Welcome to a brand new podcast.
Hi, I'm Bob Kevoian and you may notice
I have a new partner.
I've had a lot of great partners in my life.
One, my wife Becky.
Two, of course, Tom, Tom Griswold.
And now I've taken on a new partner who I did not choose.
This partner snuck up on me.
It's shocking is what it is.
And I have to get rid of the guy.
I don't care for him as my partner.
I don't want him as my partner.
So we'll do everything I can to eradicate my partner.
My partner, his name is cancer.
Boo.
Boo cancer.
Boo.
Yes, I've been in a shock to me, my wife,
and our family members.
I was diagnosed with a stomach cancer just a few weeks ago.
We're already getting things underway
and I just figured it might be a wise idea
to share the journey with you
because I have no idea what's gonna happen.
And it'd be interesting for those
who possibly are diagnosed with cancer,
who are afraid and don't know what to expect,
this is what we're gonna try to share.
Yeah.
So joining me on the podcast, my lovely wife.
Hi.
Becky.
And my best buddy, Whit Grayson.
Hey, Bob.
And Whit is a, he's somewhat of a cancer aficionado, sadly.
Sadly.
Because you had to go through a lot with your late wife.
My wife Deb, right after we got together,
she was diagnosed with breast cancer
and was early, treated with radiation, chemo,
and a lumpectomy.
Right.
Which I didn't even know what that was.
Right.
And she did very well and lived for 10 years cancer-free.
Very nice.
And she was the three out of 100, sadly, that it recurred.
That's too bad.
When it recurs, it's not good.
No.
And, but we had almost seven more years after that.
After that.
Great doctors, some of the doctors you and I share.
Right.
Who helped diagnose early and give us a long run.
Well, I hope I have the same thing, a good long run.
I'll take 17 years.
Oh my gosh.
Well, if I can live 17 more years, you're not gonna like me.
But anyway, so I, yeah, I'm familiar with some
of what you're going through.
Deb passed away in, or in 17.
And, you know, we saw all the hospital rooms,
all the treatment rooms, good and bad.
Because they're great people that help you.
Yes, we have found that out.
We've had a number of wonderful and smiley people
helping us through this crazy journey.
We discovered this on my annual physical.
My doctor sent me to have a chest x-ray,
which I do every year.
And this year, something popped up
that we hadn't seen before.
So, the doctor suggested I go get a PET scan
to find out what it was.
And once we went through the PET scan,
it appeared bigger and larger in life than what they could see.
They said it lit up.
It didn't light up like a Christmas tree.
And it could possibly be an ulcer,
some kind of rupture in your stomach.
And we're like, okay, that's probably what it is.
So then a few days later,
I had to go get an endoscopic ultrasound.
And that's when they stuck a camera down my throat
to take a look around, and they found the unwanted cancer.
This was on Good Friday.
It wasn't that good.
No, surely was not.
No, but we did find out on Good Friday.
And by one o'clock on Good Friday,
they had us into a cancer treatment center,
meeting a team of physicians.
They were incredible, fast.
And how it was gonna work?
Responsive.
So you met that same day?
Yes, we had these.
I don't remember that.
No, same day.
He had the scope early in the morning.
And of course, we're in complete shock.
Oh, you can't hear.
It's actually cancer?
This is impossible.
I thought it would be an ulcer or something.
So now we are just devastated,
just staring at each other, just with dropped jaws,
wondering what the heck is gonna happen.
And they called us about a half an hour
after we got home from the devastating news,
and we went to the cancer treatment center.
Well, we were home with that shocking news.
Bob's first response, which I will never forget.
He wasn't angry.
He wasn't afraid.
He just said, I'm so disappointed.
Well, it is disappointing.
It was so disappointing.
It's gonna ruin my summer.
Well, we quit smoking so many years ago.
And it's not a smoking related cancer.
No, it's not.
But you kind of think, well, you quit smoking,
which you loved.
Oh, it's the greatest thing ever.
You honored the tradition of smoking.
I did, oh yeah.
You were a poster child for a while.
I only watch movies and TV shows that feature smoking.
But we just thought because we quit,
we're immune now.
That won't get us.
Yeah, and it's something else.
It is completely unrelated.
When you receive that news, it's surreal.
Yeah, it's real.
Everything just seems not real.
We were numb.
You're numb.
Yeah, completely numb.
It's like, now what do we do?
Now what do we do?
And we had no idea what the process is.
And we thought, okay, well,
we've got to get our affairs in order,
or we've got to tell everyone this is the grim news.
And it turns out it wasn't that way.
But at first, those first few minutes.
Yeah, I mean, geez.
That's what goes through your head.
There's something inside me eating away.
Yeah.
So we made all the arrangements,
and they put us into a, I guess a learning program
as to what we're gonna actually go through.
We had a couple of very nice nurses
explain each of the things we're gonna do.
I have to do chemotherapy once a week for five weeks.
Okay.
And radiation every day, Monday through Friday,
for five weeks.
Well, and talk.
And I had no idea what any of this stuff is.
Nor did I.
When I hear chemo, I picture laser beams and burning hair.
I picture the guys in the hazmat suits.
Yeah.
And you know, goggles and.
Yeah.
It's science fiction.
We think 50 sci-fi, don't we?
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah.
And of course, I have no idea what it is.
And they explained it to me.
And it's like, oh, well, this is a lot different.
And then I went into the radiation room.
I was like, wow, this is kind of cool.
And it's not, they're not shooting a laser beam
and burning my skin.
Well, you're getting ahead now.
Because before you went in,
you went in and got whatever you.
Marked. Tattooed.
Oh yeah.
You know, there's all kinds of stuff.
He's getting way ahead here.
You know, there's a lot of stuff
going on in my head right now.
I wanted to talk about our actual meeting
at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, which is amazing.
But our lead physician, can we say his name?
Let's not use any names.
Okay.
So he used an illustration of going after terrorists.
And as he described what the treatment would be for us
as we went in, for Bob.
And he likened it to fighting terrorists.
And then when it's all said and done,
we're gonna go after the sleeper cells.
Which I thought was a really empowering way
to talk about it.
He was so encouraging that this is curable
and this is just a rough road that Bob's gonna go down.
But it's curable.
Well now you're getting ahead.
You ruined our cliffhanger.
Next week podcast, with and Becky.
Well we are wooty.
And I also wanted to mention the radiologist
and the words that he said that you won't ever forget.
He said, this is a five week treatment.
He said, before I even began the treatment,
by three, a week three, you're gonna hate me.
Yep.
And I don't know, I don't know.
I don't know what to expect.
We'll find out.
I hope I don't hate him that much
because he needs to fix me.
Yeah.
Well there's a good cliffhanger for the sponsors
because you're going into week three.
That's right.
But this is not sponsored.
No, we're kidding.
No.
So that weekend, I wanted to just talk about that weekend.
The weekend after we found out.
It was Easter weekend.
Yes.
So, and luckily the Masters was on.
So I got to, I guess, pay attention to golf.
Occupy our minds.
And think about other things than.
And it was actually fun.
And Whit came over for a while and there were some laughs.
Well and Becky called me Friday, good Friday night.
And it was the end of the world.
Well it sure seemed like it to us.
I mean because she cried, I cried, I cried for you,
I cried for her having to be the support system.
And then I.
I cried for Argentina.
I always do.
You used to smoke, while you were smoking
I was crying for Argentina.
Nobody out there's gonna even get that.
That song is so old.
Well it's gotta be a one, a beat up.
Don't cry for me.
But you know it brought my past back full force.
And I think it was later that night that you called back.
Is that right?
And I talked to Bob.
Maybe the next day.
I think it was the next day.
And you were fairly resolute, upbeat,
we're gonna tackle this.
Come over and watch the end of the Masters Sunday.
We did with.
We immediately, well one of the things our doctor said was,
the lead doctor said, don't cancel your plans.
Don't cancel your life.
Live your life throughout this treatment period.
He also said, do not look this up online.
Oh yeah, he was clear.
Do not go into these medical MD things and.
Web MD.
Try to figure out what's going on with you
because it's not what you.
Will not help.
No, it's not gonna help at all.
So I haven't looked at a thing.
Nope, neither of us have.
We've been great.
I just trust my doctor.
And if and when anyone's listening to this, down the road,
the one thing I would say is if it happens to you
or in your family, keep it private.
Yeah.
Because you don't know answers yet.
No, we don't.
You're learning it as you go.
That's the reason we're doing this podcast
is to explain what happens to us every week.
As you go along.
As we go along.
We have kept this very private until now.
And we're gonna hopefully walk you through
what actually happens in case something like this
happens to you or a loved one.
I think this is the antithesis of going online.
This is something that you're actually going through it.
It's not all bad.
Right.
You have great, the treatments anymore are incredible.
Yes, they are.
But the reason I mentioned keep it private is
it makes people awkward.
They don't know what to say to you.
True.
They want it.
When people bring up cancer,
a lot of people just shut their lips
and don't wanna talk about it.
Well, they're afraid to say the wrong thing.
True.
They wanna hover over you.
They want to, in their minds, be a caregiver.
You don't need a caregiver.
No.
You need to get through this.
Right.
And that's what we're gonna do.
We kept it completely private from our,
even, well, we told our very immediate family
the next day, I think.
Yeah.
But we needed to kinda get our own heads around it first
before we started talking about it.
Plus, we really didn't know.
We didn't even have the pathology back.
I held out this tiny glimmer of hope.
It's possible that it's not cancerous at all.
And this was Easter weekend, so I'm like,
ooh, maybe this'll be a Christmas,
or an Easter miracle.
And it won't be cancer.
So we kinda held all that news back
because we, Bob didn't.
Bob was very realistic.
No, you have to be.
Yeah, I wasn't as realistic.
I was kind of still hoping that that would not be the case,
but it was the case.
So we canceled our big Easter dinner.
We were having the whole family over,
just because the making of the lamb kebabs
and all the stuff that Bob does.
There's a lot of effort in it.
And I was just kinda mentally drained
after finding out the news on Friday.
I just wanted to kick back and watch the Masters.
And that's what we did.
And that is what we did.
And it was probably the best thing that I could've done.
Well, and people assume you now have no sense of humor.
Exactly, oh yeah.
Which is just the opposite.
Oh, I know.
Right, you gotta laugh.
We've had a few things that we'll share with you.
As time goes on.
Yeah.
But the main purpose is to, I think,
to educate myself, because I'm learning,
and might as well pass it on to others
who this could possibly happen to.
Yeah, and not just that.
You gotta remember, Bob forgets.
There are millions of people who love Bob
that would just want to know.
They may not have any cancer in their family
or their own life, but they still care so much for you,
even though you're retired from the show.
There are people who would just want to know what you've,
well, by the time they hear this,
what you have been through.
And I think that's important.
Because if you just hide it away,
someday somebody's gonna go,
did you know Bob Kvoian had cancer?
And people will be like, I never heard that.
Right.
And that is actually one of the worries of telling.
That was actually one of the things
that people thought had happened to me when I retired.
I remember that, I forgot.
I didn't, I didn't.
So a lot of people go, oh, did Bob retire
because he has cancer?
It was all over like Facebook, Bob and Tom pages.
It was the massive continual fines.
All the curse words.
Yeah, that's true, they did.
I forgot all about that.
I guess I didn't remember that.
People like to speculate.
Yeah, everyone does.
Well, there's no speculation here.
This is what is happening.
And we want to share it with you and hopefully educate you.
Yeah.
And make you laugh a little bit along the way.
When you talked about radiation, that's quick, right?
That's just, those treatments.
Radiation, they said, from the moment you walk in
to the moment you walk out, it's 15 minutes.
Yeah, which is, I wouldn't have guessed.
But when Deb. But it's every day.
So you have to go to the hospital every day.
Chemo's a different animal.
Yes, that's once a week,
but that is a three and a half to four hour decision.
You sit there and, yeah.
And I remember trying to make Deb laugh,
making the nurses laugh.
Right.
Trying to be cheerful.
Right.
Because it's three hours, it's boring.
Well, unless you're hanging out with me.
But you know what I'm saying.
I mean, there's nothing to do.
You can't get up and walk around.
No.
Well, you can.
I can walk around if I want.
You can be one of those guys?
Yeah, yeah.
You know, that guy, he's got his own plumbing.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I think what we'll do is,
I guess, begin at week one.
Yep.
And share what happened to us on our very first week.
And we will continue to do this each and every week
as it happens.
I hope people will tune in.
I really do. They might.
So this week, we're doing week one.
And it's been an interesting week.
It started on Monday with chemotherapy
and my first radiation.
Radiation is first, because it's so quick.
Oh, you didn't tell about how you got mapped out.
Which we were, this was new to me too.
I didn't know.
Yeah, I signed a waiver when they took me in
to get the spot where they have to do the radiation.
They take you through, do like a little scan,
look at your body, then they mark it.
In the old days, I don't know how old,
but they used to tattoo a mark.
Deb had a tattoo.
Oh, did she, really?
Yes.
They do a tattoo on the mark.
Yep.
And now they have a, I guess, a permanent marker
that they use and they have a little plastic cap
that goes over it so it won't wash away.
Oh, okay.
And then once they get you dialed up,
they take those things off and you lay on a table.
You're on some kind of a thing,
like where you lay your head, right?
Yeah, they did a mold for my head and my arms,
so I'm in the same position.
Every time.
Each and every time I go into radiation.
Yeah, I just think that's interesting.
We didn't know what this was gonna be.
Nor did I, and I thought radiation, I stand up
and I get hit from all sides with all kinds of
weird waves and laser beams.
Before treatment started, it was actually the,
we had a week to deal with the knowledge
and the fact that he was gonna start treatment
on that following Monday, and we had a whole week
to get ready, mentally prepared and stuff,
and I had said early on, one evening,
do you wanna get in the hot tub?
It'd be very relaxing, it might take your mind off
of things, and Bob's like, I do not want these marks
to wash off.
That's a good point.
I wasn't sure. I didn't even think of it,
and then it made me a little bit paranoid
to touch those areas that he has a little spot,
little X marks the spot, you know?
Like, it didn't occur to me.
We could have easily, if he wasn't smart, got hurt.
I actually took a marker and added a couple of areas.
I was going to say, well, I thought you were gonna
say the opposite, if you'll notice,
this area has not been marked.
Oh!
But, no.
You digress, I do.
But we did enjoy that week, as much as you can enjoy it,
that week leading up, because Bob said to me,
this week, pre-treatment, I wanna be.
I'm acting as if I'm cancer-free,
and I'm gonna do whatever I want.
That's great. And he did, man.
And I played four rounds of golf,
and just got out there and did stuff.
Oh, the other point you haven't made either
is that you had no symptoms, so you felt great.
Yeah, that's the other wild thing,
is I wasn't sick.
You still aren't sick.
No, I still haven't felt anything.
Yup.
And it's just, it's baffling when they say,
well, we're gonna heal you, although I didn't feel
like I needed to be healed. Like you needed to be.
Right.
So we just lived the whole.
That's the biggest shock of the whole thing.
So was it during that first week
that you called me with some better news,
or was it prior to?
Just that they said it is treatable.
Cureable and all that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We got that after, say, Monday, maybe.
Yeah, we got that after we went and had our.
Got a pathology.
So you had started treatment when they told you that.
Yes.
So I am curable.
Which is just, boy, that was the best news I've heard.
That was great news.
And we begin the treatments and radiation,
and a four-hour chemo session.
And it was surprisingly easy.
Well, I spent that week while Bob was off golfing
and goofing around and having his normal life,
overbuying every item I could find that had protein.
This is what the doctor said.
The chemo and the radiation will
take some of your weight away.
Well, actually, the radiologist said,
by the end, you'll be donating weight.
So that scared me enough to say,
we're bulking you up, big boy.
So they said protein and calories is what I need.
And fluids.
And tons of fluids.
Keep hydrated, right?
Absolutely.
Every minute of the day.
And not many people know this.
Well, they told me that caffeine drinks don't count.
No.
They actually take hydration away.
Well, I was gonna say, not many people know
that Bob doesn't like water.
Exactly.
I don't care for water.
I'd never heard that in my life.
Nope.
It's a boring liquid.
That's what he's always said.
I don't like water.
So ever since I've known him.
Give me something carbonated with color.
Or a beer or whiskey.
Give me a whiskey with a little ice.
Sure.
That's what I prefer.
So on a day to day basis throughout,
ever since I've known Bob,
it's coffee in the morning, open a Diet Pepsi.
Or a Gatorade.
Gatorade.
He did drink Gatorade regularly, so that's good.
That helps.
And then he'd have another Diet Pepsi, whatever.
But he would never drink water.
Well that week leading up,
as I was trying my best to make this guy a heavy honey,
and I succeeded, let me say.
He drank every ridiculous drink I could find
that had protein in it.
And we narrowed him down to what were his
kind of tolerable ones and favorite ones.
And then he tried some water.
And now.
Surprisingly.
He's drinking water like a champ.
I'm stunned.
It's the easiest liquid to continue drinking.
It is.
You guys don't even know how shocking it is.
It's just so amazing.
I'm going through more water.
In fact I pee in every hour.
This is ridiculous.
It's great.
Now it isn't.
But anyhow, so I spent that week buying every cheese,
meat, eggs, milk, whole milk, heavy cream,
everything I could think of.
Heavy on desserts.
Snack items.
Oh, we have an enormous basket of snack items now
because Bob has to eat.
And they told us to start this
before the treatment even began.
It's like going to a candy counter at a movie theater.
This is fantastic.
Except they all have protein.
But they said to begin this process
of eating small meals throughout the day.
No more breakfast, lunch, and supper.
That's just not gonna happen.
So we started and it's really worked.
It didn't really change our lifestyle
because we were never a big go out to dinner people.
We're big on lunch.
We were big on lunch.
But now we're little on lunch.
It's like you're preparing to be cast
in a role as Fatty Arbuckle.
For the most part right now, yes.
Take a look at me.
I'm doing it that way.
Look at him.
He's doing so great.
No, I'm just saying you read about those actors
that have three months to gain 40 pounds
and I always envied them.
Well I bought protein powder.
There's a few of them that went that way
and forgot to take it off.
Right, right.
Not saying any words.
No.
Kathleen Turner.
Oh, excuse me.
I had something in my throat there.
Well I went online and shopped for protein powder
and when you buy online and you don't have it
in front of you to touch and see,
it was impossible to judge the size
and I bought protein powder in what I thought five pounds.
It's probably the size of a five pound bag of flour, right?
It's powder.
It's so enormous.
I got vanilla and chocolate and I have no place to put them.
There is, I don't know, it's as big as a snare drum.
We could draw bingo balls out of it.
See, I was just gonna say.
I know.
So I did overreact.
Huge tumbler.
But I just wanted to do my very best to get him fed
every two or three hours to have something interesting
and delicious.
Is the protein powder tasty?
I mean, is it?
Yeah, there's a vanilla and a chocolate.
So it's like a shake?
Yeah, you add it to ice cream.
Okay, but you mask it with other stuff like ice cream.
Okay, all right.
We have a lot of ice cream in our fridge,
or freezer, you can't believe how much ice cream.
That's not bad.
And that's good.
And it's an unusual cancer in that regard
because it's going to affect his esophagus and stomach.
He isn't going to want to eat at some point down the road,
which I'm assuming by the time we get to.
I said as the radiation goes on,
I'm gonna start swelling at the esophagus stomach junction
there.
Where they're gonna burn it with, you know, it's raised.
You're getting way ahead of the game.
Okay, yeah.
With what you're doing.
We're feeding him now.
No, no, no, no, no, I mean feeding him.
We get bulked up and then if the radiation
starts taking it from me.
He's gonna have milkshakes and cheesecakes.
There's extra to take.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
So, well.
That's our plan.
So that was our lead up to week one.
And yeah, the week one we had the.
Have some fun and fatten up.
Yes, and we talked to a couple of nurses
about what to expect.
They said it's possible I could lose my hair.
Okay.
It's possible I will not want to eat.
There's many of these things.
One thing that was interesting I thought
was that after chemo, they said every time I use
the restroom.
Yes.
To close the lid and flush twice.
You know?
There's so many jokes you could say.
I know.
But didn't they say that to you during your
physical every year, Bob?
I think that was more of a personal hygiene suggestion.
I don't know what it is.
I'm a sprayer.
I thought it was.
I just thought it was so weird.
Plus we have a house full of urinals.
Yes, you do.
Bob built this house.
We built it for him to have these fun urinals.
There's no lids on those as you know.
So he can't be using them right now.
He can't use the urinals right now.
And evidently that's to protect me.
That's what I'm told.
Apparently radiation and poisonous stuff in my spray.
I guess, I don't know.
Holy cow, Bob.
I know.
It's kind of weird.
You're like a superhero now.
And what's the other thing you have to be?
Oh boy, here we go.
I heard this.
Well, we asked if it's possible.
I actually asked, which was a little embarrassing.
During this process to actually have intimate relations
with each other.
Oh, hell yes, you're supercharged now.
Of course I am.
I mean, you know, they're loading me up
with all these fluids.
Look out.
But they said that I have to wear protection.
Okay.
I said, well, like, is it gonna glow in the dark if I.
He did actually say that.
It could.
He said.
I don't know.
He actually used those words.
Am I gonna glow in the dark?
Which is valid, because that would be so cool.
I know.
Oh, I know.
That would be the best side effect.
Oh, yeah.
I'd have to take a picture if he did.
Right.
I don't even need a blue light.
Yeah, turn all the lights up.
There he goes.
There he is.
He's headed that.
He's headed your way.
Oh my God.
Look out.
So, I was somewhat surprised by that news.
There's other things that I.
So what did you do with that news?
Well, I decided to go buy some condoms.
And you know, the last time I bought condoms,
I had to buy like, I don't know, maybe.
A comb.
Three pounds of snacks.
A comb.
Maybe a battery.
Some batteries.
Aspirin.
Yeah.
Is that really a boy thing?
Oh, yes.
You see that in movies.
You load this big pile of items on the counter
and all around it.
You tuck your rubbers in.
You slide the rubbers in the middle of the pile.
And as they're going through the checkout,
you know, they go fast.
They check, check, check,
and there's always a price check on these Trojas.
Oh, right up front.
So it's not just in the movies.
Because I've heard that in the movies.
Oh no, you always.
No, it's in fact, there's probably,
now you can buy them on the counter.
You had to ask the pharmacist way back.
Back in the day.
Oh, that's embarrassing.
Oh boy.
Well, plus Bob, you were probably 13.
Well, but I looked 18.
With the mustache.
Yeah, yeah.
So I actually had to buy condoms.
And I said, you know what?
Hell, I'm 72 years old.
I don't need to pretend I.
You should be proud.
I'm saying, look at this.
I'm gonna go buy some condoms
and throw them on the counter.
Hell, yes.
They probably think you're with a woman
who's of childbearing years.
That's what I said is that the gal said,
oh, Mr. Kavoy, I'm 70 years old buying condoms.
Third wife, 25 years old, nope.
All I said is can you hurry it up?
Cancer.
Yeah.
I said, can you hurry it up?
She's in the parking lot.
Yeah.
Oh, great.
And by the way, I'm just gonna wear these home.
Yeah, there you go.
So it was a couple of things I haven't done
since I was a teenager.
That's kind of crazy.
It gave you some laughs.
Yeah, it gave me a good laugh.
Because now you can scan yourself.
You wouldn't even have to scan yourself.
You wouldn't even have to see the girl at the counter.
Right, you could just.
Well, he goes to the Walgreens.
Where you go to the Walgreens,
there's no self-checkout.
Plus, you know what?
At Walgreens and our CVS actually, they know us.
I mean, it's right around the corner.
And that's a little unnerving.
I just think they should,
for the guy that's too chicken to buy them,
that's gonna scan them himself.
He'll go to Meyer or something.
Well, there should be a noise on the self-check thing.
Oh, if there's rubbers.
Rubbers, rubbers, rubbers.
Kinda like when in a jackpot or something.
Little red light fence.
I figured you would use that sound
that you guys used to use on the show.
Boop, boop.
Yeah, the old slide whistle.
Yeah.
Well.
And there's no sound effects with radiation or.
No, it's a little disappointing, I betcha.
You would think it would be the lab.
There's nothing.
No, it's silence.
Yes.
There's a big machine that roves around me
and I'll tell you about that.
Okay.
In just a minute, we're gonna take a quick break
and get a drink.
Okay.
He's gotta keep hydrated.
He's gotta be hydrated.
No, he's gotta go put the lid down.
We'll be right back.
Okay.
I'm sick of being sick.
All right, this is the Bob and Cancer Show.
Hey, hey, hey, we hate my partner.
We're gonna try to kill him.
We're gonna talk about week one,
our very, very first week at the Cancer Center.
Now, Bob just took a break
and had a payday.
Excellent source of protein for you that are wondering.
One of the top two candies of all time.
You might wonder why our break was a little long.
It's hard to, you can't eat a payday quickly.
No. Right.
Nor would you want to.
No, it gets stuck in your,
but there's no better summer treat than a beer and a payday.
Oh, we learned that early on.
Oh yeah, way back when.
So we went to the Cancer Center on a Monday
to get things started.
First was radiation.
15 minutes on a table when a machine moving around me.
I don't know how it knows what it's supposed to be doing,
but it did it.
Is it silent?
It's, well it's a.
Does it go.
You hear the machine moving around.
But no, boop, boop, boop, boop.
No, no, no.
Space aid.
No, there's none of that.
Darn it. No.
And it was 15 minutes as they promised.
And bam, we head upstairs to the treatment center
where I am to take my very first chemo treatment.
And pretty nervous, not knowing what to expect.
They take us into a treatment room that has a recliner,
a nice window with a view of a dumpster.
Yep.
It was hilarious.
Kind of weird.
And it was a freezing cold day with sideways wind.
Oh yeah, it was very cold.
It was nasty out, which so then you don't mind
being inside at least.
But the dumpster view was questionable.
Yep.
It is what it is.
But as I recall, they have snacks.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, they encourage you to eat.
Well, you're there for three and a half hours.
So they encourage you to bring food
or they'll get snacks for you.
I brought a whole picnic basket.
We did have a picnic basket.
I had all his fluids and I didn't realize
they could get, you know, snacks there.
So I packed up everything possible to eat and drink.
Did you have a two wheeled truck for the powder?
Yeah, for my protein powder.
Thanks.
Had higher sherpas to bring it in.
And then when you get there, they make you very comfortable.
They draw my blood.
Oh, can I say before you say that,
that we got, we were in our own room
and we kind of imagined, no.
Yeah, you just can't hit the table.
Oh, sorry.
Yeah.
We're in our very own room.
And I was imagining that it was more like this place
I had gone once for an infusion.
Like people are just lined up.
Everybody's hooked up to tubes and IVs
and you're looking at other people, but you're not.
No one's staring at us.
We had our very own nice room.
Yes.
And that was part of the deal at the cancer center.
And they bring you in and they said, the routine is,
they draw my blood and test it.
So they send it to a lab, they read my blood,
which determines the amount of chemo treatment
I am to receive that day.
The lab is there.
It's just across the hall, which is so nice.
Everything is right there.
They take that and they mix my taxol or whatever it is.
They mix it appropriate to my blood type.
It'll be darn.
And it's all done within an hour.
Then they give me a pre-treatment infusion,
which is Benadryl, steroids, and an anti-nausea.
Anti-nausea, yes, I remember that.
Because the chemo apparently does cause that.
And that takes about half an hour.
It's about a half an hour infusion.
And by the end of it, I'm kind of hyped up on steroids.
After you get drowsy first from the Benadryl.
He took a little nap.
Then you come right back up.
He laid back in that recliner
and I turned off the lights in the room.
And it was nice.
It's like you lived Go Ask Alice in about 30 minutes.
For the most, yes.
Oh, that's funny.
But after that, then about an hour later,
they bring in the first dose of chemo.
The poison, yeah.
And I'm on that for an hour.
And then they check my vitals and stuff after that hour,
make sure everything's okay.
And if I'm okay, then they bring in the next dose,
which is a, I forget the name of it.
I can look it up.
I'm never very good with medical names.
No.
I just, I can't remember them there.
Do you want me to pull the sheet out?
They should name medicines like Fred.
Yes.
You're getting the Fred drug.
I'm having Fred today.
It's just hard to remember the names.
So the second one is about a 45 minute dose.
He's eating the whole time.
Yeah. Good.
And I can have snacks and stuff while this all going on.
He had a sandwich.
And once that's done, we've been there now three
and a half hours, and it's just pick up your stuff
and go home.
That's cool.
Yeah, they just go, okay, we'll see you next week.
And then for the week, the medicine in my bloodstream
is fighting cancer all week long.
Yep.
So.
Oh, tell about when the nurse gave you the steroids.
What she said.
She said now that they inject the steroids
into the saline solution that's hooked up to my arm.
And the one that's a steroid has to be injected very slowly.
She said, if it's injected quickly,
it can cause a burning sensation,
what they call ants in your pants in the crotch area.
She wasn't kidding.
And I said ants in your pants, like they're biting you?
And then she's like, she says, it's kind of like fire ants.
Wow.
And she said some nurses are not accustomed to this
and they'll just put the injection in.
Push, done.
And when it goes in fast, it can burn your crotch area.
Inside.
Ants to steroids when I was in Tijuana that one weekend.
So she did a very slowly, I never had that occur.
Okay, good, good.
And they also put a little fear in us
before he even started about an allergic reaction.
Right.
That is like one in 10 people get an allergic reaction
to the medicine that's gonna go into you.
So they have to monitor him very closely
the first time and the second time.
After that, they know you're not allergic.
But the first week, they come in every whatever,
15 minutes just to make sure he's not having a reaction.
And they said when they told us about it,
that they keep, I guess it's like an EpiPen.
If they see that reaction, they're gonna poke it
right into his thigh through his pants.
Bring me back around.
And she said it's very scary if it happens.
But I did not have that reaction.
But he did not have it.
But I just was gonna throw that out there
for people who may not know that that is something.
I didn't know that was a possibility.
It's a possibility.
One in 10 seems kinda high.
That is high.
Yeah.
It is.
But he got the meds and we left.
We left and then the week I had radiation,
Monday through Friday, every morning at the same time.
And by the end of the week on Friday, I had zero symptoms.
That's great.
Oh, but what did the steroids do to you that week?
Well, the steroids, you know, I've had steroids before
when I've had like a pneumonia or something.
And they'll give you that to help clear out
your airways and stuff.
And it makes me wanna paint the house.
You get hyper.
Yeah, it makes me wanna go out and build a barn.
Yes.
You're just hyped up and ready to go.
He was cleaning the putting green
and doing all kinds of stuff.
I did the first week, I did all kinds of chores
around the house.
He was cleaning gutters up on a ladder.
I'm like, dude.
Hey, look at that guy.
He doesn't look like he has cancer.
No, no. Exactly.
Look at him going.
You felt great.
Yeah, and it was great.
And they said the steroids will last until about Thursday
from Monday through Thursday,
and then they'll kind of disappear
and you'll probably feel a little less energetic.
Just thinking. But he didn't.
You know, the wife of your next door neighbor is saying,
look at Bob, why don't you get cancer, you lazy bastard?
Look how busy he is around the place.
Look at him going, look at him going.
Go, go, go.
That's great.
You didn't feel bad at all.
Not at all.
It was a very good feeling.
I didn't feel as if I was sick or anything whatsoever.
The first week was actually as smooth as could be
with no side effects whatsoever.
And you're sitting in the chemo chair.
I mean, it's a long time.
That's your first time.
Now this is real.
Yes. It was real.
I took a picture of him.
That takes a, that's a big day.
Yeah, it was big.
It is, but. Because now you're confronting it.
But what we found is it, having a game plan made us resolute.
We are now doing what we need to do to get rid of this.
That's how it felt.
And that was comforting to us
that we were being guided through this.
But after that first day,
I realized it was gonna be as horrific as I thought.
Right, yeah.
There are things that will happen down the road,
which we have yet to travel,
and we'll pass that along as it happens,
but I don't know what's gonna happen to me
in the next few weeks.
Right.
That first week, we didn't know
if it was gonna burn going in,
if he was gonna feel that.
It's a pretty powerful drug,
both the combination going into him.
And he got out of it like a champ.
Again, it's a means to an end.
It is. And Becky, you and I
aren't the ones that have to go through it.
I know.
But we're right there.
Yeah.
And it's a team effort.
Yeah. It truly is.
But it really was a relief after that first treatment
that it wasn't gonna be horrific.
Mm-hmm. Right.
I just don't know what side effects will happen,
and we'll share those as they happen.
The one thing I will share is
when you announce to friends and family
that you have cancer,
it's amazing how many of them know
people who can get you pot.
Oh, oh.
Not what you thought.
You were gonna take me in the tear bucket.
Now we're high as a kite.
Okay, wow.
It's incredible.
It's true.
How many people come out of the woodworks,
you know, a lot of people do this to generate appetite.
A lot will do it to ease pain.
Or help them sleep.
Or help you sleep.
I was like, well.
And you know, Bob's a little familiar from the 70s.
I used to dabble.
Did you dabble?
For 10 years.
Right.
10?
Well, that was a good start.
The 70s were kind of a blur,
and it was an enjoyable time of my life.
So he's familiar with how it would feel to use it,
you know, but not against this foe, you know.
And so I figured, well, I might as well dive in.
Might as well.
Might as well see what happens.
So who knows?
Has that taken the edge off a little?
We'll share.
We'll share with you what happens.
Okay.
As it happens.
As we progress to the other weeks.
But let me take you to the tear path.
The tear path?
Is there a tear path in this week?
The reason I never got into pot.
Yeah.
I figured I would be the Sid Barrett of marijuana.
I would lose my mind.
Never be the same again.
No, it's not.
That won't happen.
Sorry.
It's a warm feeling.
It's like you're being hugged by a nun who really likes you.
Wait.
Wait, is this?
A Cinemax nun.
We're not a religious nun.
Hugged by a nun?
A nun who likes you.
Yes, yes.
What?
Oh my God.
Sorry.
It's, I don't know.
It's fun.
It was fun when I was a young man.
Well, we'll find out how it works.
I'll find out if it's fun again.
Okay.
Maybe.
Of course it's not legal in my area.
Correct.
But they don't know where we live.
I made a mistake then.
I thought the gummies by the paydays were actual gummies.
No.
Careful.
Becky, you have three heads right now.
Oh my God.
Oh gosh.
Okay, here we go.
Well, I just wanna say on the subject of the support
we have of our family and friends,
and that this is crucial when you,
if you're out there and you do receive a diagnosis
or someone in your family does,
but our family loves us and they're very nearby
and we're all close.
This news came on the heels of losing
our beloved sister, Lynn, my sister,
Bob's sister-in-law.
And if you.
Just two weeks prior to our diagnosis.
Well, when we got the diagnosis,
we were at Lynn's house having a memorial
and Bob was taking calls from the doctors.
So we're still getting, we were still at that time
getting cards, flowers, we got plants delivered.
After the diagnosis, I'm like, somebody sent us a plant?
Because, and they didn't know about Bob,
but I thought it was.
It was for Lynn.
Yep.
And the loss of Lynn.
And so it hit us in a time when we were already
so sorrowful, but in a strange way,
it helped me as the sister who lost a sister
to turn a corner and have a major focus
that I'll grieve Lynn down the road, most likely.
Because right now, I don't have time.
I had just made a joke to my brother Yale
and sister Susan that Becky is about to take to her bed
the old pioneer phrase for an old lady taking to her bed.
And this was after we lost Lynn,
before the diagnosis for Bob.
So we were already pretty crushed and it was like,
boom, I'm not taking to my bed.
I got a job to do.
You're on point now.
Now we have a job.
Yeah, we do.
And I had told Bob my full-time job is feeding him
and keeping him hydrated and fat and happy.
But my other job is to try not to cry all the time.
And I said to the nurses this week,
I haven't been crying.
I've been, and he's like.
Of course I said to the nurses, she's a liar.
She cried.
It is.
I'm a weepy person anyhow.
But your emotions are now just under the surface.
Just right there.
And anything can trigger it.
So I wanted to share a few responses from our good friends
after we've only told a very few people right now.
Our family, of course, our siblings and our children,
but also a few close friends.
One of my friends who actually lost her husband to cancer
said when I told her, she said,
when you want to hide, call me.
I'll sit in the closet with you.
Isn't that beautiful?
And it's genuine.
And another friend when I told her,
I said I don't want to add to your already full plate.
And she said, it's a big plate.
That's nice.
I know.
People just love us, Bob.
Well, they love you.
My other friend said, the joy of your house
is gonna be one of the most potent medicines
to counter this moment of despair.
And we do have a joyful house.
Oh totally.
It's a house of laughter and fun and family.
It is, and love and commitment.
And we are gonna make it because we have already
got this foundation of love and joy
and laughter and happiness too.
So, and then my friend Whit said,
I love you both more than my clumsy words can ever say.
He's a liar too.
But it's so true because clumsy words are.
You don't know what to say.
You don't.
That is the one thing about cancer.
People do not know what to say.
And there's no right answer.
No.
You don't wanna be too pat on the back,
oh my gosh, I'm so sorry for you.
You don't wanna be a victim.
No, no.
Or a constant, be a patient to people.
You know, oh poor Bob, poor Becky.
And you don't want that.
No, I really don't.
I don't care for that at all.
And we haven't had that.
We really haven't.
And you also kinda don't want
the well-meaning cheerleader.
Yeah.
Unless of course she's topless.
Well, yes.
Oh great.
Which has become my motivation for my treatments.
Really?
Yes.
I've told my wife that I need motivation.
Yes.
And she has volunteered to be the topless cheerleader
when I need it.
And then it's time to hide the glow stick.
Hide the glow stick.
That's pretty good.
Here it comes, you can see it.
Get back.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, you're right.
It's awkward.
It is.
People do love you.
Yeah.
And because you have cancer,
you do not lose your sense of humor.
No, you don't at all.
You really don't.
No.
And you started to say you don't want the kind of platitudes
and we are not sloganeers.
Bob and I are not, you know,
I'm not gonna wear a big t-shirt that says
my husband has cancer, feel for me.
We're just not those people.
Beat my husband, he has cancer.
No, I mean beat cancer.
He's my husband.
You know what?
You need those shirts like they have out at the track.
Show us your tits.
Bob needs motivation.
Show him your.
Right.
Well, you said tits, why don't you say it again?
I shouldn't have.
I don't know why.
I'm sorry for the language.
I actually kind of turned on right now.
Stop it.
No, I shouldn't have said it.
Should we edit that out?
No, we're not gonna edit that.
I feel a severe cold coming on.
I'm gonna put it on a reel
and turn it into my car horn.
I just think that would be.
But for a slogan, that's a good slogan.
That's the only one he would have.
That's a great slogan, right.
I even showed him my ta-tas or whatever
at chemotherapy in the chair.
Oh yeah, you can do that.
I just popped open the shirt.
It's a private room and motivation.
That's what I need.
Right.
That's what the homeless guy at the dumpster got to show.
He did.
He hung around for quite a while.
He really did.
That's an excellent one.
There you go.
That's a good callback.
Well, week one was surprisingly easy.
That's not what I expected at all.
Week two is as easy as this, hopefully, won't be so bad.
Well, I hope people will continue to tune in.
Well.
Because we don't know what's gonna happen.
We'll continue to share.
So every episode is a cliffhanger.
Do not know what will happen.
Will you be like, this is Bob.
Our plan is to do these at the end of each week
and let you know what happened.
Well, Bob said he wants to record them on Sunday
because if you do them on Friday or something,
something funny might happen over the weekend.
That's what he actually said.
Something funny might happen.
Well, you don't know.
Right.
Well, you just can't do it.
I mean, you have to go through the whole week in order to.
So tomorrow's a new week.
Tomorrow a new week begins.
Obviously you have a lot on your mind now.
Do you think that had anything to do with what happened
when you had to jump in the shower for 20 minutes
the other day?
Oh, that's next week.
Next week, yeah.
Okay, there's our cliffhanger.
Oh, what happened to Bob?
Bum, bum, bum.
Bum, bum, bum, bum.
Yes, you do not lose.
Sorry, I thought that was week one.
You do not lose your sense of humor
because you have cancer.
You'll find that out next week.
Okay.
All right, well I hope you enjoyed the Bob and Cancer Show.
I hate my partner.
Boo.
We're gonna kill him.
Yep.
Yes we are.
Stay tuned.
You've been listening to the Bob and Cancer Show.
Tune into our next episode
as we continue to follow Bob's journey.
Bob Gavoy appears courtesy of Trojan.
Trojan Rubbers, you're never too old.
This is Whit Grayson speaking.