October 12th, 2014
We flew out two days after the wedding. On Monday the day before we left I was not feeling so great and spiked a fever of 102. My parents were concerned it might be another urinary tract infection. We were all just hoping I would be okay and ready for the trip home. The temperature dropped drastically the day of the wedding and the ragweed and pollen in the air was very high! Who knows maybe it is allergies. The day of our departure I woke up without fever so that was a good sign. Since we waited around for the wedding to happen we would not be driving back to Dallas to catch our flight but instead fly to Austin then Dallas and on to Costa Rica. My parents try not and expose me too many people and prefer to drive to Dallas rather than take the short flight from Austin to Dallas. However we were brave and decided to do it this time! We as well come with much luggage, car seat and a wheelchair so it can be complicated. The good thing is my dad is an expert on juggling and carrying all our luggage. He’s the best!
On a side note we got to fly first class! A dear friend of ours upgraded our tickets for us so that we could fly first class back home! How awesome is that?? Once we got situated on the plane and we were ready for takeoff I had a small accident! You know how I am constantly complaining about not being able to poop? Well this time I did not have that problem!!! Huge poop explosion, wet clothes, complete change of clothes and all in thatin a teeny tiny bathroom. Talk about embarrassing! Just imagine me and mom in the tiny bathroom and at one time my dad was in their with us with the door closed! We were like sardines in a tin can! We made it to Dallas on time and were ready to board our main flight to Costa Rica… My parents thinking that I had gotten everything out of my system from Austin to Dallas but boy were they wrong! During our main flight and actually right during everyones dinner I decided to do it again and then again. Whew, my parents were up and down and up and down with me!!! Just when they thought they were enjoying first class…… whamo Malia strikes!! Sorry mom and dad but I couldn’t hold it!
About three quarters during the flight I began to breathe a little heavy. Mom checked my 02 and I was down in the low 90’s and high 80’s… Time for some oxygen to help me breathe better. It is so nice to be able to connect right away to my portable oxygen concentrator. I stayed on 02 for the remainder of the flight and until we got back to Krystal’s. At this point in time I was exhausted, and getting cranky. Mom took my temperature and it was back up to 102. While dad unloaded the luggage from the cabbie my mom changed me and put me in my jammies. In order to change my shirt mom had to disconnect me from the 02 to get the hose through my jammies. She put on my jammies while talking to Krystal and got me ready for bed. Dad came in later and I could not go to sleep. Mom kept checking my 02 and it was showing me at 85 on 3L of Oxygen. They started immediately respiratory therapy, and nebulization treatments to see if I would cough to clear my lungs. This went one for a good hour and mom texted the pediatrican and respiratory therapist telling them it looks like we would taking an emergency run to CIMA if I could not get my oxygen up. Thing is my portable oxygen machine maxes out at 3L so there was no possibility of raising it up! Just when they were thinking to leave to the hosp as I was not getting any better dad notices the hose was never reconnected to the 02 machine!! Uh oh….. momma did not hook me back up!! I got reconnected to the 02 and on only 1L of oxygen I was at 95.. Mistakes do happen, and it had been a long day.. Mom messed up but we love her and forgave her and I was breathing fine. I slept pretty good that night!
The following day my parents had made up their minds to have blood work and a urine culture done on me. Nobody wanted to get home to find out that there was something wrong with me and have to turn back to San Jose. It was the smartest thing to do but not the most favorable. We all wanted to get home. We went to one of my first phlebotomist (blood sucker) as she worked close by to Krystal’s. She did an outstanding job on drawing my blood. She got it on the first try and I did not even flinch. So that was good. The next step was getting my urine and my good friend Carmen came to Krystal’s house to cathetherize me. My blood work came back with a semi-high C- Reactive Protein. For those of you who don’t know what means your C- Reactive proteIt appears in higher amounts when there’s inflammation somewhere in your body. So.. the next thing we had to do was wait 24 hours to see if anything was growing in my urine. Turns out something was growing however my fever went away and had not come back in over a day. I was in good spirits as well.
The doctor decided to give us the green light to go home. It is always a possibility that the Urine culture is a false positive. It would take another 24 hours to identify what type of bacteria. We jumped on the permission to go home and that afternoon we loaded up the car and off we went to Delicias. On our way to the ferry we began to smell something like rotten eggs.. We had just arrived to Puntarenas the port town where the ferry leaves from. We could not figure out what could be that smell. We had just had our car at the mechanics getting tuned up while we were gone. Once we arrived on the ferry dad lifted the hood and there the smell was overwhelming. Our battery was burned to a crisp….Melted. After a few phone calls were made we had someone meeting us on the other side of the ferry with a new battery. We had to be pushed off the ferry once we arrived in Paquera. We took out the burned battery put in the new and off we went. A small inconveience but then it could have been much worse!
We were sooooooo happy to be home at last!! The puppies were crying and the cat purring! It is good to be home…. It seems like forever since we have been gone.
Love Malia xoxo