Malia Moore

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

What a trip this has been. By the time I land in Costa Rica I will have been on 14 different airplanes, 3 ferries, and 2 buses! I have been such a  great traveller besides for the minor little episode from Vancouver to Houston! 😉 We left very early Sunday morning and arrived to San Jose by noon. I slept almost the entire plane ride. Our plan was to stay the night in San Jose and head home Monday morning for Delicias.

That night I started to not feel so good. I had a really bad cough and a little fever. My mom and dad were worried as I kept coughing all night and did not want to sleep. The next day they took me in for a xray of my lungs. My pediatrician told me that I had a small amount of fluid in my left lung. She felt like we could treat it at home. She sent me back to the hotel with antibiotics and sent over a respiratory therapist to help with my coughing and fluid in my lungs. He arrived that night around 8pm. He checked my saturation level of oxygen and it was pretty low. He had to use this machine to suck out stuff from my lungs. I did not like that at all. It was very uncomfortable for me. He left his oxygen meter with my mom and dad and said if my oxygen dropped below 80 to take me to the emergency room. Not even 15 minutes after he left my mom and dad checked my saturation and it was at 75. So we were off to the emergency room. At this time we did not know which hospital to go to.

The Children’s Hospital has a great reputation and the private hospital where we see my pediatrician she was not going to be there. As a matter of fact, all the pediatricians were off to a conference in Peru for a week. So not having our regular doctor at CIMA we decided to go the The Children’s Hospital as I have another pediatrician that sees me there sometimes. The Children’s Hospital would not let my dad come in with my mom. So my dad had to drop off us at emergency my parents did not like this one bit, but those were the rules. Once in they stablized me with oxygen and then my mom and I went to one of the medical wings and we shared a room with three other moms and babies who were sick with respiratory problems. In the room was a single metal chair that my mom had to sit in that night. My dad came to see me the next day and my mom went to the hotel to catch a few hours of sleep.. I had to stay there for five days.  My dad stayed with me during the day and my mom at night. I seemed to always get worse at night. Many times my mom and dad were afraid for me.  My mom never slept once during the five nights we were there. She was keeping her eagle eye on me at all times! There was another nice mom in the room and they exchanged their fears about us. The doctors on Friday told us we could go home. They told my parents that I did not need to take anymore antibiotics that what I had was viral. They sent me home with a clean bill of health. We hung around over the weekend to see my pediatrician at CIMA as she was getting back from Peru on Sunday. She wanted to check me over one time before us heading home. She listened to my lungs and said all was well. She did not like the fact they had taken me off the antibiotics but it was too late as I had been off them for more than 48 hours. We all agreed that hopefully nothing would go wrong and I would only get better.

Well we are ending our 6 week vacation. What a whirwhind it has been! I have had so much fun visiting my family and friends all across the country! We are now into our last stretch of travelling. We boarded the plane in Vancouver to head to Austin. Our flight was delayed so we had to hang out a little longer at the airport. We boarded our flight for Houston and all was well. I am a really good traveller. I can fly with no problems. People sitting next to me always look scared to be sitting by a baby but by the time we land they are smiling and saying I am the best baby they have ever sat by on a plane. It is true, I am a great traveller. For some reason, on this trip five minutes before we were landing my mom was giving me my bottle to help with my ears and I soon began to fall asleep in her lap. Just as I was dozing and we were preparing for landing I started to have one of those awful seizures. My mom sensed it was not the typical seizure and the next thing that happened was that I had locked my jaw and was turning blue in the face. My mom and dad tried to blow air into my mouth but I would not open it. My dad then yells “is there a doctor on board” thankfully there was paramedic behind us and an air marshall in front of us. Then the stewardess came running with the oxygen tank.. At this time the pilot is announcing we are getting ready to touch ground in Houston. The oxygen helped me. I took a breath, color came back into my face and I was back to breathing again! Whew…… what a crazy time that was! My mom and dad were super strong  they did not lose control and kept sane during my episode. We touched ground in Houston with me breathing and everyone on the plane happy that I was back to breathing normal again! After we got off the plane we were able to catch a later flight and finally arrived to Austin at 11pm. Boy was I ever tired. We went to my grandma’s house and I was able to relax for four days before catching our last flight home to Costa Rica!

Just two days after my party, we were off to Canada to visit my cousins, aunts and uncles and hang out at grandma marg’s.  I was very excited to go to Canada. My dad has been telling me stories of beautiful British Columbia since I was born. I was looking forward to seeing the mountains, rivers, bears, eagles and salmon.  Our first stop was Vancouver. We then took a bus to the ferry and crossed the Georgia Strait to Victoria on Vancouver Island. The ferries in Canada are quite different than the ones in Costa Rica! Super big and definitely more comfortable! My parents enjoyed getting Starbucks coffee!  The ride across the water was relaxing and the surrounding scenery was beautiful.  We arrived to my Uncle Blaine’s house and I got to play with my cousins Gavin and Ethan.  We stayed there for most of the week and then my cousins Madeline and Mitchell travelled over from Vancouver for a visit and the whole family was together. While my mom and I did therapy all my cousins helped out and cheered me on!  It was great spending time with my cousins and the rest of the family.

After spending time in Victoria, we headed back to Vancouver to spend the night at Uncle Blake’s and then off to my grandma’s house in Kitimat! Kitimat means people of the snow so you know where we are heading further north! We took a small plane and arrived at my grandmother’s house about 3 hours later. I really enjoyed my time at my grandma’s. I was able to hang out and relax and my parents too! My dad went fishing and caught us some yummy salmon. I got to meet alot of people and was able to do some physical therapy at the local children’s devlopment center. It was a great trip and much needed relaxation.

The big day finally arrived. After six months of planning and preparation my party was finally going to happen. What a beautiful day we had! At 9:45 my parents left me with my grandma Marg and they took off to help everyone set up for the day! Unbelievably the park personell who were suppose to let everyone in at 10am did not show up until 11:30am! Boy was everyone upset about that! We had a party to put together in less than three hours! We managed! We had a great group of friends and family that helped us get everything set up. Margaritas, mexican food, cold beer, and soft drinks were on the menu that day as well as face painting and games for all of us kids! The music line up we had was amazing. We had everything from Salsa to Country and Rock!  Everyone was having such a great time dancing! It was hot that day a mere 104 degrees so my mom and I stayed inside until things cooled off. We had a huge turn out! We had over 300 people show up to celebrate with me! Our silent auction was a huge success. We had over a 160 items for people to bid on! What a fun day it was. My mom and dad danced with me to my song and my good friend Mark got up on stage and sang it to me. We had such a wonderful day. I had other kids with Liss show up to meet me too! A little boy named William and a girl named Grace came to meet me. They were very nice and I felt so privledged that they drove a long way to come to my party. The place was full of love. I could not have asked for a better day and want to thank everyone so much for helping my party to be such a huge success!!!! Cant wait to do it again next year!!

See the Austin Benefit Photo Slideshow :

Benefit in Austin /22