Good Ole Ed Whitfield's Office
When
we got home that night, we were once again feeling defeated. The drive
home from St Louis was dreary and depressing but I reassured Chad, the
best I could, that we had options and we're not giving up yet. I wrote
Ed Whitfield's office again. We touched base with the advocacy office
again. I had gotten the Chief of Surgeon's name from Dr. D and went so
far as to write and fax him a letter.
The
weekend came and went and we still had no news. I contacted the St
Louis hospital again on Tuesday and eventually a woman got back to me
and said she would check with Dr. D. That night I had a voicemail on my
phone stating that she was going to go ahead and send a reccoemdation
back to Marion, IL (Chad's VA hospital) stating our desire to see a
specialist and all that. At this point, I didn't even know what that
meant.
The
next day we made a few phone calls and confirmed the referral was put
in. We spoke again, with Mark Speers from the advoacy office and he
confirmed this was a good step. He said that St. Louis was basically
saying they could not do what was required. He said he would follow up
with the Fee Base people personally and let them know about the case,
that transportation and lodging was not required.
We
hadn't heard anything Thursday, so we called again Friday. We found out
from Mark that it had gotten approval on the Fee Base, it had gotten
past the admin area and by Friday afternoon it was on the desk of the
final person who had to sign off.
Monday was a holiday, so the earliest we would find out would be Tuesday. Needless to say - it was a very long weekend.
Tuesday
morning arrived and I was laying in bed, resting my back (I threw it
out a few weeks ago) when my phone rang. It was the VA asking questions
about the surgery, who we wanted to see, etc., Long story short - his
surgery was approved.
God
answered another prayer and Chad is going to get to see Dr. Sardi in
Baltimore. He is going to be treated by one of the best in the field -
someone Chad completely trusts.
This is the story of Chad's fight against Appendix Cancer. On January 7, 2015 Chad found out just how special he was when he was told that not only did he have Cancer but it was extremely rare and very aggressive. Chad has always taken life by storm - so why stop now? Some may have crumpled and fell but the soldier in him took over and he decided then and there he had an infinite number of reasons to kick Cancer's ass. The road will never be easy but he will fight - and he will win.
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