Episode 42: Reclaiming Life after Cancer

In this heartfelt episode of The Purposeful MD Podcast, I am joined by the incomparable Gregory Proctor.

Gregory is a Navy veteran, cancer survivor, and award-winning author. 

He truly is energy in motion. He shares his extraordinary story of transformation, from high-powered executive to cancer patient and now to mission-driven philanthropist and inspiration to so many.

Here are the key takeaways from this episode - 

• The emotional turning point that led him to share his journey publicly and the unexpected support that followed
  
  
  
• The powerful role of community, hope, and advocacy in survivorship
  
  
  
• The importance of authenticity and vulnerability, especially around asking for help and advocating for yourself
  
  
  
• How walking the Camino de Santiago became a literal and spiritual pilgrimage for healing and purpose
  
  
  

This episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating adversity. In Gregory’s words, “ We have an indomitable human will in our spirit.”

Connect with Gregory here:

Website(s): www.gregoryoproctor.com, www.reclaiming-life.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gregory-o-proctor
Instagram: @gregoryoproctor
Podcast: www.kut2thachasepodcast.com
Email: gregory@k2tcpodcast.com

Transcript

0:08

Welcome to the Purposeful MD Podcast. As a physician, you've sacrificed so much of your life for other people, your patients, your family, your friends, and your colleagues. What would it feel like to spend time doing what you enjoy and to live without guilt? I'm your host, Dr. Laura Suttin, a family physician, certified coach, and business owner. If you're a medical professional on a journey towards your most purposeful life, a life with more time and energy, and ultimately more joy, then this is the podcast for you. Welcome to the Purposeful MD Podcast. I'm really excited to have our guest today, Gregory Proctor, on. We'll get to know him, um, but let me read your bio. So Gregory Proctor is a Navy veteran, cancer survivor, and global project executive, and the award-winning author of, Faith, Strength, and Courage, A Memoir of Overcoming Adversity Embracing Life's Journey. With over 27 years of experience in project management, consulting, and leadership across energy, infrastructure, and technology sectors. Gregory is co-founder and host of the Cut To The Chase Podcast, his storytelling is rooted in lived experience, surviving multiple myeloma, rebuilding a broken life, and transforming hardship into a platform of healing and purpose. I love that. Gregory is also the founder of SchXer, LLC. Did I pronounce that right? SchXer. SchXer. Thank you, SchXer. Um, he now devotes his platform to empowering others, particularly veterans, patients, and underrepresented voices to reclaim their lives after trauma. A passionate traveler, he now helps fund pilgrimage journeys for cancer survivors on the Camino de Santiago. Welcome to the podcast, Gregory. Thank you Laura for having me, glad to be here, old friend. Yeah. So you and I have met several different times. We met through, um, some fundraising work that we do for cancer research and advocacy. Um, I don't know if you know this, but you light up every room that you go into. Um, I don't know if anybody's ever told you that, hopefully somebody has, but the energy shifts when you walk into a room, and it's just always such a joy to see you, and to share space with you. So thank you for, for being you, and um, thanks for being here. Well, definitely thank you for having me, and obviously thank you for the compliment. I don't think I've heard that before. Well, it's very true, and you can ask, uh, other people that know you and, I'm sure they will concur. So tell, tell us about, about you, about your journey, about how you got to be where you are right now. Well, I would have to start this by saying, um, where I am today and where I was, should I say before, cancer, pre-cancer, uh, I feel like, for lack of better terms, I'm two different individuals. Uh, before cancer, I was an individual that was very passionate, very driven, uh, always focused on the overall goal, the success, the deadline of the projects. And I guess I came off a little bit harsh, somewhat brash, back then during, you know, I would say the first 50 years, uh, of my life, and post-cancer, things have taken rather of a dynamic shift. I've become a little bit more humble, uh, compassionate, very giving, and caring, and sympathetic, and, and also empathetic with regards to what people deal with in their lives. I think, I think the kindness, and the overall accentuation of, of going through what I went through, and realizing that I had to, you know, rely on community, I had to rely on friends, I had to rely on my faith and, and things that, unbeknownst to where I was prior to cancer, I knew about those things. I embraced those things, but I wasn't as checked into those things, as probably as I should have been, and now post-cancer, I would have to say that I am more embodied with life, purpose, and the overall authentication of being able to, you know, uplift others, and have a compassion for dealing with things that, you know are tough. They are challenging our lives, but being able to provide them with a sense of it's not the end, or being able to provide them with a sense of they're not alone, and being able to provide them with a sense of inspiration to let them know that, there's an opportunity that, even though things could have been more traumatic in their lives, it gives them an opportunity to understand, to see the other side, and give them purposeful means to be able to, to weather the storm, and to be able to help them resonate with being able to help others. Thank you for sharing all that, and it's, it's so beautiful the way you describe it. Just this really, um, clear contrast between who you were before your cancer diagnosis and, and where you are now. Mm-hmm. Tell us what, as much as or as little as you'd like to share about your diagnosis, and what life was like for you around that time? Well, life for me, during the diagnosis was, I would have to say very exciting. I mean, it was, it was, you know, sitting on the cusp of what I consider to be, uh, a very invigorating life. Uh, we were going through a, a, a capital raise with Joe Montana. Everybody knows Joe Montana, NFL Quarterback, uh, an old high school, uh, friend of mine, we had developed a virtual seating technology, which was, you know, buzzing around, you know, not only social media, and other platforms, because we're in the height of COVID at that point in time, so those that wanted to get out, and, see concerts, and participate in other various, uh, live events, they, they didn't really have a way of being able to do that. And so we had gone off, and started to develop this technology, and it was really getting a lot of momentum at the time. And I felt at that point in my life, with a very successful podcast, you know, going through a capital raise with Joe Montana, uh, my businesses were, were fairly good at the time, because we just shifted from in-person to, to basically kind of working online, things were looking on a very upward trajectory in my life, and I was really, really excited. Of course, I wasn't paying a lot of attention to my health. I was dealing with lower back pains, and other ailments that were starting to kind of rear their ugly head at the moment, and I was kind of trying to blow those things off, as I was, tied into the buzz, and the excitement of all of the possibility that was going on in my life. And then unbeknownst to me, when things actually took a real turn for the worse, is when I woke up one morning, and I couldn't, I couldn't get outta bed. I was pretty much immobile and, uh, didn't really know what was going on at that point in time, and literally spent probably like the next two and a half, maybe three weeks, trying to get officially diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Mm, gosh, yeah, um, wow. And, and I mean, I, I didn't know you at that point, but I think just, um, hearing that from you and, and just that you said you were so busy that you were kind of ignoring these health symptoms, and just got to a point where you, you couldn't ignore it anymore. Um, I, tell us about, was that like a, did everything have to come to a stop at that point? Were you trying to still power through with the diagnosis, and the treatment, and, and keep all these plates spinning? Well, Laura, I, I think, you know, at the time, I was trying to keep all the plates spinning, uh, my podcasts, uh, to kind of give you an idea, I had just interviewed two ladies. One lady, her mom had multiple myeloma, and she passed away, which that, that was a very touching episode that I had recorded at that moment in time. And then later on, uh, I recorded another episode with the lady, her and her husband were diagnosed with two blood cancer, um, um, cancers at the time. So, I didn't really factor in that, that would be something that would happen to me. And, you know, when it all started to kind of, trickle in, you know, a little bit of information, as you go through different tests and, and vari, variations of things, it was heart wrenching to really understand that, um, you know, this could be a part of my life. I hadn't really accepted the, uh, the notion of the diagnosis until I went through my first bone marrow biopsy, and at that point, there was no turning back. I mean, this is what you have, this, these are the things that we have to deal with going forward. And I think at that pretentious point in my life, I had to make a conscious choice, because there was no longer the Greg that could power through and, and, and do all the things that, that I was doing, you know, prior to, I had to go through, what I consider to be a little bit of a, of a depression stage, uh, in my life, uh, very pragmatic in the overall understanding of trying to decipher what do I let go, what do I keep? And, I think that's a rationale that, when you, when you impose that question in someone's life, they'll probably go, well, I would just keep this and, and, and, and, and move forward with that. But, it's really not that easy, you know, to make that type of decision in your life, because number one, when you talk about, the admiration of your life, there is nothing more precious, no, nothing more quintessential than you being able to live, and breathe, and walk, and see, and touch, and feel, you know the things that you would normally go through in your day-to-day life, and when that is stripped away from you, for me, nothing else mattered. It didn't matter if we were gonna raise the capital that we needed. It didn't matter if the podcast, you know, fell through the cracks, it didn't matter, you know, if we had, you know, things that, you know, we couldn't afford it, none of that mattered, because the only thing that I needed to focus on at that point in my life, was living. Yeah. And trying to get back to the best quality of life that I could enjoy on this side of cancer. And I knew I had to weather a storm that, unfortunately, was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of adverse, adversity, and challenges, a lot of pain, and things that I, I, I had never expected or experienced ever in my life. I mean, you know, a guy that didn't typically go to the doctor except for routine checkups or maybe a sinus infection here. Go to the dentist here, you know, for those routine checkups. But overall, I've lived a very healthy life up until that point. And so psychologically and mentally, for someone that, like I said before, was kind of always in control, here's something that I couldn't control. Here's something that I truly had to rely on, others, I truly had to rely on doctors, and community, my, my pastors, my faith. I mean, these were things that were very uncomfortable. And you know, the destiny of you trying to be successful in anything that you want to do, is you have to feel a little bit uncomfortable. And for me, it was very uncomfortable in the beginning, because, as I said before, I hadn't accept, you know, the overall aspect of the diagnosis. And so when I chose to succumb to the disease, but not let the disease control my life, but succumb to the fact that this is my routine, I'm gonna be in the chemo chair five days a week, Monday through Friday, eight hours a day, you know, that was my job. That's what I had to deal with. And so when I finally succumbed to those things, my life took a much more positive turn. I began to allow myself to release, those emotions, and that anxiety, and not keep those things tremendously bottled up inside, and allowed for others to kind of be transcended through my own journey, because the number one thing that I wanted to do, was be able to help someone out there that didn't have a voice, to be able to advocate for themselves. Yeah. That's so beautiful. And I, what, what I'm hearing in your journey is almost like the stages of grief, right? Mm-hmm. And then you came to this acceptance and, and you described the discomfort in there. And what you said was, I knew I had to weather that, and I think, a lot, a lot of times, and I don't know, I don't wanna speak for you and your experience, but for anybody who's going through something that's challenging or traumatic, we kind of wanna get from here to there. Like, can we just skip over the hard part and, and get to the other side? And unfortunately it doesn't, it doesn't work that way. We have to go through pain, whether that's physical, emotional pain, um, in order to, just, yeah, to get, to get through the, get through the next step. And, and so you had a, an awareness of that, um, that, that was necessary for you to, to be uncomfortable, and I love what you said about we have to get uncomfortable in order to grow. Mm-hmm. And that's so true. That's something that I've learned the hard way, in my own personal and professional journey, is that we can't skip through that. And I think the other thing that really struck me about what you said is, you mentioned it before, relying on, on your community and, and being such a high achiever and, being able to manage so many things all at once, it's not easy to ask for help. And a, a lot of, and myself as a physician, a lot of my physician colleagues, like we're trained, you've got military background, we're trained to not ask for help. We, we do things on our, on our own. It's that independence. And so to ask for help is, really difficult sometimes. And you saw that, that was something that was, not only necessary, but also very healing for you. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I, I, I needed to as, as, uh, as my mom would always tell me, understand when enough is enough. You know, being able to let your guard down and, and allow for people to come in to, to love you unconditionally, to, to lift you up spiritually, to provide you with encouragement. These were all things that, you know, having up a shield or a wall around you, you know, those type of things, uh, would never happen. And when I decided to really kind of do something that I, I, I think a lot of people would say, well, why did you do that? For me, I needed an outlet when I went to social media and just said, hey, I'm just going ta, spread this out, like you would spread peanut butter out on a sandwich. Mm-hmm. I wanna spread this out, whether it's good, bad, or indifferent, you know, I wanna put a positive spin on it, but, I wanna be very truthful, I wanna be very authentic in the way that I'm sharing what I'm going through, whether it's traumatic, or painful, or bloody, or, or grotesque. You know, I just wanted it to be, you know, in its most authentic form and fashion. And in doing that, I think it allowed for people to realize that, you know, if you are going through something like this, whether it's dealing with cancer, or dealing with divorce, or financial setback, or whatever toxicity may be going on in your life, you've gotta find something to gravitate your mind, your spirit, and your heart into. And for me, that came down to hope. You know, the overall understanding that, you know, I'm expecting for something good to come out of this. I don't know if it will, or if it will not, but having the overall admiration of hope, you know, just that, you know, sure feeling of hope that something will positively happen with this, provided me with the overall essence to really kind of keep going, because yes, you know, you've gotta go through this storm. You don't know how long it's gonna be. You don't know if the treatment is gonna work. You don't know if your body's gonna react in an adverse way with, with what's going on with you. So the only thing you have is hope. And so in having that hope and having that faith, which obviously the entitlement of my book, Faith, Strength, and Courage. Mm-hmm. You know, those were the mantras that I lived by every single day, because, it wasn't about looking at a week or two weeks down the road, it was about this is what I have to endure today. I only wanna see the end of the day, and then we'll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow gets here. Mm-hmm. And then we move forward, you know, in, in the overall connotation of, of, of just trying to progress through, you know, the journey, you know? Yeah. And, and, and being, being able to move forward. Yeah. How did you, how did you land on those tools, as tools that were critical for you? Well, it's interesting, because I have been asked that question many, many times. You know, being an individual that was always motivated, and driven, and being certified kind of in the project management, PMBOK principles, and philosophies and, and all of the theology that goes along with that, I just took a lot of what I did for clients, and began to apply that to my life. And of course, I applied it in a very unortho, unorthodox way, because I couldn't be the project manager in the project. I had to be the project, and I had to literally instill those tools into my lovely wife, Monica, to ensure that she would take on some of the overall responsibility to deal with things that I couldn't deal with, because a lot of times I was very incoherent. I mean, if you think about being on chemo and emotherapy, uh, im, immunotherapy for, you know, Monday through Friday, five to eight, or excuse me, eight hours per day, you're very lethargic, you know, throughout the week. It's, it's very hard for you to kind of get things done, you know, psychologically that requires critical thinking. And so therefore she took on a lot of those responsibilities, and really helped out from the analytical aspect, the decision making aspect, were really where my focus was just trying to survive, and doing what little I could do, do and dealing with, you know, the insurance companies, and some of those other things that, uh, she was somewhat unfamiliar with. Yeah. Yeah. So you, and it sounded like it was a, a conversation with her, a communication with her about, hey, these are my skill sets, and this is what I do for my clients. Here's what I need you to do to help, mm-hmm, me, and remind me that, these are the things that are gonna help get me through. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, in order to do that, I mean, certainly, you know, there's, there's so many, you know, stories that are out there, some good, and some bad, but, you know, in having a community, it really starts with, you know, your center core of individuals, that, you know are there in your immediate family, and then from there, you know, those that can, you know, play a, uh, an essential role, in which, there were a lot of people that played a lot of essential roles throughout my journey. Mm-hmm. Uh, and I'm just, you know, truly grateful and, and, you know, couldn't be more happier for them to be able to step up in my life, and be able to, uh, help me weather the storm. Yeah. Did you have, you mentioned the family and some other folks. Did you have a, a community already? You mentioned your pastor, and your faith-based was, or did you have to build that, or was it a little bit of both? Did you have to build the community around you? Well, my popularity, and notoriety was already kind of in play just from my podcasts, and from my business of knowing people literally all over the world. The thing that was very scary, was, how do I communicate to the masses? And so the notion of going to social media was something that, my wife and I kind of toyed with, because she was like, well, I don't really want to go public with this. And I was needing to go public from a therapeutic perspective. Mm-hmm. You know, because even though we were talking a lot about what was going on inside of me, you know, mind, body, spirit, and soul, there was still just this notion of I need to kind of, release this tension and, and all of this anxiety in a way that, you know, I could kind of let it go. And so we made the, the decision, of course, it was lopsided decision, you know, she was no, and I was, yes, but, but when we decided to go that way, that's when I realized, a lot of, you know, who I knew, they were very concerned. You know, the outreach, you know, the, as I say, people parachuting in were, were coming in, you know, by the masses. Mm-hmm. And like I said, that was very uplifting, because, you know, the person that I was on the business side before, you know, obviously I was very hard charging and, and, and very, you know, forthright and coming, in a lot of projects that I was involved with, and I knew those people respected me, but I didn't know that they respected me to a level of sincerity that they did, when the news came out, and broke loose that I had cancer. Yeah. It sounds like people really showed up for you, yes, in a way that was just special and um, and probably appealing for you. Yes, yes, absolutely. Yeah. And now you're doing that for others? That's right. You know, I mean, as they always say, you know, you wanna play it forward and, uh, you know, for me, giving back, and trying to disrupt the norm that's out there, and help people be educated and, and advocate for themselves, and give them the necessary tools to be able to do that, so they don't feel like, kind of a fish outta water as, they go to their consultations, or not knowing what questions to ask, or for that matter, not understanding their labs, which is very, very important in dealing with multiple myeloma, is truly, understanding your labs, probably for, for by more than what your doctors understand your labs. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say you, um, you probably know more, more about those labs than I do as a primary care physician. And, and, um, so that advocacy, you used that word before. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So tell us about the evolution of you, uh, kind of coming out of this, the acute phase of your diagnosis, and then turning this into, uh, a mechanism for you to, to serve others. Well, the first thing for me, was trying to understand that pain is something that we have an option to really digress in, we can always say, hey, woe is me. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm not, um, of sound, mind and body to be able to do some of the physical things that, that, you know, I used to do. And I knew that, of course, on the, you know, uh, post side of, you know, going through the stem cell transplant, and everything that, I probably would not get back to, you know, 100%, uh, maybe I would get back to 80, maybe 90%. I knew I would lose certain aspects in my physicality. But for me, it was about pain became, you know, an opportunity for purpose. Vulnerability became the opportunity for being able to share with others and, and embrace those, uh, aspects of resiliency and, and allow for myself to become a beacon of inspiration for people. And so I wanted to take those negative aspects, those negative words that we tend to shun away from, and I wanted to be able to transcend those into something that became positive. And so the notion of that really was kind of how the book was launched when I wrote, Faith, Strength, and Courage. And then from there, it just became an opportunity for me to get involved with various foundations and organizations that are out there. Uh, share my story, uh, be able to publicly speak about things that should shift the norm, and shift the dynamics of what patients really, really need. And that kind of led to the documentary that I'm working on right now, which is called, Reclaiming Life, A Cancer Story of Hope. That, I can't wait to watch this documentary. How much can you tell us about it? Well, the documentary is something that, has always been, I would say it's been in the undercurrent of what patients talk about, because you know, as I mentioned just a moment ago, you know, we go through all of this up and down, peak and valley, this, this very psychological rollercoaster mentally and physically, and a lot of times once you get to the other side, you kind of shake it all off, and you know that some still have a, a continuation of maintenance. Others, maybe their maintenance has stopped, but you know, we really want to reengage in our lives. We want to kind of, you know, get back into the prosperity of what we, we would consider to be our norm, even though our norm is slightly different. And so the conversions of the documentary was really brought about based on last year, my wife and I did the Camino de Santiago with, three other multiple myeloma patients, and their caregivers. And I kept saying to myself, wouldn't this be something very permissible, to be able to bring multiple myeloma patients here, be able to combine nature and the, you know, the ancient sacred ways of the Camino de Santiago, and bring those two elements together, to really talk about how nature can heal, to be able to talk about how, we are getting ourselves back together through a physicality aspect of being able to do this walk, and have these, these steps mean something significant in our lives, as we go through this. And so bringing those two elements together was really something that I was very passionate about, and wanted to kind of formalize a way to, to help this be the first notion of the protagonist, me being the protagonist of being able to kind of say, look, reclaiming life is something that we all strive to do. How better to do this, than to be able to raise donation dollars, bring multiple myeloma, myeloma patients with us, and be able to help them be able to fulfill that obligation, to check back into life. Uh, oh, check back into life, that's so beautiful. And the, the, bringing people to the Camino, I mean, that's, that's really a pilgrimage. That's correct. And it's such a physical feat. Mm-hmm. And so I just, I'm, I'm picturing people that are cancer survivors or, or still under, in some, some form of treatment, maybe feeling like they don't have the physical or emotional strength to, to make the journey, even to make the trip, not let alone, actually go on the walk. And here you are encouraging, and showing people that yes, you can do this, you've got the strength, you have more strength than you realize, and I'm gonna be right there with you, literally every step of the way. I just think it's, it's so powerful. Yeah. Well, I mean, the thing is, is you know, as I mentioned earlier, when your back is against the wall, what we don't realize is that each and every last one of us, regardless of, you know, walks of life or background, we have an indomitable human will in our spirit. Mm-hmm. I mean, it's been placed in all of us. It's a sea that sometimes you may know you have, sometimes you may not know that you have, until something traumatic, or adverse, or whatever may happen in your life. It's a, it's a major setback that has to trigger that. And so last year, we had a young lady with us that her cancer came back very aggressively. And we walked about 117 kilometers last year, approximately 70 some odd miles. Wow. Her cancer came back approximately 90 days before the trip, uh, took place last year. She went through radiation. She went through a very aggressive treatment, because she was very determined to do the walk. Now, of course, she didn't walk as fast. She didn't walk as slow. I mean, it, it doesn't matter. It's your own pilgrimage for you to be able to do what you want to do. And we were so ecstatic and so proud of her, because having her cancer come back, having the back pain, and all of the other tumultuous things that she had to deal with, but she was determined to be able to do that. And really that's leading by example. Mm-hmm. You know, understanding that, you know, yes, this is a part of my life, and it can come, it can go, but I'm not gonna let it deter me from thriving, from living, and being the individual that I know, that I want to live on this Godly, Godly Earth. Hmm. That's, that's amazing. Um, yeah, yeah, the will of the human spirit, and the will for, for life in general, and survival, is, is pretty incredible. Mm-hmm. Um, and that community can play such a big role as you've seen. Yes. Yeah. Yes. How long have you been in remission? What's your, what's your new birthday? Currently I am four years old, so I've been in re, been in remission now for about four years. Awesome. Yeah. That's great. And uh, you know, I pray every day that I stay in remission, and I don't have to deal with, uh, going back through this, this evolution a second time. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. What, uh, if you think, uh, probably some of the people listening are either going through something challenging right now, or have been through something challenging, or are still trying to manage their way through it, what advice would you give? I think the first thing, as I mentioned, you know, a couple times throughout this is, you really have to allow for yourself to succumb to this is, this has happened, this is your way of life. This is your new life. Uh, a lot of times that's a tough pill to swallow. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and, you know, that's, that's the really the first step. You know, for me it's like, it's like turning on a light switch. You know, you can have the resistance, you can continue to fight it. You can continue to say, no, no, no, but guess what? It doesn't go away. And so the sooner you are willing to allow for that to be a part of your life, and deal with the routines, deal with the treatment, deal with the appointments, and all of those things, that's gonna give you peace of mind. You know, first and foremost, that's gonna give you peace of mind. And then of course, there's a lot of other recommendations that I'd like to be able to kind of share, and I'll, I'll just try to keep it very pointed and, and concise. Um, the next thing is you want to understand what you have, and understand, you know, the, the aspects of the treatment process that you're on, and getting yourself educated with whether or not the treatment is working, if it's not working, and the best way to do that is understanding your labs. And, you know, I always say, and it's, it's one, one of those things, I know you're a doctor and, and certainly I, I have so much respect for our friendship, and who we are, but for me, doctors are navigators, and I always say this to people that I coach. If you don't come in geared with information to be able to effectively communicate with your doctors, and you have a very interactive consutation, then you leave there feeling unfulfilled. Mm-hmm. You know, like, hey, maybe my doctor's not doing what I need them to do. Well, if you don't come prepared, it's very hard for your doctor to do that. Right. And so, you know, I always tell people as I coach them, doctors are navigators. It's a two-way street. And number one, it's your life. It's your life that you're dealing with, and regardless of the chemicals or whatever drugs are putting into your body, you need to be able to communicate effectively as to whether it's working or not working. Mm-hmm. You know? And then the last point I want to say is, find your community. I mean, certainly there's, there's a lot of multiple myeloma specialists, and other doctors that help in the overall oncology, and hematology aspect, but you need to have real world people that are living, breathing, and dealing, and thriving with this disease, each and every day, that can give you those nuggets, that can give you that information, that can help you understand, you know, things that are going on in your life, because really what happens is you're in treatment for a period of time, but I would say greater than 75% of the time, you're dealing with this outside of medical professionals. Mm-hmm. And you have to understand how to weather that, without the me, medical professionals being right there, you know, in tow, to be able to help you, you know, survive on a day by day basis. And I think those three things are, you know, very, very important. You know, the acceptance, you know, understanding how to get yourself educated, and then of course finding your community, because at the end of the day, you're not alone. There is a lot of information that's out there. It's very, very difficult to navigate if you try to do it on your own. Hence, the reason why finding a community of other multiple myeloma patients, caregivers, and survivors, that can help you kind of weather that, because like I said, a lot of times you are navigating this outside of a medical professional supervision. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing that. And I, I just wanna echo the comment that you said about being your own advocate, and knowing your labs, and, um, every, every blood cancer, you know, we kind of talk about blood cancer, that as a, as a whole, but it's not. There are so many different types, and depending on with any chronic disease, you might be seeing multiple specialists, so multiple myeloma, you might be seeing orthopedic surgeon, you might be seeing a kidney doctor, you're seeing an oncologist. You're probably seeing a primary care doctor, so, and each of those physicians is going to really have a piece of the puzzle. Um, and the primary care physician is like the quarterback. They're trying to make sure that you, that you're, you're getting to your oncologist when you need to, and, and all of those kind of, some of the social aspects of it. Um, but, an, and sometimes those opinions and consultations are gonna clash, right? That the cardiologist might think differently from the nephrologist. And that's just how they think and practice. And so, but as the patient, the patient is the one who knows, well, these are the side effects that I'm willing to put up with. These are side effects I'm not willing to put up with. These are the ones that are that, that are just non-starters. And this is, you know, so, uh, for me, when I see patients, it's, it's the, it's patient's life. Um, and they're the ones who have to help. Let's help make the decisions together. And so, and I think at least I hope medi, medicine is moving away from the, kind of the paternalistic, like you do what the doctor says, and more of a shared, collaborative, um, decision making process. And so, um, so I, I, I echo that, that, just because the doctors are the, are the ones that might be prescribing the treatments, doesn't mean that they have all the information that the patients have at their disposal, and they, they might not know what you value and what you, what you, your goals are from treatment. So, mm-hmm. I just wanted to echo that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. For, for me, it was always about quality of life. I mean, like I said, I, I couldn't, I couldn't really walk, you know, and, and, you know, had a, you know, mobility issues. And so for me, walking was very important. So yeah, so, uh, so yeah, I mean that, that was always the goal and, and uh, we stayed focused on that, you know, with my team of eight doctors and truly blessed to have all of'em in my life. Some of'em have retired now, but, uh, you know, the people that they've passed me along to, they truly understand that Greg is not your normal patient. Yeah, yeah. Good for you. Yeah. Thank you so much for being on. Is there anything else you'd like to share? No, no. Uh, certainly I think I've given you all the information for, uh, how people get in contact with me. I mean, there's, there's a lot of information out there about me. Certainly, you know, the, the easiest way is to just put in Gregory Proctor on Google and boom, you get it all. Yeah, yeah. We'll share all of that in the show notes. So definitely. Yeah. Thank you so much. It's so wonderful to, to talk to you and thanks for sharing your wisdom and, and your story with our listeners. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. And uh, don't be a stranger. I won't. Thanks. While I am a physician, the information presented in this podcast is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your own healthcare provider before making any significant changes to your lifestyle or routine. By listening to this podcast, you are not creating a physician patient relationship. Thank you for listening to the Purposeful MD Podcast. If you like what you hear, please rate and review the show. Please also visit my website, www.thepurposefulmd.com for free downloads or to discuss working with me as your coach.