give me oxygen and we loaded up in the car and headed out. My dad was planning on dropping us off and me and mom were going to go in alone. My parents did not think that I was too terribly sick. By the time we arrived to the airport I was not looking so good. I started to blink my eyes and jerk my body. My parents thought it might be a seizure. What was really happening was that I was going into shock. My heart rate at this time is now 170. My dad now is coming with us and we boarded the small plane. We were on the plane for ten minutes when the pilots boarded and told us that they could not take me with the oxygen. They told my parents that if they turned off the oxygen it would be ok but with oxygen no way. My parents did not like the sound of that as right now I am not doing so well and the only thing helping me is the oxygen. We had to get off the plane! Now what do we do?
At this time my mom is on the phone with my pediatrician and she is trying to locate the pilot of the private hospital. She is having a dificult time in locating him so my mom had called a good friend of the family Joe. He arranged for us to charter a private plane! They said they would be there in an hour. Obviously time is of the essence right now. An hour later a three seater plane showed up and we boarded with my oxygen on. I was very restless and agitated by now. We had an ambulance waiting for us at the airport. We were in San Jose in 25 minutes and at the hospital in another 30 minutes. The ambulance driver was going very fast. You see in Costa Rica, they dont always pull over for ambulances. As a matter of fact, the driver continually honked his horn to get people to move. Once we arrived at the toll booth there was a motorcycle in front of us and the driver was honking and yelling at the lady to raise the bar. She told him we had to wait our turn and pay the toll. Can you believe it? I thought for sure my dad would snap! It was crazy! By the time we arrived to the emergency room my heart rate was at 210 and I was in cardiac arrest and septic shock. There was so much going on people were running and acting very fast to save me. Everyone was very very worried for me. They decided that they needed to put me on a ventilator as I was having trouble breathing on my own. After a hour I was stabilized and moved to Intensive Care.
I had Pnuemonia again but this time in both lungs and much worse than the time before. Unfortunately I picked up a micro organism at the Children’s hospital the week before. I should have stayed on my antibiotics. Now that I had another bacteria and reoccuring pneumonia I had to stay in ICU for five days. It took alot of Morphine to calm me down. I kept surprising everyone because I would wake up and want to yank on the hoses that were in me. The doctor could not believe I kept waking up and he adminsitered more sedatives. They gave me the nickname of Little Bull! It seemed like forever that we were in Intensive Care. Now that we were at CIMA, the private hospital, my mom and dad could stay with me in the same room. The doctors and nurses were so good to me. Everyone was worried for me. We finally moved out of Intensive care and into a private room. I stayed another 13 days in the hospital. I had respiratory therapy sometimes three times a day. I had some of the best therapists! Jose Miguel, Rebecca and Janice were some of my favorites. They helped me breathe better.
I finally was released from the hospital on October 18th. In order to be relased they sent me home with a NG tube. You probably are thinking what in the world is that? Well it is a small tube that runs through my nose and deep down into my tummy. My parents feed me with a feeding pump. They use pediasure which has all the nutrients I need. The doctors are worried that I might be aspirating my food. This means that when I swallow sometimes it does not go down the right pipe and ends up in my lungs. Once that happens bacteria forms and I can get pnuemonia. My parents were worried about taking me all the way home so our dear friend Pipa let us stay at her house in Escazu for the next two weeks. I continued to get respiratory treatments daily. My friends from the hospital would come see me at Pipa’s! We finally were given the okay to go all the way home. My xrays and blood work turned out good and the doctor said I could travel. So mom and I are off again to the airport and dad is driving home. We left on Halloween and I was looking pretty cute in my orange and white kitty cat shirt! Since being home I am so much better. The air here is cleaner. The birds are singing and the monkeys back to howling. My dogs were so happy to see us!!! I am doing much better and am smiling alot! I am happy to be home! We are staying home for a month and then on the 22nd of November we go back to San Jose to run some studies on how well I eat. I am probably going to have to have a gtube. This is where a tube is inserted into my tummy and my mom and dad will feed me there. It is not to say I am giving up on eating! It just is a way to make sure that I am getting all my nutrients and medicine without the fear of me aspirating food into my lungs all the time. I look forward to getting this hose removed from my nose as it bugs me. However I am a strong girl. The doctors could not believe how fast I recuperated! I still live up to my name of Little Bull and plan to do so for a very long time! Thanks to all of you for checking in on me and all your prayers! I will continue to keep you posted on my next adventure back to San Jose! Love Malia