November 9, 2015!

Meet Dr. Richard L Williams,

A Gastroenterologist is an Internal Medicine physician who specializes in disorders of the stomach and digestive system. This specialty includes the diagnosis and treatment of diseases involving the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and large intestine (colon), liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.

Chad has an appointment to see him at 11:20 am November 9, 2015.  He is located in the Henry County Medical Clinic in Paris, TN. Door to door, it will be approximately 35 minutes commute time - which is much better than 2 hours to the VA hospital.  It's not local in our town but it is better than waiting until January and traveling to Illinois. 

I am keeping my expectations low but my hope is that they'll be able to give Chad a colonoscopy or whatever tests required to see if there is anything out of the ordinary causing him these extreme pains and cramping. Or if there's anything they can do to help minimize the discomfort. I'm of two minds - I don't want them to find anything and for this to be perfectly normal. But then Chad is left to suffer. But if they do find something, it concerns me what it will be and what will be involved for treatment. If further surgery is required, that equates more time off from work - right before Christmas.  But really, that would be as good of a time as any since work is touch and go during the holidays as it is. We'd just have a quiet Charlie Brown Christmas and use the time to recuperate.

Of course, the biggest unspoken fear of all is recurrence. In my heart of hearts, I don't think that's it but this will, at bare minimum, be the first step in finding out what (if anything) is going on. Information is power.