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!***