JnJ

Exposed once again

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, JnJ, Zytiga -
Tuesday I had the pleasure of speaking to a large group of pharmaceutical employees. I traveled to Newark on Monday and Tuesday morning at 11:30 I exposed my heart and soul, the good, the bad, the ups and the downs of this journey. I really missed having Mary there this time.  She is my rock.

The audience was warm and receptive.  I hope that it was well received. I appreciate these opportunities, I  enjoy sharing my story, but even more, I enjoy educating people about the disease. I look at it as one small victory at a time. If just one or two people leave that meeting and either get checked or encourage a loved one to be checked, it was well worth my time I would consider it a success. If not that, perhaps someone heard me when I encouraged the audience to eat better and exercise more and to not wait until something happens to make a change. I guess I’ll never truly  know, I always leave these events feeling hopeful.

I met several really wonderful people again and I even discussed disc golf with a few people before lunch. Seems I should have brought a few discs and played a course at Rutgers University. Maybe another time!

As I mentioned before, this month is very hectic, so this is all I have time for now.

Guess who’s at it again?

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, JnJ, Zytiga -

Tomorrow I’m off to Newark, NJ where I will have the privilege of sharing my story once again. I will be speaking in front of several hundred marketing and support employees for a large pharmaceutical company. It is an honor to share my time with them and to provide a brief glimpse of prostate cancer from the patient’s view.  I will basically be repeating my presentation from March, and sharing my six year journey with prostate cancer.  http://flhw.ddmpreview.com/the-big-speech/

It’s not one-hundred percent serious. I try to work in a little humor, as to not completely depress the crowd after 30 minutes. As I was preparing my notes I came across the slide where I explain that although I am honored to be there, I am not standing up there alone, but rather representing all the other men fighting the disease. I list the names of many of the guys I stay in touch with on line and then I show a list of five men whom we’ve lost over the years.

What stopped me was the fact that I need to add two names to the list. One was the father of a man who resides here in Kansas City. The other man’s daughter had reached out to me years ago when he was first diagnosed. I was quite saddened last week when I received emails from both letting me know their fathers had passed.

This is the truly sad part of this disease, when good men die. And now I find myself speechless. I pray this doesn’t happen on Tuesday morning. I will try my best to maintain my composure as I share my story, but there are times like this when I am reminded how much I hate this diesease!