Malia Moore

October 13th 2012
On the day of my grandparent’s birthday parties fedex came wheeling up with my brand new sting ray wheelchair! The boxes were a tad overwhelming. Three big ones!! We were all so excited, that one I am getting a new wheelchair and two that it actually came when it was supposed to be delivered! 🙂 Now the big plan is to get my dad, grandpa and uncle on putting it together!!

We had a wonderful day.. Good food and good times had by all. My uncle Donald and Aunt Shelley unfortunately could not make it as my Uncle D was sick with walking pnuemonia so he was not going to get me near me or my grandpa for that matter!! We were sad that he could not make it but at this moment we can not take any risks not even for family that we only see once a year!

On a positive note, I did not have to be aspirated this day and did really well handling my food with no reflux or respiratory problems. That was a great present all by itself to my grandparents.
Love Malia

October 12th,

We managed to leave Uncle George’s house by 11am with an ETA to my grandparent’s house of 6pm. We first had to go to IAH airport in Houston, and drop off the rental car where my Auntie T was meeting us with her big beautiful Nissan Armada that she traditionally loans to us every year while we are in town for my benefit. She is so kind to give up her car and to rent herself one while we are visiting. Her car is the perfect size and holds all our stuff!
I did pretty good on the way to Houston but right after I had my lunch I began to hiccup. Hiccups are not good a thing and cause me all kinds of respiratory problems with a full stomach. It was great to see Auntie T, it was a quick hug and kiss and off we went to battle weekend traffic in Houston and another 3 hour drive to my grandparents!

My mom tried everything in the back seat to get my attention. Auntie T has a dvd player and we put in a movie but I was not really interested in it, thankfully I was able to fall asleep and the oxygen I was taking in was helping me breath. When I woke up and we were half way to my grandparents I began to get a wee bit worse and now mom is telling dad he needs to drive faster as the oxygen that I was taking in at 3 liters the maxium of the machine was not delivering enough 02 and I was below 90%. Scary stuff people!

So when we finally arrived to my grandparents the first thing we had to do was aspirate and nebulize me with a breezing treatment. It had been almost a year since I had seen my grandparents but we had no time for greetings it was general hospital all over again! In we went into the “bunk house” or own little apartment at my grandpa’s and all we had to do was start hauling out phelgm. I remember that my Gammy and Pa Pa Shroyer came in and asked my parents what they could do to help and I just remember mom saying a stiff drink and make it a double! Yikes! Today has been a tough day on us all.

After about 1.5 hours of some serious respiratory therapy and treatments I was able to start supper and my parents as well had some time to catch up with my grandparents and enjoy a fabulous meal made by them both. Whew what a way to start my trip and why oh why am I having reflux all of a sudden?????

The next day my aunt’s and uncle’s were showing up for the big celebration of my grandpa and we were as well celebrating my grandma’s! Why not? How often do we get together? Never so……. we are having a party to celebrate them both! Some very exciting news happened that day my brand new Sting Ray wheel chair showed up by fedex at 6pm on Saturday evening!! yeah ! I cant wait to try it on for size, but looks like my dad, grandpa, and uncle Jesse have their work cut out for them. This should be a fun weekend!
Love Malia

October 11th
My parents had the alarm set for 3:30am to begin to give me my reflux medication. I have to wait an hour for the med to work before starting breakfast. My parents wanted to get an early start on breakfast so that I did not have to have my breakfast in the middle of the airport.

Irene drove us to the airport and we were actually on time. American Airlines treats us with so much respect and are always so nice to us. We were able to board first even before first class so that we could get situated and settled into our seats. We sat up at the front and I had my portable oxygen machine with me. We were ready for takeoff! I did really well during the flight. Not once did I need oxygen. Mom had my mask on me to hopefully keep all the germs people were coughing away from me!

We landed in Dallas on time. The plan was to rent a car and drive to Houston to stay with my Auntie T. You see this year it is my Pa Pa Shroyer’s 75th birthday and we were headed to his house for the weekend to celebrate with my uncles and aunts his birthday!

For some reason, the minute I landed in Texas all of a sudden I started having much phelgm. I was coughing and my parents had no idea why? So we went straight to the front of the line at immigration and the immigration officer was super kind and simply said Welcome Back. Now that is nice! We went to the rental car place, a mere country mile from the airport and loaded and unloaded all the luggage from the bus to the car to get ready for our next journey. By this time, I am sounding very well my parents call it snarkley which means lots of gunk in the chest. We head out and within 10 minutes of being in the car mom has me on oxygen. I have a way of deteriorating rapidly. It is 4pm and we are outside of Dallas during rush hour with me taking in oxygen, full of phlegm and well our plans have now drastically changed. Instead of making the trip to Houston a mere four hour drive, (the reason we did not fly to Houston was to avoid sitting on another plane with a ton of germs and people) we are now rushing to get to Uncle George’s house in Dallas.

Mom and dad are a bit turned around in the big city, I mean we live in the jungle where the fastest one drives is 30mph. So quite a change for us jungle folk to be in Big D at rush hour! It is a good thing my mom and dad were being patient with each other! The other problem was not having a cell phone that worked in the USA and the next thing you know mom is at the gas station asking a stranger to use his phone to call Uncle G and of course he does not answer because he does not know the number!!! Geez, mom remembers how to get to 75 N. Central Expressway and off we go speeding across town.

Mom finally got a hold of Uncle G, we had to find out the code to get into his house and stopped at another gas station, this one was a bit shadier looking than the last, but the man behind the glass window slid the phone to mom and let her use it to call Uncle G. This time he answered thank goodness!!! By the time we arrive Uncle G’s I need respiratory attention. I am sure am glad we brought the medical box because my parents aspirated me and gave me a nebulization and I started to breathe better and things started to calm down. Uncle G came home to find general hospital in the middle of his living room floor but he was so thrilled to see us!!!! We stayed at George and Grace’s for the night to venture off on our next adventure Dallas to Houston.
Ciao Malia!

October 8th, 2012

Me mom and Irene headed into San Jose to do a quick check up on me before leaving on our big trip. Dad stayed behind as La Hoja Nueva is quite busy and dad had to make sure everything was in order before Thursday. We arrived to CIMA, at 2pm and did our usual round of testing which was blood work and an urine culture. The blood work was a breeze but the urine culture was dificult as usual and too many tries before we succeeded in a sample. After that we headed out to El Bolero.

My mom was anxious and called the following morning to see if there was anything growing in the culture sometimes they can see something quickly. Unfortunately the doctor in the labarotory told my mom that yes something was definitely growing and fast. Since I really did not have any symptoms whatsoever my mom decided to have another culture done. Well you know what that means, back to CIMA to get catheterized again. However we wanted to be sure! The second time around was just as dificult as the first but they finally got the sample. The next morning mom called and yes a bacteria was growing but less than 20,000. The first one was over a 100,000. You see you treat a UTI if there is more than 100,000 but you dont treat if less than. So since I had no symptoms, Dra.Castro sent me with two thumbs up to leave for Texas but she as well sent me with medications just in case I were to present symptoms in Texas.

Wednesday we relaxed and waited for dad to come. Irene and I stayed at the Bolero together and did a small workout and mom went in to pick dad up at the bus station! We have to go to bed early as our flight is out at 830am and we have to be out the door by 630am!!! Needless to say we come with alot of baggage!!! My medical box weighed in at 50lbs alone.

Mom was packing like crazy, dad said he does better in the morning and went to bed with me and mom the night owl stayed up until midnight. I am excited about my trip to Texas!

Love Malia