Malia Moore

February 6th 2011

February 5th 2011

Late that afternoon, I began to have a fever. I also began to have seizures again. My fever kept going up. Dra. Castro was worried and took another blood count on me and it turns out my white blood cell count is very high. Having a high blood cell count and fever means infection not good. Dra. Castro was very worried that I had picked up another bacteria from the Children’s hosptial. Oh no, tell me this is not happening again. We took a swab from my nose and throat as well. I have come so far to be sick again! Dra.Castro immediately decided that I needed to have another catether put into my leg so that she could start me on another round of antibiotics. There really was no time to be spared. She called another doctor to do the surgery on me. Since I have had catethers in both my legs my veins have become hard and are becoming used up. They are worried they are going to have a hard time finding a vein that will last so that they can administer another round of drugs in me.

My parents and grandma are just sick about this and me too. I was doing so good! At 6pm I was rolled down to the operating room. My parents are so worried about me having to be sedated. I do not do well with sedation. It always creates a ton of secretions in me and I have a hard time managing my own let alone a drug that creates more of them. My parents are petrified that I will have to be intubated again. A hour a later I came out of surgery. They were able to find a vein in my leg. I did well during surgery.

When the drugs began to wear off something different began to happen to me. I was highly irritated. My mom tried to brush my hair out of my face and I tried to bite her. I was making all kinds of wierd growling sounds. My parents had never heard me do this before and I did not understand why I was feeling like this. I wanted to growl and bite everyone that tried to touch me. Well wouldn’t you be angry if you had to go thru what I just went through? Ugh…. I am so tired of all this. Immeditately we started the drip of antibiotics again. I still have fever. I do not feel very well at all.

That night when we got to the room I sounded terrible. I had so many secretions. Rebecca my respiratory therapist came to the room to aspirate me. She took out alot of gunk from my lungs and throat. My mom picked me up and was cuddling me when I started all over again to fill up with secretions. We had to call Rebecca again. In the end she had to aspirate me six times until she got everything out of me. It was not a pretty sight. I was sitting on my mom’s lap while she was aspirating me. I hate to be aspirated. It is the most horrible feeling in the world, but then I would rather be aspirated then to have another tube stuck in my throat. I managed okay, and finally at 2am was able to go to sleep and get some rest. I am exhausted.

Malia

February 4th 2011,

At 1pm they came to get me! My parents are so excited they cant sit still. I finally got to have the catether taken out of my leg. I now only have one needle in my arm just in case of an emergency. I am headed to my own private room with all my friends waiting for me at CIMA. I am famous there as well! The doctor who came to get me at CIMA was the same doctor who picked me up 1.5 years ago when I flew in at the airport with pneumonia. He remebered me very well! They brought a gurney up to ICU and transfered me onto that bed. I am being rolled out of ICU. Is this really happening? Are we really leaving here?

We said goodbye to the friends we had made. Some of the docs were joking that they were having a small party after our depature since my mom had been driving everyone crazy! Ha! Can you belive they were ready to see us go! 🙂 Well we were sure ready to go! The ambulance ride went smoothly, thankfully this driver knew how to get us to CIMA and did not get us lost on the way!

We showed up to the emergency room at CIMA. The first thing they did was take a picture of my lungs. They have already dropped my oxygen down to 1.5 liters. I am breathing well and have good color in my face. Dra. Castro, my pediatrician was so happy to see me and thought I looked great. We started giving me some food right away and a few hours earlier I was upstairs in my room with a view looking at the mountains of Escazu. This is a monumental day. 

That night I slept well. My dad and grandma went to stay at my friend’s Krystal house. She is letting us use it for the weekend while she is gone so we can wash some clothes. She is so sweet. My mom stayed with me that night and she was so happy to order room service, watch TV, and talk on the phone in the room right beside me! What a change of atmosphere.  We are all so glad to be here. Hopefully I will have another week here to recuperate and then I just might be able to get home!

Love Malia

February 2nd 2011

I am finally down to 2.5 liters of oxygen. The doctors are saying that I am better and that I am ready to be moved out of ICU. However, they do not believe that I will be able to go home without O2. At the Children’s hospital, when you move out of ICU you go down to another floor where things are not as controlled as in ICU. Instead of being in a room with 5 or 6 kids I will more likely be in a room with more. I will not have my own nurse and my parents will be doing most of the work. My parents are worried about me being in a room full of children that are all sick and am worried about me catching something else. It has been really hard for me to ward off bacterias and we do not want to risk me catching something again.  We are talking to my pediatrician Dra. Castro at CIMA (the private hospital) to get me transferred out of here and into my own private room so that I can recover.

In order to be approved to go home with oxygen, the Children’s hosptial has to send out a social worker to my home and approve of our living arrangement. One of the nurses told me that it would take more than a week for the approval to get O2 at home. We do not want to wait a week longer and have decided that if we need to take O2 home we will just rent it. The docs are saying that since my lungs have been so severely damaged that it will probably take months for me to be able to breathe on my own again. We shall see.

Love Malia

At The children’s hospital,

January 31st 2011

Today we have decided to try a new type of respiratory therapy on me. In spanish vest means Chaleco.  So the head of the respiratory department came in with this vest that is hooked up to a machine and hose. The hose inflates my vest and the he turns the machine on and I start to shake and groove like in a washing machine! In all honestly, I like it! Everyone says here comes Malia’s dance when they bring in the vest. I feel more like I am dancing a merengue than anything else because I am really moving!

The idea behind the vest is that is shakes up any secretions I might have in my lungs and after we are through “dancing” I normally give a good cough! Coughing helps bring up anything that might be in my lungs! Remember at one time, they all said I was probably  not going to cough or swallow again! Well I am doing both! The vest  is working well and I like the way it makes me feel. I am getting better each day. I have been off drugs now for a week and am feeling good again and I am finally begining to eat more! I sure hope I can get out of here soon!

Love Malia