STOP!

Friday morning August 16th my uncle calls, says he has an acquaintance of his wife, Charles. (his wife is a fundraiser) My uncle lives in Atlanta, and a few years earlier I told him he missed most of my life, I’m sad I made that comment, I don’t remember making it, but it stuck with him. He had his reasons, and I completely understand his reasons. So I don’t blame him. So he calls, and when you go through stuff like this everyone knows somebody/has a friend who has been through this and they know better. My uncle says you need to call Charles, and when you are done talking you need to call me back. I missed 35 years of your life, I won’t miss anymore, I am with you. If you don’t call him I am getting on a plane and flying up there and I will drive you down to Hampton to see the doctors myself. Call him when you hang up, and when you are done call me back.


I was freaking out, it was like I had just been told I had cancer again… Uncle, I had decided on surgery, I had done what I thought was research, and knew the risks, so you are telling me there is another solution?


So I called Charles. He answered on the 3^rd or 4^th ring. He was expecting my call. I gave my stats 47, third generation, psa 3.9, gleason 3+3=6, 6 out of 13 biopys… that took about 45 seconds and then he started. You need to educate yourself more, prostate cancer is slow growth, talk to doctors, but more importantly talk to patients, do you want to wear a diaper the rest of your life? Do you want to impotent? There is a better procedure, and I just want you to explore it more. I had already decided on surgery, and I gave him, but I’m young, athletic, I’m the poster boy for the surgery (this term will come back to bite me in the ass a few days later) Lets just say for 30 minutes he made his case for me to spend a little more time and educate myself. He finished by saying he was going to send me a book. That I should read it and call him back. To text him my address, he would fed ex it and I’d probably get in on Monday, I could finish it in an evening. So after the call I called my uncle back, he continued to pressure me at the same time let me know that he is there for me during the whole process.


Side note, on Thursday my mom told him not to call me. He said, to hell with that, I’m calling him.


So by noon on Friday, I had spoken to my uncle twice, and Charles once. The rest of the day sucked, so much anxiety, oh and in the meantime I was working on two huge deals for our family company. How was I going to concentrate?