PLEASE NOTE: A website was assembled by friends and family who understand our medical and financial situation. Please check out “Traci and Olivia’s Future Hope” website at www.tofuturehope.com. A hyperlink is available at the bottom of this page.

Please scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to view the latest journal entry.





Sweet Olivia, you've had it hard
right from the very start
Coming through it all standing tall
no one has a bigger heart

And that's what keeps you going
your strength and your will to survive
To us Olivia, you are an inspiration
and a hero in all of our eyes

You have many friends and family
who are with you thick and thin
Who love you, like sister Traci,
with her support you now can swim

Little Schatzi gives you puppy love
it's the best medicine in the world
You know they say "mans best friend"
but did you know it's also a girls

Please keep up the fight sweet Olivia
facing each of your battles head on
You are what heroes are made of
kind of heart, yet you're oh so strong

Copyright ?2006 Island Princess




WELCOME TO OLIVIA'S WEBSITE !


Olivia was born at only 29 weeks, which caused a bilateral grade II intra-ventricular hemorrhages (also known as brain bleeds), which developed post hemorrhagic hydrocephalus (excess spinal fluid in the brain). Olivia underwent surgery to receive her first VP shunt at 10 months of age. A VP shunt is a system that drains the excess cerebral spinal fluid from her brain to her abdomen. Many children, after they receive a VP shunt, only need to return occasionally throughout their lives to have shunt revisions as they grow. Unfortunately, for Olivia, she has had to suffer her entire life from complications with her VP shunts resulting in the 60+ brain surgeries she's had to undergo to try control her complex medical issues.




Some of those issues are Chiari decompression and cranioplasty with duroplasty, which are used to accomplish a cranial expansion. This is where they actually remove sections of Olivia?s skull and added titanium plates and composite in effort to make more room for her brain. In February 1999, Olivia developed an MRSA Staph infection following a shunt revision. She was treated with antibiotics but became very sick following the treatment. In short, the treatment resulted in an allergic drug hypersensitivity reaction, which basically burned and blistered her body, inside and out, causing her liver and digestive system to fail and a fever reaching 106.9. Even the medical staff was amazed by her recovery. During that year alone, Olivia remained in the hospital for over 200 days.


After this severe reaction, Olivia developed a latex allergy, multiple anti biotic allergies, and sensitivities to most adhesives such as band-aids or medical tape, which make it tricky at the hospital after her surgeries. They now have to use cotton bandages and gauze on Olivia, as the adhesives on tapes and other bandages actually blister and tear off her skin.


In addition to that, Olivia also has minor Cerebral Palsy and has had to undergo a surgery called a Bilateral Tibial Ostotomy, which is a repositioning/rotating of tibia bones in her legs. The surgeon had to cut the bones in both of her legs, straighten them out, put in plates and then cast them until they healed. Both of Olivia's legs were in casts and were held together by a bar between them. When you ask Olivia about this surgery, she'll tell you that the best part about having both legs in casts was that the kids got to push her around in a wheel chair at the school


Olivia does her best to be a normal, active kid when she is not in the hospital, or at home suffering from excruciatingly painful headaches. Like her older sister, Olivia is a club swimmer and credits Traci for teaching her to swim and encouraging and supporting her along the way. When she's not in the water, Olivia enjoys playing with her friends, taking her dog Schatzi to "puppy class" and just recently started Karate.



Olivia is a member of the Youth Advisory Council (YAC) for Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. The council consists of 12 members that advise and provide their ideas based on their experience to the hospital organization's management.






For more information and previous journal entries, click on the "Read Journal History" tab.





















*HUGS* TOTAL!
give OLIVIA more *HUGS*

Get hugs of your own





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Journal

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 8:29 PM CDT

Hi,

We created a new CaringBridge site to keep you up to date on Olivia. You can visit Olivia's new CaringBridge site at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/oliviamaccoux.

There is also a hyperlink available at the bottom of this page that will bring you to the new site.

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.
Dan, Cathy, Amanda, Traci, and Olivia

Read Journal History

Hospital Information:

Patient Room: DISCHARGED 09/23/08

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
345 North Smith Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55102

Links:

E-mail Author: camaccoux@comcast.net