Pushkin.

I have a friend named Dan. I've known him for years. He's in his 70s, lives outside Washington, D.C.

He's in the crisis communications business. Companies call him in when

they have a big problem. In fact, that's how I met him. I was working on a story about one of his cases,

and he called me up. Dan and I talk all the time. And last fall, he said something to me in passing

about having to go for a bunch of tests.

He didn't say why.

It didn't seem like a big deal.

Last May, my internist told me that he was pretty sure I had prostate cancer.

And for me, it was a, I can't say it was a nothing reaction, but it was certainly a very modest reaction.

I said to him, isn't this a minor league of cancers?

And isn't it a right of passage if you're a man my age?

And that's how I thought about it.

And it was reinforced when I connected with a urologist who said to me,

anytime in the next few months have an MRI.

So I thought of it as a minor thing, and my first contact with my expert reinforced that.

So I didn't even bother to do anything until August, from May to August.

And I go from a, so a blood test to an MRI, to a biopsy, to a PET scan.

And then it was, yeah, you got it.

And then the next deal was you should just go and get some radiation and some hormone therapy.

And I had to draw it out of the physician, and it was a casual matter of fact.

And that was sort of dumped in my lap at that point.

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