Ponder ponder. Okay this if statement is slightly convoluted. How about:

    if ( $sticky_pos ) {
        $journal->make_sticky_entry(....)
    } else {
        $journal->remove_sticky_entry($ditemid) if $journal->is_sticky_entry(...)
    }

Which basically just reverses it and gets rid of one negative condition which is always a bit harder to parse.