Overcoming the adversities of CHD-3

Another marking period down, and I am back to straight A’s. That even includes English. I apologize for not writing at all for the last 3 months, but I have been concentrating on adjusting to homeschooling. It hasn’t been hard, but it seems like I am learning more things than I did when I was at my other school. It is weird. I have almost all the same classes, with a few changes, because my last school didn’t enroll me in my classes in the correct order so I would get the recognition I deserved when I graduate, but ARVA corrected that.

We did ATLAS testing this marking period, and with ARVA I was able to take the testing at home. ATLAS is the state testing in ELA and Math. I was always behind on the testing, never on my level, and have always struggled. Testing always makes me nervous, sick, and completely anxious. Don’t get me wrong, I was still all of these things, but at the same time I felt different. My teacher monitored me, and I had my mom stand over me too. I am not sure which was worse, lol, but I just did my thing. I think what I liked best was that I had my dog sit in the same room with me.

But anyway, I did my writing first. I actually felt OK when I was done. I took the whole time, maybe a little longer. When I took my Math, it took me almost 3 hours, but I wasn’t rushed and didn’t find myself looking around to see where everyone else was time-wise. I just again did my thing.

Later that night, my mom signed on to the testing portal for some odd reason to check something. I think she was checking to see if my old testing log-in worked from my previous school or if she was going to have to get a new one, and the scores were already on there. She jumped so loud in happiness, guys, and ran and gave me the biggest hug. I went up 16 points from Nov. 25 to Feb. 26 in Math, and from Level 1 to Level 3. That was outstanding. In ELA, I went up 6 points. I was just shy of a Level 2, and that is still outstanding because CHD-3 makes it hard for me to do anything with ELA, but I am pushing through.

My small group instruction in English and then going to English class is helping a lot. I also have tutoring now because I was at Level 1. But I think the Dyslexia classes are helping too.

I am in Intro to Agriculture and part of the FFA. I started that while I was in the Cabot School District. I loved it there. But we did not do much except learn from the book, and we had a substitute a lot because our teacher was at conferences and state fairs a lot. At my new school, even though it is online, we do a lot. I am now on a CDE Team, which is a Career Development Event Team, and I compete in Horse Evaluation. I already went to 1 pre-comp, and I have my next one on March 16 in Magnolia, AR, hoping to make it to the State Competition. I then get to go to FFA State Conference.

I still get to see my friends from time to time. I am starting to learn what friends are, and just knowing people when passing in the hallway. My best friend is in dance, so she is really busy right now, and her weekends are really booked up. She was a grade higher than me, so she was in high school anyway. But I miss her. But when we get together, it is like we never missed anything. I have another close friend that I talk to, but it seems like we are starting to grow apart being at different schools now. We started to have different types of friends before I left, but now I can really feel it. I go to church on Wednesday, where I see most of my friends, ok, when I actually choose to go, because this is on me since my mom asks every Wednesday to take me. She tries to make sure I am social.

I guess I can tell my CHD-3 family the biggest change: I experienced my first seizure, or at least that is what Children’s diagnosed it as for now. Two weeks ago I was in session with my English teacher, and I started to zone out, at least that is what she saw. The next thing she said was that I fell out of my chair and fell to the ground. She could not see anything else. I do not remember anything else either. I know I hit my head because I had a huge lump on my head, and I must have hit my bookcase because when I woke up, I was in between my chair and the bookcase.

I woke up because my service dog was licking me and pawing me. I was very tired, confused, and went and laid down on the couch. My teacher called 911 and reached my dad. By my labs and everything, it was concluded that it was seizure-like activity, and with my prior medical history, seizures do occur with CHD-3, though I have no history of them. So who knows. So now that equals more testing. I go in to have a 48-hour VEEG.

I just wanted to write you all because I had a moment to take a breath, and I was reading some Facebook posts with a lot of new members and lots of concerns. I am hoping that moms and dads are really reading my posts. I know my mom and dad worried every day when I was little, and probably still do. I am normal, well yes, normal, lol. There are things I cannot do, but I will do them because I will try and keep trying. I will not give up. They taught me not to.

They also taught me to never turn down help and resources as long as they are there to help me, but not to use them as a crutch if I ever intend to walk on my own. So never be afraid to let anyone know what your baby or child needs to succeed, or you may be robbing them of their success.

***** OH and I got my braces off ❤ *****