GIVING THANKS

THANKFUL......

** Thankful Shantel's small bowel obstruction is gone
** Thankful Mom received a very good CT scan report today.......some spots are gone and the
rest have continued to shrink
** Thankful to have a job I actually like
** Thankful for the best family in the world
** Thankful God does answer prayer
** Thankful God loves me
** Thankful for Duke Medical Center
** Thankful to live in the USA
** Thankful for great friends
** Thankful for my dog......well, most of the time :)
** In all circumstances give thanks IThes 5:18

LET IT FLOW !!!

SING TO THE TUNE "LET IT SNOW".............

The weather outside is cloudy and Shantel is going potty,
so since we're on 53, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow!!!! :):)

NO GO........GOLIGHTLY

Some things never end........or in our case come out the end!!! :) Shantel is in a very serious situation at this time. She has a small bowel blockage which is a condition CFer's have to watch out for. We have been very fortunate to have avoided any serious blockage until yesterday. Her stomach is 36 inches around after 2 gallons of Golightly that didn't go and she is in severe pain. Last night they talked surgery which would be extremely dangerous for her......like life and death dangerous. So we want to avoid that option!! So today off we went to radiology for an enema.......and don't think it's like the enema's you are familiar with! It's a pickin missile!! Thanks to morphine she doesn't remember it and has been able to sleep this afternoon. Late this afternoon she had some small (oh so small!) success so we were very encouraged! Tomorrow we do it all again! We are praying that God will keep her safe as we navigate through another hurdle.

TODAY'S UPDATE

Thank you everyone for thinking and praying for us today. It was a very long day but a good one.

Shantel's heart cath is one of the things on the checklist for her transplant. They also wanted to make sure nothing had deteriorated because she has been having some issue with high blood pressure recently. It was a good report. Her numbers have improved since her last cath so the meds they have her on are working. If I told you the med is Viagra would you believe me???? :)

Mom's chemo went fine. Her numbers continue to be stable. This is the first time I've actually gotten to go to chemo with her. Wow, what an operation and such a busy place! Next week is an eight week checkup with CT scan, blood work, etc. These checkups are always stressful for all of us because it's the checkups that tell us if the cancer is spreading and how things are going.

PLEASE VOTE FOR DUKE CHILDREN'S!!!

http://xbox.childrensmiraclenetwork.org

If you get a minute log on to this link and vote for DUKE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL. Children's Miracle Network is giving the top 3 voted children's hospital's the ultimate game experience.

I know first hand how much this means to the kids at DUKE!!!

YIKES!!!!!! HIGH SCHOOL!!!

Can you believe Shantel started 9th grade? Here she is at the Duke Hospital School with one of her teachers this year is Mr. Jeff.

Shantel loves math, reading and science. She started social studies last year and has really enjoyed learning about the election, where the president lives and lots of other cool things.

The teachers really care about the kids at Duke and take a lot of time with them. I think it's so neat that they do all sorts of really cool things to make learning fun. Shantel really excels under them.

Duke Hospital School Teachers ROCK!!!