Wow...Time has really flown by...well not really. Most of the time, it seems that this has been the longest year of my life. I guess people really like to just say that saying: "Time has really flown by" for some reason, but like I said, not this year. I remember at 4:30 p.m., last year on this day, I was sitting in a doctor's office of whom I had never met and my results were being faxed over from my actual doctor's assistant.  This was being done before he had the chance to give me my results. I know that this bothered him when he found out but it was what it was and it happened. When this new doctor picked up the fax off of the machine, I could see it in his expression, "Crap, I have to tell this guy that he has cancer and I've only talked to him for less than a minute". My stomach sunk immediately and I was gripped with fear. No matter how many times a doctor has to say tell a patient that he or she has cancer, I think it still has to bother them because they know how much it is going to hurt the patient and their family. He knows the fear that they will feel and he has to help calm them during this incredibly difficult time. He did the best that he could but I still had to go out to the hall and cry. Finally, I pulled it together and went back in to talk with him about what I was faced with. Not before seeing another person passed out in the hall. I thought that they must have gotten the same news but theirs was just a blood sugar incident. They got off lucky.

Later that afternoon, my primary urologist and now oncologist called me and apologized for having to have had to find out that way that I had cancer. He immediately scheduled an appointment for me to go into his office the very next day to discuss all of my options. After listening to all of the various types of treatments available to me, I chose to have a Robotic Radical Prostatectomy. He suggested to me whom he thought that I should choose as a surgeon and so the journey began. This journey has brought me to this place where I am now and to be honest, I’m pretty darned happy. Some days are still scary as I have to go back in every three months and be tested to see if the cancer has come back or not and it is impossible to not relive that first moment over and over when that test time comes but what can I do, this is my lot in life.

“Voices of Survivors” is an offshoot of my cancer and something that I am incredibly proud of and look forward to working on each and every morning when I wake up. Without me having been diagnosed with cancer, it would have never come into existence. So am I glad that I got cancer? No but yes at the same time. That sounds so odd to say but if I can somehow keep cancer from coming back, it was worth it because it has made me a better person and given me the opportunity to meet so many amazing people and hopefully help other as well. This year will be an amazing one not just for me but for “Voices of Survivors” too. I am a ‘Survivor’!