TRANSCRIPT
What's my view on family support? It's essential. It's critical. Because you can't take care of yourself after you've had surgery. Somebody has to assist you. My wife was absolutely wonderful.
She was there for me at the hospital. She sat through all the surgeries. She sat through all the recoveries. And spent the days in the emergency room with me.
My children really stepped up really as far as their awareness and helpfulness to their dad. Which I, you know, I take my hat off to them.
My mom ended up getting a ticket. She flew here during my actual radiation process. She came and then so did my cousin Timmy. They both came at different times. They took care of me for about a week or so each.
When you're recovering, yeah, family's so important.
I had a very close friend. She had moved into my spare bedroom when I came home from the hospital.
Just having somebody that understands and commiserates with you is important.
My first advice would be is if you have any symptoms similar to this, don't be afraid to go to your doctor and tell them what's going on.
Don't wait.
Get it checked out. To be proactive on it and not hesitate and wait.
Go get it checked out. 'Cause the longer you wait, the worse it's going to get, and the worse it gets, it's harder, you know, it's harder to treat when it comes to that type of situation.
I've learned over the years that the doctors have probably seen it all many times. So there's no need to be embarrassed.
That's the key to this whole thing, is early detection.
I am so delighted that I've chose to have this surgery. Sometimes I kick myself for not doing it a little bit earlier.
You can talk to people that have been through it. They'll help guide you through. End up having a beer with someone else on base that went through it. And I met his kids, met his wife. Lovely family. And it really helped like honestly. 'Cause it let me see like a possible future for me.
When I returned to work, a coworker had the same procedure done and he had it done twice. And here I am thinking that it was an uncommon thing that I had done. But here's someone just in the same section as me, having the same procedure. And so what a great relief. I thought, yeah, let's get the word out and let's start sharing this and letting men know that you're not alone.
Looking at the future with bright eyes, I'm pretty excited about what, you know, the rest of my story has to tell me.
You can't look like, you know, this is like a stopping point in your life. You have to look like it was kind of a bump in the road. And you're just going to keep chugging through. And look at the best possible outcome.
Life is just a series of things that come along and you deal with it. There's an old saying, "you play the hand you're dealt." And that's how I look at it.