Maybe There is Another Plan for Me.....

So as I mentioned in my first post, I go to Kutztown University to study Special and Elementary education. Maybe. And I say maybe because for the first time in my life I'm having to seriously consider changing my major- not willingly either. The problem is Pennslyvania education laws. In order to be certified you must pass x many of college classes with C's or better, have and maintain a 3.00 during your entire time in the college of education of your respective college and take these pre- enterance tests known as Praxis or Papas which are the newer tests. You also have to have this done by a certain time (usually second semester sophomore year or at the beginning of your junior year) So this entire past month of June - which has been a crappy one might I add I have been working tirelessly to pass my class that I need to get the C in and raise my GPA. All in about the 10 weeks  tests, take the math of summer. Needless to say it isn't going so well. While my class is done and Im pretty sure I got the grade I needed my GPA isn't where it needs to be and I'm pretty sure I have to retake all of my praxis. The praxis are basically the SAT's on steroids. In case you haven't realized by now its hard to just get accepted into education program and education majors work very hard to end up as teachers. So will the public please stop saying how teaching is easy or its for people who can't do anything else? Because its very hard work! Did I mention that Pennsylvania is the hardest state to get your teacher certification in? Because it is!

Because Im going into my junior year with no concrete major- and Mommy and Daddy wont be thrilled if I have to become a super senior Mommy and I talked about how I might actually have to look into other career options. Unwillingly also. See the personal problem is I've wanted to be a teacher probably since the first day of kindergarten. So I'm devasted about possibly giving up my dream and only career option that I have ever looked at for the past 15 years just for some stupid requirements.  So I've been looking at my school's website that lists all the different majors with the idea that maybe social work would be the next thing to seriously consider- mainly because I feel its the closest thing to education that my school offers. Either that or psychology but even though I don't want to I'm starting to lean to social work because after some poking around I learned that I could get an education degree as my master degree as long as I have a bachelor in social work. So maybe everything will work out for my in the long run. or maybe if I change my major I will actually like social work and not even want to get my education degree.

My overnight stay in Chop

     So I know I said that this blog wasn't going to be mainly about my heart condition and my life that revolves around it, but this week was about taking care of my heart and it turned out to be life changing- in a good way though. So to review, I was born with a heart condition called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, which basically means I was born without the half of my heart. So without that I have half of a heart and the right half of my heart does all of the work that a normal heart with only the standard triple open heart surgeries that are used as a treatment option. Thankfully, besides routine care checkups with my cardiologist everything was going as perfect as possible since 1995 when I had my last surgery. To quote my cardiologist "From a functionality standpoint my heart was in the top percentile"and "I was the poster child for how the surgeries are supposed to go." So I was pretty proud of my self for being among the best with this type of birth defect.

Now since about August of 2012 I had been planning on getting more extensive tests done on my heart as well as a liver biopsy. While my liver is probably fine docs think the next organ to possibly go is my liver. I say think because they are just starting to develop the long term healthcare plans for me. That's what happens when the oldest survivors of this heart condition are in their late 20's early 30's. So anyway on Tuesday I went down to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for my pre-procedure testing. All that really happened was they took 11 tubes of blood from me and I was told about the risks and what not of the cardiac cauterization and liver biopsy which would be happening the following day. So the nurse was going on about stents,coils, and plugs and explaining them. Now apparently i had some coils put in 1995.  So whatever.

My mom and i woke up bright and early on Wednesday and walked over to Chop. After being given some drugs to knock me out I woke up in the procedure room to the surgeons voice saying "that isn't right". So after questioning his medical training I was given more drugs and woke up in my room several hours later.

Now for the fun part. Laying completely flat for 6 hours. I couldn't even lift my head for a sip of water. Thankfully the drugs hadn't worn off until the final hour. It was during this hour my mom decided it would be a goof time to tell me that I had a stent AND a plug put in. Oh well.  After some dinner ( it was around 10 pm) and some harry potter I went to bed only to be woken up at 4am by Shaun  who had to check my vitals.


Overall it was a good night in Philly. Minus the fact they didnt get the channel that was airing a new episode of Duck Dynasty.

Let Me Backtrack for a Second....

                             So even as i was typing, I realized the name Practically Heartless sounds like name of a blog that would belong to a cruel, twisted, psycho-serial killer type of person. But I'm not that type of person, well except for Tuesdays, but other than that no. But i chose that name because the one stand out trait of mine that basically helps define who i am, leaves people in shock, make them question what they just heard, and ask me to repeat that i just said ..........
                                             

                                                             .... I have half of a heart. ........  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                         Let the confused looks, and questions begin

                        Does the name make more sense now?   Now the point of this blog is not to ramble on and on about the trials and triumphs of living with half of heart. Dozens of other people, mainly parents do that for me... though I'm going for my check ups later this week so there will be some of that. The point of this is to share the story of my charmed life, and possibly help me land my own TV show on TLC.


                     So anyway on with my life.  I have a pretty charmed life, two parents who are married, one younger brother who is taller than me, and a dog that is named after a cartoon character and doesn't know how to play with toys. And I'm a daddy's girl, that tends to make life a hell of a lot easier. I'm a sophomore at Kutztown University, where I'm studying Elementary/Special education, work for the housing department at KU and am a sister to the wonderful sorority of Epsilon Sigma Alpha. Damn, that sounds impressive and I'm the one living it!

                                 So anyway welcome to the charmed life that i get to call mine!

Jessica 

*** ps Im annoyed that the tab button doesn't work with this program... that needs to be fixed!***