From the moment we met her, immediately after our child had a peritoneal dialysis catheter placed, Chantel has taken every opportunity to educate us, show care and concern for us, including our daughter in her care and advocate for us. She immediately follows up on requests, concerns, and questions. Her attitude is both professional and friendly, putting our daughter (and us, as parents) at ease. Throughout her care for over 17 months, there was comfort in knowing she was managing our daughter's situation. It can be easy in a pediatric hospital to treat children as "children," yet the needs of a young teen patient are different than a small child. Chantel has always recognized our daughter as a person with independent thoughts and ideas and has been able to treat her with respect appropriate for her level of understanding and life experience.
Upon learning of our daughter's love of horses, animals, the outdoors, traveling and Disney, Chantel would make it a point to talk with our daughter about these things. While doing so, she was learning more about her patient and simultaneously putting our daughter at ease. It was easier for our daughter to come to monthly clinics, knowing that Ms. Chantel would be there. In turn, because of being able to talk about the things they shared in common, she felt Ms. Chantel better understood her needs.
I will never forget the rainy night, past regular PD office hours, when Chantel entered our daughter's room after surgery. Our daughter was seemingly healthy until a surprise diagnosis of a serious kidney disease during her 11-year-old well care exam. Just as we were getting our bearings, her condition rapidly deteriorated after her 12th birthday, necessitating dialysis. We transferred our care to Cincinnati, two hours from home. Chantel, on that night, introduced herself and assured us that she (and the other PD nurses) would teach us what we needed to know and that we would be comfortable with this new life change. She along with two others trained our whole family on how to correctly and safely perform nightly peritoneal dialysis, how to identify potential problems and how to respond accordingly. She taught our daughter how to use the electronic monitoring system. She taught us how to order necessary supplies and when to contact the nephrology team for assistance. Through her careful teaching, we were able to feel comfortable at home providing nightly dialysis while being confident in being able to identify when it was appropriate to contact our medical and nursing team.
It would be impossible to list the many times that Ms. Chantel helped our daughter feel more at ease. As her mom, I was at our daughter's side for every appointment and hospital stay, for every night of dialysis. Unfortunately, on her biggest day, the day of the transplant, I couldn't be there because I was at UC, as her living donor. Her dad was assigned "daughter duty" for surgery, while other family covered me. our daughter has a hard time with surgeries, any of them and her dad has a hard time seeing her having a hard time. In those first few hours after surgery, while in the PICU, our daughter was having a particularly difficult time. Her dad came down to Dialysis, looking for Ms. Chantel. It was late and the only person in the unit happened to be Dr. F. Dr. F told me later that my husband said he had been "fired" and was looking for reinforcement from the person he knew would help her in my absence. I was discharged the day after my surgery and immediately came to my daughter's room in the PICU. Chantel had already been there to see her. We didn't know ahead of our surgeries how long I would have to be away from our daughter, but she knew she would be OK because she knew how to reach Ms. Chantel if she needed help advocating her position, or if she needed to "fire" her dad from his job as caretaker! When you can't be with your child, knowing there is someone she trusts (and there are several) is worth more than words convey.
Families who do peritoneal dialysis at home are well-educated, largely because of the efforts of nurses like Chantel. As a result, Chantel was always quick to make us part of the decision making process. She consulted us on how our daughter felt and how she tolerated certain parts of dialysis (for example, drains, fill volumes, final fills, etc.) before making changes. She worked with us to ensure we had everything necessary for our daughter's treatment. She also was diligent about providing appropriate follow-up and scheduling with anything that we asked or required. Finally, when possible, she worked with us on scheduling to ensure that our daughter could maximize "regular" time versus time spent in Cincinnati receiving care. Thank you, Chantel, you are a true DAISY Nurse.