Shantel

Let me give some background about Shantel. Shantel came to live with us in Sept.2006 as a foster child. She has been a patient at Duke since she was a baby when she was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. Cystic Fibrosis is a terminal lung disease. For more information on CF please go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation website....CFF.org. In Aug.2006 she was admitted at Duke in very poor condition and by Sept. the Dept. of Social Services (DSS) removed her from her home. Deb had Shantel as a physical therapy patient for 8 years and had developed a bond with her and didn't want her to go into foster care to a home that didn't know anything about CF. Plus Deb knew she would be very scared. I'll never forget coming home and seeing this little 50 pound sad little girl sitting in the lazyboy. She was so small! I knew very little about CF except what Deb did at Duke and I knew the kids died so I was excited and hesitant at the same time. I couldn't believe the amount of meds this little girl took! One entire kitchen cabinet was transformed into a med cabinet. Then there was the breathing treatment machines, nebulizer pots, insulin, O2, g-tube feeds, 4 hours a day of breathing treatments, etc.
Needless to say my life as I knew it changed! It really took me some time to adjust to having a child but I was loving it! You couldn't have asked for a sweeter, well behaved child. Shantel had some adjustment issues because she couldn't understand why she couldn't go home. She was always polite but a little sad at the same time. We enrolled her in school and worked really hard to make things as "normal" as possible. She did awesome and made the honer roll. She came home from school one day with a certificate that she made the honer roll. Of course we made a huge deal out of it and she just stood there looking at us funny. I said that's so awesome aren't you excited? She answered me with "what does that mean?" I almost cried. She'd never been told what a good job she was doing in school. Well once she knew what it was all about she worked her heart out and has made the honer roll ever since! I'm the Awana Cubbies Director at church so she went to Awana TnT which she loved. She worked in her Awana book non-stop. She loves going to church. We decided to take her to Build a Bear so she could make something that was just hers and our thought was that it would be her "buddy" and have something to take care of. She named her first bear Princess......and it's a purple bear! She has since added Punkin, Precious and Peanut. Her first b-day party was a Cheetah Girls theme which was very fun. A friend of ours made her cake and a cake for Princess. It was awesome. We had a great time.
Since her future is so uncertain we've tried to do all sorts of different things with her. She's been to the beach, Christmas in Texas, a summer trip to NY, the North Carolina State Fair, took swimming lessons, been to museums, Disney on Ice, the circus, Sugarland, Little Big Town and Martina McBride concerts. She loves to shop, have her picture taken, play Nintendo ds, wii, play on her computer and watch movies. (her favorite is 7th Heaven series which she watches over and over......can I just say I never want to see another 7th Heaven episode!!!!)
Shantel over the past 2 and a half years has turned into a happy, well adjusted young lady who has a tough road ahead of her. In 2008 she spend over 200 days at Duke as her disease has progressively worsened. We have now moved into another whole part of our lives......double lung transplant. She has been accepted at University of North Carolina Hospital to be followed by their lung transplant team until she's listed. Duke doesn't do pediatric transplants so we are fortunate to have UNC also in our back yard. Please keep us in your prayers as we know there are no guarantees. We are praying the transplant will be a success and she'll be given the gift of a few years of a "normal" life.