Olivia was able to enjoy another day of preschool. It’s the first time in a long time she’s actually been able to enjoy three days of preschool. She just loves it. She has some wonderful little friends there and we have been so well supported by the community there. Her teacher, Jenny, and teacher’s assistant, Hillary, have been wonderfully supportive and so helpful and compassionate towards Olivia. I can only hope that when Sarah starts preschool that she has Jenny and Hillary or teachers like them.

We spent the rest of the week busily catching up on things that desperately need to be done around the house

After arranging to book Olivia’s scans for January, James was having second thoughts. I guess there’s never really a good time for scans. However, I have to admit I too had some reservations about booking them for late January which will mark around 4 months since the previous scans. James made a few enquiries and we were informed that, given the unreliability of the MIBG radiation around the holiday period, we could be waiting up until early February for a scan. We weren’t at all keen to wait that long. If anything, we want to keep on top of the disease if something does appear on the scans (even if the doctors continue to tell us that there’s nothing they can do). Consequently, we spoke with Olivia’s doctor and she’s booked Olivia’s scans just before Christmas.

Olivia had an appointment at Canberra Hospital this morning to see one of her Sydney oncologist (they come to Canberra every three months). It was a routine check-up. Everything was fine. We discussed when Olivia should start on the cis-retinoic acid but her blood counts hadn’t yet recovered to a reasonable level. He advised that we repeat the blood test next week and see what they show then. We also discussed scans and when we should book them. James and I had decided to book them for January as we wanted to enjoy the Christmas holidays and Olivia’s birthday without worrying about another possible relapse. We just need a good break from Sydney.

I then took Olivia off to preschool. She had an afternoon orientation session at the primary school so I picked her up a little later than usual. She seemed to really enjoy it.

Olivia went to preschool today. James and I attended a parent information session at Gold Creek Primary School where Olivia will commence kindergarten next year. She also had an orientation session at the school in the morning.

I felt somewhat emotional throughout the parent information session. Hearing all about what to expect next year and knowing how much Olivia will enjoy primary school, I couldn’t help but wonder if she would see the year through. I try so hard to suppress these negative thoughts but sometimes it’s just too hard. I have to pull myself back and tell myself that she will make it. She has to. I simply just can’t imagine her becoming sick with this disease. She looks so wonderful at the moment. She is absolutely going to love school.

We packed up our things and headed off to the airport with a brief stop in Brisbane. We had a good flight home. We were seated in pairs and amazingly enough, Sarah was keen to sit next to James on our return flight too, although we swapped just over midway. We were greeted at the airport by my parents. I felt absolutely exhausted but elated to be home. The weather was beautiful – surprisingly, a big change from the weather we had in Queensland.

When we got home, the girls raced straight out to the fairy garden. It was beautiful. The garden had really blossomed since we left home 10 days ago. It was just such a wonderful place to be and I felt so good to be home. I know that the girls loved being home too. However, it wasn’t long before I realized how much James and I had to do around the house!