~A word from Jessica~

Even though I was 5 years old when I had my last open heart surgery, I really don’t remember too much about my stay in the hospital. The only memory I have was when my friend Jenny Sorenson came to the hospital with her mother to visit me. Jenny is one of my special friends who also has HLHS and is 6 months older than I am. She made me a pretty card with hearts on it that my mom hung up on the wall by my bed.  I had another friend who was in the next bed and we played with play dough. She stuck red little play dough balls all over my face and told my mom I had the measles. My mom took our picture.

On the day I was supposed to go home, I  remember my mom telling me that I was going to have to stay an extra few days because my doctor thought I needed to have a pacemaker. I didn’t know what that was and I think my mom tried to tell me but I really didn’t understand until one day the place that made the pacemakers sent me a little bear in the mail and it had a real pacemaker stuck inside of a pouch right where my pacemaker is placed in my stomach. I couldn’t believe that thing was inside of me and I am now on my second pacemaker and may soon have a third one because the one I have now is using up too much of the pacemaker’s battery and one of the wires isn’t working right but I have had it there for a long time now.

After I had my last surgery, my mom brought me a special surprise. She brought home a little puppy and we named her Lucky. She is one of the best pets I ever had. She has been with me since I was 5 and I love to play with her. She made me feel much better after my surgery.  

These are my Pets Lucky the dog and Heidi the cat.

I started school a few months after my surgery and I remember being too small to open the school doors and tried to do some of the things the other kids did but I was too small and the other kids helped me. I have made a lot of friends in school. I had a hard time holding a pencil for a long time because I wasn’t strong enough to push down when I tried to write. When we had recess I always tried to stay out of everyone's way because I was so tiny I was afraid they would knock me down when they ran in the halls. Sometimes I wish I was taller like the other kids in my class.

Some of the things I like to do when I get home is look at the sunsets over the ocean and my mom and I like to go out and look at the stars and the moon. I like to study about the other planets and someday I would like to be a scientist and study the universe. My mom got me a book to read called “Why do clocks run clockwise?” and I have learned about a lot of things that I wonder about like why the moon looks bigger on the horizon.  I like to be home. I also like to play my playstation video games. My favourite games are racing games and I like Sonic the hedgehog. My most favourite thing to do is go shopping or to the movie with my mom and sister Cara.

I am glad you came to visit my website and I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about me.

Thank you and please sign my cool guestbook. I would like to answer all of you who write to me and so will my mom.  

Love, Jessi