Malia Moore

I had a really good week this week. I did not have to encounter any snakes, tarantulas, or ants so that is always a good thing! I had a decent week of working out. I maintained my progress.Somedays I have more energy than others but most the time I do really well. Sofia was pleased with me this week and that is important! The week was pretty mellow, except that this morning after breakfast I had a seizure. I have not had one for a long time but this morning I did. It is the wierdest thing, one minute I am fine looking all around and smiling and the next minute my body starts to jerk. I move my arms and my legs in the same way, they are twitiching.  My eyes are in a very distant place. My mom and dad are calling my name and clapping try to get me to snap out of it. It lasted awhile. 6 minutes. Typically, when someone is having a seizure for more than five minutes Diazapam (valium) is given rectally. Fortunately I came out of it and when I did I had a smile on my face and was kicking around just like I had been 6 minutes before. Thank goodness my parents did not knock me out with the valium, as I had a great rest of the day and went on to do my two workouts. I worked really well even after my seizure. Seizure monster, please stay away. I dont like you coming around.

Tonight my dad is super excited as his team the Vancouver Canucks are in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Since I am half Canadian, me and mom are cheering for Vancouver! Go Canucks!

Tomorrow our good friends George and Gracie are coming to visit us for a week, they are here to celebrate my birthday and my dad’s! We are going to have a great time! I cant wait to see them tomorrow!

Have a great weekend everyone! I am going to relax a bit and enjoy my next two days off! Hopefully they give me a break! 😉

Love Malia!

Hello Friends,

Well my first week back to work was not a dull one! I took the weekend to totally relax from getting back to San Jose, and on Monday Sofia was here ready to take me to work out! I did pretty good out at the platform, was enjoying sleeping more than working but hey it is Monday and I never really like working hard on Mondays anyway. Tuesday I performed great for Sofia in the afternoon, she was really pleased with my head lifting and by Wednesday I was getting back my groove and working harder for Sofia.

I am sure you are thinking when are you going to tell me the good stuff? Here is how Wednesday morning started. Mom gets me situated in my new bath chair and when she steps in the shower with me she lets out this scream (made me jump) and what had she stepped on but a baby lizzard. Gross, squash goes the lizzard. Dad comes rushing in saying what’s the matter we explain and he goes on his way. Sofia comes in to give my mom a hand with me and the next thing you know Mom is screaming again this time much louder than the last. What is creeping slowly out of the drain towards us but  the biggest, fattest, blackest Tarantula ever! Okay this time dad comes running back again but mom is already yelling kill it!  Mom has passed me off to Sofia, dad  grabs the broom and dust pan scoops him out and unfortunately for Mr. Tarantula that is the last moment of his life as dad stomps him to death. Luisa who helps out in the house said that the tarantula in the tub with us what a not a friendly one and could take down a horse. So bye bye Mr. Tarantula!

Thursday 10:30am Sofia strolls me out to my platform. I have a big work out table that is covered with a tarp, Sofia was taking off the tarp when her second sense/ God steps in and Sofia sensed that something was in the tarp there with us. She takes the broom  and moves the tarp slowly away when hisssssssssssssssssssssssss goes the snake that slithers over her feet and the next thing you know Sofia is strolling me very fast and far away from my platform and calling my mom breathing  fast and in the slightest whisper says a snake just passed over my feet come quick! Dad and one of our workers go running out to the platform to help. Once they get there Mr. Snake has slithered away and Sofia is now worried no one will believe her. She tells my dad he was just there and dad is looking all around for him. Dad is now bent over looking under the platform when he comes face to face with the snake. With one big hit with the stick Mr. Snake is now having trouble moving. He was not a small nor friendly looking fellow either. Mom gets out to the platform just in time to see the snake hanging from the stick! Thank goodness Sofia is one tough cookie and no little/big snake is going to scare her away back to the city! She truly is adapting to the jungle life! Okay now can we get back to working out? Sofia not bothered by the creatures of the day continues on with my workout and I do a great job with or without snakes hanging around! Needless to say we did not do any floor work that day! ha!

Later that afternoon, Mom and Sofia took me swimming. I had a great swim as you all know how I love the water, and after my swim we came in to to give me a shower and get my jammies on for the evening. After mom finished bathing me Sofia was there with the towel to wrap me up and dry me off. This time on my towel were ants that somehow had made a small home next to where my towel was hanging and Sofia has just wrapped me up in the towel when she noticed the ants, dropped the towel to the ground and thankfully none of the ants bit me! Mom right now, is exasperated at the fact that in two days we have had all these unwelcome visitors! Geez, what is going on? I mean where do we live? Oh yeah, Costa Rica! Ha! Fortunately we all went unscathed!

Friday was a mellow day, I had my morning workout and decided to sleep all afternoon, which is okay, as I mean this week was a trying one! I am ready for the weekend just to kick back and relax! Just want to say thanks to Sofia, for being one tough city girl and being able to hang out here in the jungle with us!  In our few months together we have conquered earthquakes, tarantulas, snakes and ants! Sofia I sure hope you are not thinking what in the world have I got myself into!!!!! Ahh, I know you would not leave you love me too much!

Have a great weekend everyone!
mucho amor,

Malia

May 24th, 2011

We are headed back in for another checkup and hopefully this is our last trip to San Jose for a while. Thankfully we did not need to leave at 4:30am and that we could catch the 11am ferry. We have had a great time with my grandparents as they are heading out today as well! Sofia is already in San Jose, she left last Friday so that she could take a weekend course in Kinesio Taping.  Kinesio taping is used to help relax overused muscles (many athletes use Kinesio Taping like Lance Armstrong!) It is also used to help facilitate underused muscles which is why we use it on me! Sometimes I am taped up all over!  The Japanese were the main users of the tape when it first came out but now it is coming more popular all over the world. My parents were very happy that an instructor came to Costa Rica to teach the taping methods! Sofia has already begun to tape me up! Basically the tape puts tension on my muscles and helps to remind me to do things. Thanks Sof for taking the class!

So, we arrive San Jose around 3pm and headed straight to the hotel. Around 6pm Maureen my personal blood sucker (phlebotomist) showed up to the hotel to draw my blood. I was so asleep when she arrived that I did not open my eyes until the needle went into my vein! They tried to wake me but to no avail would I wake up. Hello!!!!  I am awake now, but it did not hurt too bad. I am unfortunately getting used to this! I went back to sleep pretty quick!  Results came back later that night  and things are looking good.  Wednesday morning I have to be at CIMA to get catheterized again to make sure I no longer have an urinary tract infection. That is not so fun but Carmen one of the nurses at CIMA is fast and good at her job. The urine came back clean and now to wait three days to make sure there is no more bacteria lurking around. Our plan was to leave on Thursday to go back home but dad had taken the car in to get inspected and our brakes were not a 100% so we had to hang around another day to get the car fixed.

Thursday morning mom says to dad how happy she is that she has a day of no appointments with me, and that Sofia, me and mom can maybe go to the park for a stroll. Mom was saying this around 6am to dad when she noticed that the bed was wet and that my gtube hose had come loose and now there was milk coming out of my tummy! Oh no! At first my parents were totally panicked as they thought my gtube had completely come out of my tummy! Thankfully the hose had just come off and we did not have to rush to the hospital but still this was a problem as we did not have an extra hose. Dad was able to attach it to my button again and we stopped the leakage! Mom started making phone calls, my GI was out of the country, his nurse was in a class away from the hospital, and the other new doc we had just met did not have keys to the office where an extra hose was! So thankfully mom had the number to the sales rep who sold us my gtube and Lorena was kind enough to track down another hose for me! It was quite an eventful morning. Dad had to leave at 7:30am to take the car in and Sofia showed up at 10 to be with me and mom. By noon Lorena had found a hose and we were back in business. So much for the lazy non eventful day at the park. We just stayed at the hotel and had lunch by the pool! Dad got the car fixed, was back at the hotel by 6pm and Friday morning we were packing our bags and headed home. We made a quick call to the lab and sure enough my lab results came back negative! Thank goodness! Now we just need to get back home so we can relax a little!

My birthday is coming up soon, and mom had a long talk with me on the way home telling me that I needed to behave myself and stay out of the doctors office and for us just to have some fun! I promised mom and dad that I was going to try my best to do just that! It has been almost 6 weeks again since I have really worked out hard, so I am sure Sofia is ready to get me back out at the platform and begin working out again! Although it is the weekend, and I plan to just relax and rest before Monday!

Love malia