A glitch!

So after two weeks of craziness (first week was the operation and the second one was Olivia recovering at home with my family visiting for spring break). My church group came to help me out. They sent someone to help me with Thomas in the mornings for four days. The first day (Monday) Olivia woke up from a good nights rest and told me "I feel all better now" I was (1) happy and (2) embarrassed; because I had someone in my living room expecting Olivia to be resting in bed so she could help me around the house. I decided to swallow the embarrassment and told my helper Olivia was doing much better and that I was going to run some errands since I hadn't been out of the house for two weeks. I ran every errand I could think of only to have my new (used) car break down at the end. I dropped it off at a repair place and got a ride back home only to find Olivia pretty much doing cartwheels in the living room with every possible toy out on the floor (including the dress up, which Olivia told me she had climbed to the top of the closet to get by stacking chairs....what?) I asked my bbser/ helper how it was (She is an elderly Indian woman who was reading glamor magazines) and she said "I thought Olivia was supposed to be sick" :-) Me: trying to stammer a summary of the last two weeks while thinking 'It is going to take me until the late evening to clean up this mess from her bbsing these past two hours' Mmmmmmmmmm..........

The next three days I had helpers who were young college kids and that was fantastic for two reasons. (1) They drove me around to get groceries since I didn't have my car. (2) I got to see them hands on with my kids (for future bbsing purposes) and my house was clean and I even got some exercise in. I felt kind of like I was "abusing the privilege" and after Thursday called to cancel any more help because Olivia was doing just fine and so was I!

SO as Murphy's law would have it, Friday rolled in and I had no help on the way and Olivia woke up pale and with a fever and very lethargic. I got her into see a gp by 11:15am and the gp sent me to the emergency room ASAP. I dropped off my kids with a neighbor and spent from 2:00-8:00pm in the ER. We were seen right away (within 15 minutes) but then we were waiting for a bed in the public hospital to become available (I just learned the public hospital is the only hospital with Emergency facilities in Australia). This was my first time in Australian public facilities and lets just say "it is NOT like England (which I loved)".

We got up to our room by 10:00 pm. Olivia spent the night with a fever of 103; she had a kidney infection (right side this time), and YES even post operation (which was supposed to prevent infections) she will continue to have a higher chance of getting infections so long as her stints are in. (Those come out in May...) We shared a room with a 6 day old baby who had the flu, the mother was just sobbing from exhaustion and I didn't quite know what to tell her even though I had three kids and this was her first! The baby was later moved since she was contagious and by the morning they moved us again to a bigger room with 6 other people. I was kind of sad because after the baby was gone I had the previous room to myself... even though the light wouldn't turn off (O-what a night!)

Anyway, in our new room the nurse kept asking me if "Olivia was a princess" (note: I HATE princesses) so I of course was like NO and What exactly are you getting at? :-) .....In hindsight, maybe she was trying to be nice to me! Hahahaha! Well, Olivia wasn't doing well. She wasn't sleeping (partly, due to all the noise from the other patients) or eating (but I can't blame her as the public hospital food looks like dog food) and her fever was not going away even on fever reducers. She had a really hard time getting to the bathroom (in the public hospital there is only one in each wing) and so I kindly asked if we could go over to the private side since we were going to be here indefinitely. OK--maybe I am the princess! Our insurance covers 100% inpatient so to me we were covered public or private and so why not get your own room with a bathroom and good meals which are also given to the parents right? Think of Australian private hospitals like mini hotel rooms because that is what they look like (even with the toilet paper folded down!) We moved again and it was SO NICE! I love private hospitals and both Olivia and I got a good nights rest and she is doing so much better! Just this morning we took a walk alone through the private hospitals botanical gardens :-) Our goal is to be back home by Tuesday, we will see how she goes. I must admit thought, I am starting to prefer the hospital to my own house, I don't have to clean or cook and it is indefinite sleep and TV-Aaaaahhhh :-)

Stan took over for tonight so I am back home for now (yes, checking my email) but all is well. Ummm- I have to go, Mary has just lined up all our shampoo bottles onto our couch and is jumping on them to see how far they will squirt onto the carpet...no wonder Stan wanted a night out of the house (just kidding Stan!)