Olivia remained well and was as chatty, excited and active as ever. The doctors did their rounds quite early and gave us the go-ahead to leave. However, we had to wait around for Olivia’s antibiotics to be sorted out with the pharmacy (she had to go home on oral antibiotics). James and Sarah arrived at around 9.30 and we managed to get out of there by about 10. However, we had to make a trip back to hospital some time later to pick up Olivia’s medication as it wasn’t ready earlier.
 
We managed to get in a visit to the beach. The weather wasn’t exactly what we hoped for as it was overcast and very windy. Nevertheless, the girls had a lovely time collecting shells, building sandcastles and dipping their legs in the water.
 
When we returned to the apartment, the girls had a sleep. They were both pretty exhausted.
 
We decided to go out for dinner for our last night on the Gold Coast. We thought it might be nice to take the girls out especially since Oli had to spend so much time in hospital. We found a really lovely (and popular) Italian restaurant. The place was buzzing. It was so busy that we were squeezed onto a table that was barely separated from the tables beside us. You wouldn’t want to go there for an intimate dinner but the food was beautiful. We then headed down the road to Cold Rock for some yummy ice-cream.

Olivia’s temperature dropped below 38 degrees in the early hours of the morning. Hopefully this means she is well and truly on the road to recovery. If she manages to remain without a fever for 24 hours, doctors should let her go home tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

We had a family pass booked at Dreamworld today. Unfortunately, there is no way Olivia could go. James suggested I take Sarah. Initially, I was reluctant to go without Olivia. I would feel so guilty going without her and it just wouldn’t be the same. On the other hand, Sarah deserved to have some fun. Anyway, I negotiated with Oli, who was initially very disappointed that she couldn’t go to Dreamworld. However, the promise of bringing back something very special for her soon had her smiling and agreeing that I should take Sarah.

Sarah and I had a great time at Dreamworld. It was actually really nice to spend some quality time with her. Now that she has exceeded the 100cm height restriction, she was so keen to go on all of the ‘grown up’ rides. In fact, she was so keen that she avoided all of the kiddy rides, claiming they were ‘boring’. We went on the dodgem cars, the swings, the wild rapid ride and the log ride, etc. She was a little disappointed when I told her that she was still a little too small for the Giant Drop! One of the highlights for her was seeing Dora and Boots. She absolutely loves them. Last time we went to Dreamworld, she was most disappointed when Boots didn’t make and appearance. This time, he came out with Dora. Sarah wouldn’t leave him alone. She threw her arms around his neck and barely let go. She then had to make way for other children to have their photo taken with them. She waited and waited until all of the children had their turn so that she could go back and cuddle Dora and Boots again. It was very cute.

Before leaving the park, we bought Oli a beautiful mermaid costume (something she had been nagging me for since she saw her cousin Sam’s mermaid outfit). Sarah also got a Dora beach towel and jewellery which she absolutely loved!

I stayed overnight with Olivia.

It was a fairly uneventful day. Olivia’s high temps persisted and she continued with intravenous antibiotics. Oli and I were both exhausted today. Oli had about three long naps during the day and I had a couple of brief snoozes. I felt like a zombie.

James and Sarah arrived in the evening. James stayed with Olivia overnight

I had a call from James this morning to tell me that they were staying at the Gold Coast Hospital as they found a bed for Olivia. What a relief – commuting to and from Brisbane every day is not our idea of fun.

I took Sarah to the shops this morning so that I could pick up a new SIM card. I also picked up a few little things for the girls, including some amusements for Olivia while she’s in hospital.

Sarah and I headed over to the hospital in the afternoon. I was distressed when I saw Olivia rigoring in bed – she was shaking uncontrollably and at the same time, she was telling me “I’m okay Mummy. I’m just cold”. She had a temperature of 40 degrees plus! I immediately called in the nurse who then got hold of a doctor. They took fairly swift action. Olivia had been having intravenous antibiotics but they also gave her Panadol and contacted the oncologists in Sydney to formulate a course of action. I was a mess. I found it very difficult to contain my emotions. It had already been somewhat of difficult week and to see Olivia so sick really upset me. That gorgeous girl has just been through so much – enough is enough! 

The doctors later came back to us to inform us that Olivia needed to have her portacath removed straight away as it was the most likely source of infection. Her high temperatures were persisting and the antibiotics didn’t seem to be helping. Surgery was going to be organized for that evening. I spoke with one of Olivia’s Sydney oncologists who pointed out that the most logical course of action would be to remove Olivia’s portacath. He was very reassuring and to be honest, I was relieved. I just wanted Olivia to be okay. I haven’t seen her that sick in a long time.

James and Sarah headed back to our apartment in the evening while I waited with Oli to have her surgery. Poor James was exhausted after barely having a wink of sleep last night.

Everything seemed to happen fairly quickly in the evening. Olivia was wheeled off to theatre at about 9.30pm where we briefly waited for surgery to start. I kissed Oli goodbye as the anaesthetists put her to sleep. I was quite emotional.

I headed back up to the ward to wait for Olivia to return. In the meantime, they had moved us to another room (a pressurized room, where they usually place young cancer patients). While I was waiting, I had quite a lengthy chat with a lovely German nurse. She was very compassionate and it was interesting to hear her views on God and spirituality. I’m not really religious but I do have certain beliefs and I often find myself questioning anything to do with God. I know that this experience has given me a deeper spiritual awareness and it has brought to light so many issues for me but I also have so many questions.

Olivia was brought back up to the ward at around 11pm. She was asleep but the nurses told me that she had already woken up and told them that she had been to Movie World the day before! I was relieved that she’d woken up from the anaesthetic well.  The nurses also told me that her temp had come down to 37.7.

Oli awoke briefly and told me that the surgery site wasn’t hurting her at all. She also told me she was feeling hot and went back to sleep. She continued to wake throughout the night. She would either wake up crying, complaining she was sweaty and needed a shower so I used a cool washer to cool her down. She also wet her bed a couple of times as she was receiving copious amounts of fluid with her antibiotics. The poor girl! However, she was rather chirpy during the times she did wake up, commenting on how much she loved the painting on the wall and how beautiful my jammies were (even though they were the oldest, daggiest jammies she’s seen a million times before) – it was very cute. When she wasn’t waking in the night, I was woken by her beeping machine. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a buzzer to buzz the nurses for help. Instead, they had a brass bell – talk about primitive! After ringing it several times, I would usually have to go out to the nurses station to get a nurse because no-one could hear it! It was extremely frustrating

Olivia’s temperature again rose above 38 degrees. The nurses gave her regular Panadol to give her some relief.

We planned to go to Movie World today. We were originally going tomorrow but the weather forecast was not looking good. Unfortunately, our visit to Movie World was slightly delayed by our little scallywag, Sarah, who, attempted to apply her own sunscreen but instead applied it to the carpet. We were very unimpressed, especially since we had asked her on several occasions to leave the sunscreen alone. No amount of water and detergent could get out those stains so we spent the morning trying to track down a carpet cleaner. Much to our relief and $40 later, someone came around to clean the carpet while we headed off to Movie World.

When we arrived Oli and I headed straight over to the Roadrunner rollercoaster. She had a great time but mid-way through the ride, her bandana and hat flew off her head, revealing her little baldy head. You would think that no-one had ever seen a bald head before – boy, did she attract some stares. Luckily, we had brought a spare hat with us,   however, they had to stop the ride while one of the maintenance workers strolled around the rollercoaster grounds searching for Oli’s gear. He was taking so long, I began to wonder where it could have possibly gone. Perhaps it had blown on to a roof, in which case we would have no chance of getting them back.

In the end, James found it. It had blown out of the rollercoaster grounds and into some bushes next to another ride!

The weather wasn’t great and there were a couple of very light showers but it could’ve been worse. The girls had a great day, enjoying all of the rides. Sarah has really come out of her shell since her last visit to Movie World. We took her on the Roadrunner rollercoaster as she had just exceeded the 100cm height restriction. She absolutely loved it. She even let out a few excited screams while riding on it. Once she had the taste for that ride, it was hard to keep her off it. She kept saying, ‘I’m bave’(brave). However, she was still too scared to sit through the 4D Shrek movie so James took Olivia.

Oli and I each picked up a little cold in the last day or so. Nothing too bad, just annoying. The girls were pretty tired by the end of the day. By the time Oli went to bed, I thought that she was feeling a little warm but wasn’t overly concerned as her blood counts should be rising and a temperature would be very unusual at this stage of her treatment. I thought I would check her temperature before I went to bed.

At about 10.30, Olivia’s temperature was pushing the 38 degree mark (she has to go straight to hospital with temps above 38 degrees). James and I were hopeful that this would pass but knew it was likely she’d end up in hospital. James waited up to check her temp an hour later which was well and truly over 38. We then made arrangements to take Olivia to hospital. James took her to the Gold Coast Hospital.

James returned to our apartment at around 4am to tell me that there were no beds available at the hospital and that they would be transferred to Brisbane Hospital. What a nightmare!