For those of you who do not know me let me introduce myself: my name is Robert Doyon. I am Larry’s (Dr. Brkich’s) brother-in-law through marriage to Anne whose sister, Gaetana, is married to Larry.
My wife asked me if I would mind sharing my story in a newsletter this month since it is MOVEMBER, which focuses on sparking conversation and awareness about men’s health issues. At first, I was hesitant to say yes. Nine years ago, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I remember that day as though it was yesterday and perhaps deep-down, I may still be feeling a bit of shame regarding my manhood. If any of you know my wife, you probably could guess that saying “no” would not be an option and as loving as she is, there is no way that I would get away with the “I feel a little shy letting strangers now about it". She is genuinely passionate about helping others and felt that my story might help encourage perhaps another man to get screening early. Needless to say, the feisty Italian in her comes out when she wants something. Actually, this has been shown to be quite beneficial when we are at our doctor’s office asking for blood tests to be done. She always remains respectful but persistent, very persistent.
Getting back to my story, nine years ago we were having our traditional Sunday family dinner when Larry asked me when I was going to do his “routine” blood tests that he recommended years ago. Now if you know Larry well enough, he is all about “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Although I understood how important this is, I never seemed to have the time or felt an urgency to get them done. After all, life was good. I was physically active, led a healthy lifestyle overall and felt great. This particular Sunday, Anne looked at me and said, “We have been married for 20 years now, you’ve known Larry for 20 years and you were supposed to do these tests 10 years ago. The time is now, you are 50. I know you are healthy and this is about keeping you healthy for another 50 plus years. I am taking you to the lab tomorrow morning to get the tests done that your MD can’t do and will make an appointment with our family doctor to request those tests that can be covered by MSP (which included PSA and PSA ratio)”. As I mentioned earlier, Anne can be persistent, so off I went to LIfeLabs. Our family Drs. Neary and Preston were very supportive and totally on board to do them.
