1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Aaron Davis (former Husker, Pro speaker): March 25th, 10am

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

Giving speeches during COVIDHow he was diagnosed and how he dealt with having Colon cancerDP reliving his times in the hospitalReach out and look out for peopleAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the couple Chevrolet GMC Studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, presented by Beatrice Bakery, on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticket FM.com. It's Friday, job well done. Buckle up for the fastest hour in radio. Sponsored by L.O. I like my cars, delivery drivers, and internet the same.

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402, 464-5. Sartor him and text on Hanna-Lincoln Hotline. Get at it. Live video streams up. YouTube Twitch, engage in the conversation, hit us with a what-up, and we'll have a conversation. No yelling from the rafters. Come on in, get comfortable. We're going to talk. We're going to talk. Listen. In my space here in Lincoln, my time in Lincoln, there's certain people that you recognize and identify his family the moment you meet them. Kendrit souls, kindred spirits, he is a warrior,

he is a brother, he is a good man, and it is always a pleasure to sit and have conversations. conversations with Aaron Davis. AD, what's happening, brother? D.P. man, it's a pleasure. I was wondering what you was talking about. Yeah. Look, man.

Thank you for speaking so glowingly of me. I feel honored. No, no. The feelings are mutual big, bro. It's that hair, Rico. That's where the, that's a difference maker. That's a difference maker. Dang.

That's how I know you a cousin. That's how I know you're a cousin. You know, this is what this is. I am a fan of victory. I'm a fan of lessons. I'm a fan of getting past friction to greatness. Because greatness requires friction. Yes.

And you have identified, faced, and defeated friction several times. And I just don't think the story is told enough to give praise to, to give honor to. One, the universe were taking care of you. But also for that inner thing, in you that keeps you moving forward and up. Like, let's tell the story. We'll get to young AD, but I want to get to recent AD, right? Trials, Tribulations, Frictions.

Give the folks a little of what you've gone through and what you had to get through. Oh, man. First of all, it's good to be here this morning on the ticket. Rico, DP. And Rico, I can't wait to see that race. I'm going to go to that in a second. Oh, we're going to get him.

We go get it. We are going to get it. Yes, we are. You know, to you guys, because I was listening, I look when I've been traveling like crazy, you know, so even when I was traveling yesterday, I was speaking to Cheyenne, coming from Cheyenne to Denver to fly out to make it back here.

But listen to you guys on the radio, I always enjoy it, man. You guys are the captain, and I'm obviously old school with D.P. and J. But D.P. is a pleasure, man. Yeah, it's been a crazy up and down. I would even say seven, eight years, if you would, have just lost

and ups and downs, you know, September 18th of 2014, unexpectedly lost my mother. And that was tough, you know, I mean, you just, you go through that, you process it, and, you know, there's that saying that, you know, time heals all wounds. I'm not a fan of that quote, teach their own, but I don't think it heals all wounds. I think you learn how to walk with a wound. You kind of have an emotional limp, if you would. And it does, that there's a scar that's there, so you always feel it, you know, it's there.

And then about 108, 17 days ago now, my father unexpectedly passed away on November 28th. And so still, be honest with me, that still hasn't even registered yet that my dad has gone because I never thought at, you know, 48 years old. You know, I'd be without both parents, you know, so that's been incredibly tough. And even, you know, you go back even further. COVID hit all of us, impacted all of us, you know, for my business on the speaking side. Well, when there's no conferences, there's no. speaking engagements. How about that? So that changed everything up. You know, so I had to switch to Zoom. You know, everything became virtual. And I still do a number of virtuals right now. It was good to

see audiences, though, again, faces in the audience again. At the past, you know, month I've been traveling like crazy. Boise, Idaho had, you know, a couple thousand in there. D.C., there was probably about 5,000 people there. The crowd yesterday in Cheyenne was probably about 500, give or take. So that's good to see that again, but that was a blow. And then May 3rd of last year, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, you know, which at 47 years old, I'm thinking, God, are you, come on, man, I'm 47, you know. So I went from where I was, since at the age of 40, I was going in for all my physicals, you know, like I should. And a COVID year, I didn't go. My doctor wasn't even accepting clients, unless it was an emergency at that time, you know.

But went in to see him last year in April, just doing my annual fiscal. And he says, everything was great. do you're healthy but I'm worried about your PSA numbers I need you need to get into see a urologist and I'm thinking like you know it's a doc you know a few weeks she months you go know immediately that's when I knew it's like okay something something's not right I felt nothing though that's the thing about I didn't feel anything and so I go into the urologist to have to have that procedure done as far as you know them checking me over that is so not fun oh bro you're talking about painful it is oh man it was painful and so you have to

wait for the results to come back. And actually, I was supposed to have the results back on, like, the 28th, like the last day of the month of April, April 28th, 27th. But we had a golf trip back with my co-ho's Raff, Chris Raff. You know, we had a golf trip planned out to his family's place in Branson. And so I said, you know what? What's done is done? I'm going on this golf trip regardless.

You know, talk to my wife. She's like, look, absolutely. So we went, had a great time, man. Me and Raff didn't even talk about it, you know. But it was always in the back of your head. It's always whispering. So on May 3rd, I go to my doctor for the results. He comes in.

He goes, AD, it is cancer. And I was just in shock. You hear the C word, and it changes your life real quick. It brings clarity real fast. It really shows you what's important. And so I had to chose elected the procedure for, it's called, they removed my prostate, you know, through, with, it was using laser, you know, so I have six incisions across my, my stomach right now

where they remove my prostate right above my belly button. And you're talking about humbly. DP, man, I couldn't walk them on. I couldn't use the restroom. I had a catheter for 11 days. Rico, you don't ever, you listeners, some of you listeners may understand that, may get it, may have had it before. It's not a, I, I've told the story of having to live with a catheter after my spinal fusion

surgery. Oh, man. and through the blood clots. And understand with the full brace from the spinal fusion, but the catheter, they botched it. They botched putting it in. And when I woke up, the big pain, I was worried about my back.

I'm going to be in a full body cast. But what I knew right away was that the catheter was still attached to my upper thigh in AD for them 10 days, bro. It's brutal. You don't want to cough, sneeze, turn. Nothing. Laugh. You don't even want to sneeze.

Nothing. You don't even want to burp. I mean, that, that, that's the monster. Like, that's literally the toughest thing I've ever been through. It was horrible. It was horrible. That experience right there, D.P., as you know, when they remove that, your life changes. Hey, bro.

Wait, a minute. Like, because I was asleep when you put it in. Yes. Right? Like, I was asleep. And you get a certain clarity. Because you put word combinations together that you didn't even know you knew. Like, I'm pretty sure I spoke Italian.

Like, I, like, you know, praise Jesus and pass the biscuits. I was trying to like, I had to put some. The key word you said was clarity. Oh, man, like, because nothing was important. Like, it was like, no. Oh, man, look, I literally had pins and screws on my spine and did not care. No. I did not care.

Right. Like, I thought I was going to look down and my toenails were all going to shoot off. Like, just. And they're looking you in the eye. You're looking right at you. They look at you in the eye. All pride is gone. They want to see the pain.

Yeah. They do, Rico. Pride is gone at that point. You have no pride whatsoever at that point. No, no, they know everything. So, you know, they know. No secret. Look at those.

Look at me now. Look at me now. I am the captain now. You were right. Like that, that thing. I mean, the incisions, bro, that's not. To me, the fact that you have become so comfortable in it. Because that's such a unique space to get into.

Yeah. You weren't familiar with the procedure before it happened. Mm-mm. And you didn't have a choice. Like those two things. when they tell you that your life is going to change or else. Right. And that we have to do a thing that you are not familiar with. You're going to have to trust. You're going to have to have faith.

Yep. And then you better have a plan. Right. Right. You know, what you just said, DP, I didn't have a choice, you know. And then when you infer to listeners out there, regardless of which you're racist, but in black males and people of color, in particular, prostate cancer is more aggressive, and it's, we're the likelihood of ours, I think it's like three and a half more times when we're likely to get pro. First of all, if you're a male, if you live long enough, there's a good chance you're going to get it.

You're going to have to deal with it. Yeah, you're going to have to deal with it. You usually just don't deal with it at 46 years old. That's what was the major concern with my doctors. That was a major concern for me, where it was the early onset of it, and it was very aggressive. So I'm nine months cancer free now, which I thank God for. I'm grateful.

And there's always that little whisper. what if it comes back? What if it comes back? I mean, that's always there. But you know what, though, D.P., we all got different whispers. For some, it's cancer, for some it's something else. Maybe it's a relationship.

Maybe it's finances. We all got to answer the voices in our head. And, you know, we've got to stand up to them because all of us are dealing with something. And so when I dealt with this, I said, you know what? My late mother, she had a stroke at a very early age. I think my mom was like, I was only like in fifth grade when she had the stroke. So what are you, like, 11 years old, fifth grade, something? like that. So my mom would have been like in her 30s, you know, late 30s when she had a massive

stroke. And I remember seeing her at Madonna proactive. And I'm, you know, I'm fifth grade at the time. And I'm just in tears seeing my mom, you know, in that condition, couldn't move her legs, couldn't move her left hand. And remember her looking at him, the youngest out of six kids. She goes, baby boy, she goes, I'm going to walk out of here. She goes, you have to speak those things into existence. She goes, I'm going to walk out of here. She had the nursing staff amazed when she was doing her PT, just the, just how expedient she was in recovery, because she talked to herself, our thoughts. Thoughts become things.

So I always say, be careful what you think, because what you think becomes reality. So I, although I have my down times, yes, I'm not one of those speakers where a person is going to say, you've got to be positive every day. No, there's some dark moments, man. Yeah, you bet the friction, the friction, like you said, DP. I had a lot of those, man. I remember laying up in that hospital bed at 2.30 in the morning. I had sent my wife home.

I was like, you've got to go home and get some rest. There's nothing you can do for me here. And I had never spent the night in the hospital as a patient. You know, I had my kids. You know, I did with my kids, but never as a patient. Never been sick like that. And I remember looking down, I'm laying in that bed. I couldn't get out of the bed of my own.

But I'm seeing all those, you know, needles and buttons and things attached to me. Things beeping and going off. And I remember I sat there, man, and I just wept. I mean, I just bawled. I was scared. I was depressed. I was mad. And I was just, I literally just cried out.

I was like, God, I said, look, I said, I'm scared. And that friction hits you, man. And then I begin to think back to my mom, you know, the things that she said, if you speak to those things to existence. And folks, I'm going to tell you right now, no one talks to you more than you talk to yourself. Our self-talk, we talk to ourselves more than anyone ever talks to us. So, and I always ask myself this and I ask audience is this, if you, if your friends talk

to you the way that you talk to you, would they still be your friend? friends. So we have to be careful what we say to ourselves. So I started speaking to myself. I'm like, you know what, I'm going to get out of this bed. So you have to, yeah, but that friction hits. It's always going to be that way. And you know, folks, it's okay not to be okay. There's going to be those dark periods, man. So you, I mean, going through and for the folks who have been through those major life changing moments medically or physically where you have to make a decision that I do have to have conversations with myself. uncomfortable conversations with myself,

telling you, talking to yourself about the things about you that got you there, the things that are going to get you out of there. I, you're talking about having learned to walk and having to learn to go to the bathroom again, right? That's a humbling. Yes, it is. That's a humbling to have, and I remember sweet Rosa, Rosa was my ICU nurse.

and she would just come in. Now, she understood the mission because she knew I was at rock bottom. It's her and the chaplain, right? 27 blood clots. 27 blood clots and a saddle embolism over my bronchal still. But Sweet Rosa would come in, and she would talk to me about her family.

She would talk to me about her daughters. her husband, her favorite recipes, all while doing all the things that were uncomfortable to me. Because she knew I had to know her and I had to trust her. And we all need those people. Yes, we do. Right? That when we can't do the basic things for ourselves,

will do them for us. Wives jumped to the top of the table. Right. Because Becky had to, you know, Becky's boss Becky. but she had to sleep on a chair in ICU and wouldn't leave. And I'm like, well, okay, that's God showing up. Right? Right, right.

Absolutely. How was it for you and yours? Did you re-see them in a different light with new eyes? You know, I did in that Brooke being a nurse, there's a lot of, you know, terminology and procedures she understood and really, you know, helped alleviate a lot of that stress and a lot of that, quite honestly, fear. Just kind of like Erosa. Yep.

And Becky, you know, just alleviate a lot of that fear, brought some peace. So definitely grateful for what she did and does, because that definitely helped me out. Because, you know, I was very foreign to a hospital. I don't like hospital. No one likes hospitals. First of all, it's like somebody, I don't want to go to the dentist. Well, no one wants to go to the dentist. No one wants to go to the hospital.

So that helped. It was very tough for my kids. Because they had never seen me like that before. Never seen me down. Never seen me down. Never seen me sick to where I was immobile. And I remember one time that my middle son, Keenan, Aiden, my oldest son, little A.D., they're polar opposites and personalities,

but the best of friends, those boys are tight. And I thank God for that they're grateful. But Aiden keeps his emotions just close to the heart, he's closer to the sleep. Doesn't show his cards a lot at all. Doesn't show a lot of emotion. to see him, in particular, Keenan, the middle one. Kenan shows his, I mean, shows his feelings.

He's very compassionate. He wants to make sure everybody's good to go. And he came home and he just seemed to where I couldn't move. I mean, he just hugged me. And he just like, pops, this is hard. You know, my baby girl, I mean, she would just sit on my lap as much as she could. I was like, baby, as much as I want you to, this catheter is not going to allow that to happen. Oh, man, your ears would have popped off.

Yes, my ears would have popped off. They would have popped out. Oh. Shout off. Nose with a shout off. So I do. But you know what? I look at them, my fame with a different light, and I look at life in a different light.

You know, even driving yesterday, the mountains look a little different. When I was in Vancouver, the mountains look a little different this time. In fact, D.P., back in October, I believe it was, I was in D.C. You're stomping ground. I wish I knew you were back. I'd have sent some people to you. Yes, I was in D.C. And normally I would have just told him to take me to the harbor,

you know, National Harbor, where the event was being held at to my hotel. I said, mm-hmm. I've been to D.C. more times than I can count. I told the Uber driver at Reagan, I said, Lincoln Memorial. Mm-hmm. And I went to the Lincoln Memorial. And I got a picture of it, too.

Went to Lincoln Memorial. And I just sat out there and hung out for an hour and just chilled. Beautiful night and just took things in. I look at things differently now. I appreciate things a lot more. I realize how fragile this thing called life really is and how quickly it can change. as we speak

someone's lives changed today and someone's life will change for the days over this morning as we speak second by second people's lives are changed some good some tragic in between but it's constantly changing so it's really galvanize the importance to me that man you better appreciate every day

you know those things you sound real clicheish before this happened I would say those right things oh live every day's if you should last and you know all those things and when I get on stage now When I say attitude over everything now, it's easy for me to talk about attitude

and things are going great. Now. But what about the friction? So I was in your circle last night, gave the keynote speak to teammates mentoring celebration. And I had prepared a speech, but then I got in the room

and heard the stories before, and I tore the speech up. I said, because now I've got to be present, and I had to tell the story of the three things that I, the four things that I like to say the most in life. and I know you can appreciate this now because this was the impetus for me

was saying thank you in the morning for the day. Yes. Because as with you, I was a little bit less than humble about the appreciation for day to day. I used to say that, you know, I've lived a thousand,

I've lived a hundred lives. And if God took me into the day, I'd be fine because I've lived full, 10 full lives. Except for that day. Except for that day, the conversation was a little different. And you say, well, I know what I've been saying, but if you don't mind, I'd like one more day.

And they tell you with blood clots that, that it gets you in your sleep, right? So then you're afraid to go to sleep because you're not sure you're going to wake up. And then imagine that existence where you're afraid to go to sleep. Right, 27 blood clots, man. Like, it's there, and you've got filters put in, stents put in. I didn't know. So every day, again, when the chaplain's sitting on your bed saying,

well, this might be it. And the doctor's saying, we don't have answers. Like, we can't treat this because your spine is still open, so we can hemorrhage you out if we give you the med, the meds that you need to battle these blood clots. You could bleed out anyway. Or you could clot up and go. So either way, it's a problem.

And then you say, thank you. Your eyes open, you exhale and say thank you. And then throughout the course of the day, and then at the end of the day, you say, well done. Like, well done. This was well done. You got through another one. And then in between, you have to love and appreciate the things that you see. That's right.

And the things that you come in contact with. In AD, it was those things. And then it was the other thing that I had to learn from this, which was through all of this, the fear that happens is that I have not. loved on the people that I love the most the most right that's powerful right and the only and the only regret that we have is that the people we loved didn't know that we loved them as we did so I made a declaration that I was going to use these three words love out loud that's why I like that that if I'm going if I see something good I say something good if I can be something good that's my job that's my task and then to celebrate the goodness of others

and that's a part of why I wanted to have this conversation with you and I want to have more conversations with you about this stuff because there's power in identifying for people it's okay to embrace the friction right right because that's how you get through you're never alone in what you go through right like if I had known you were going through it I could I could offer a hand if you knew what I was going through

you can offer a hand and us having this conversation will allow people nurses doctors uh significant others family members friends to to look out for people in their friction right don't judge them for it right right because that's the fears that we have is that am i less of a man now than i was before this thing punched me in the stomach right kicked me in the head so for you when you said your wife is there remember we're going through it we're under we're we're incapable of processing right so to have you know Look, I had to rely on Becky to tell me what was happening. Like, I was out.

She's there in the conversations. You having your wife there who can tell you and provide comfort is a powerful thing. And because you have it now, you can share with folks what this process is and how they should get through it. You know, one of the key things I would say, and I always say this about even just about with attitude, you know, when they say, well, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, deal with that attitude when you're going through something i always say first of all you got to accept it you got accepted this is this is the reality i have cancer i accept it denial uh is not going to do anything saying i wish this wasn't going to happen well it happened you got to accept it and then the next thing i say you know after you accept it you take action you take action you know

and i didn't have i didn't have a lot of time to be sitting there hollum and you know oh woe is me and those things and those things come natural they're going to come anyway but i have to take action i i didn't have to take but I had to take action. And then the third thing I say, you have to accelerate. What do I mean by accelerate? Accelerate means you got to go through, you know, as far as the healing process of it, the post-surgery after the event takes place, and everyone's acceleration, so I don't want to be kind of a quick disclaimer here.

Accelerate does it mean that your acceleration is the same as your neighbors? It can't be. It can't be. Everyone's acceleration is different. Everyone's journey is different. But the key thing is I always say sit, but don't stay there. You cannot get your mail there. No.

You cannot get your mail at your bottom. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. You can't. And when you learn to walk again, right, through this thing, like those first steps, and they tell you, you can't go home until you can get around the floor, right? Right? Right.

Had to get up a walk. Right? And it's painful. Right. Right. With the catheter still there. Yes. Painful.

And your your, your cheeks to the wind. Yep. In front of the masses. Yes. Right? And you're, and you, and you,

and you are not pretty. You are not pretty. That would be true. Right. So the great humbling. But then the thing that Sweet Rosa said was, baby, take one step.

That's right. That's right. Like, and that punches me in my head right now. Because that was the hardest thing I ever did in my whole life. Yeah. Was the first step. That's right.

And then we began to take one more step. And that's friction. That's growth. That's one more. Absolutely. So we'll throw the break. We will continue this. This is the conversation I want to have with Aaron Davis,

Brother A.D., here on one-on-one. We'll be right back. Download our app by searching 93.7 a ticket in your app store. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 93-7. seven the ticket and the ticketfm.com.