1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - AD speaking about recovery: March 25th, 10:25am

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

After his colon cancer surgery, how did he recover?Mentality and how he kept himself goingDP "What are the Odds"Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to One-on-One with D.P. Brought to you by Beatrice Bakery. On 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome back. One-on-one. A.D. is here. And Davis, he is a walking, talking miracle. Right?

It's really, I think when we sometimes we say miracles, but until we experience that we are the miracle, we don't understand the miracle. I mean, I think we can take it for granted, you know, just the breaths we take, even just the steps we take. I know I took, when I started going back to the gym again, my doctor told me, he goes, A.D., I'm going to tell you this. He goes, one of the ways you'll come back and see me before you should is if you rush back to the things you're doing too quickly. It was very tough not to do anything. Nothing.

Nothing. I mean, I could, just like you, I couldn't sleep in a big. because of the catheter and I had those six incisions because it was called a robotic prosthetic procedure that I had done so those incisions it was hard to breathe add in the catheter my stomach literally was blue green and red and black from the bruising because I have six incisions across my stomach and sitting in that chair and sleeping that chair all those nights I was like but I'm still here it's like the end of Oprah I know the color purple that movie the color purple she goes I may be ugly she goes but I'm still here

You know, I'm still here. And, you know, deep, when you think about yourself, you know, 27 blood clots, you know, you're immobile, can't move. We, so now when things happen to us, we don't sweat it as much. Look, listen, I have seen the end of light, right? That, that, again, four days of the chaplain sitting on the bed, just simply hanging out, like, listen, this is, this is a, this is a, problem. Right. And the doctors and and and and and Becky was just like, wait a minute, she knows like I, I, I, we, we jokingly say I have the pain threshold of a monster. This is like I just, I'm not bothered by pain, but I was in pain and I was hopeless. I was hopeless. I couldn't move my hands from all the wires and tubes and

all those things and you're afraid that the next breath is the one that's going to get you. Right. Like this, that a clot is going to break loose, right? One of 27 can break loose or this embolism is just going to get stronger and squeeze you out or that the filters and stents don't work or that the medication doesn't work or that you eat the wrong thing or you have the wrong thought. Right. Right.

That you can't even be reactive anymore, right? Absolutely. You can't flinch. You can't sneeze. You can't just spas. You can't do any of that. So then you find out that the people around you are the reminders of the universe. Right.

The reminders of God being present. and you go, okay, I always thought I was close, but this, it's the thing my grandmother used to say to me, and I took it in the life. She goes, baby, you have a hard head, but you have very big ears. Right? And she said, she said, you're smart, but you're stubborn. But when it gets you, when it finally gets in, it gets you. And that's what we go through.

We go through it. You know, you mentioned the people around us and how that brings clarity pretty quick. And it makes you think about reasons. You know, what are your reasons for having to get through this? Because to me, it wasn't about motivation. I tell people all the time, motivation, it comes and goes. You know, think about it at the gym in January. The gym is packed in January.

Then about, you know, February, it kind of, you know, meanders off. because people were motivated to set those goals in their house when it was warm, it was nice, etc. Motivation comes and goes. Motivation is like eating a twinkie when you're hungry. It'll last a little bit, but then after that you're just as hungry as you were to begin with. You have to have reasons. Strong reasons, weaken excuses. So strong reasons mean it doesn't mean if you feel like it or not.

You're going to do this thing, whether it's in the gym, whether it's at work, whether it's that project, whether it's this new job, regardless of what it is. Strong reasons, weakened excuses. So when I was laying in there in that bed and then when I got home, I was in that recliner, my reasons became very strong to recover. So to the listeners out there, motivation comes and goes. You may say, man, I'm just not motivated to do this, this or that, whatever it may be. It could be able to clean your house. I don't know what it is.

But strong reasons, we can excuse us. So regardless of what you may be going through today, you've got to have strong reasons. Bring it to football. Bring it to Coach Osborne. Our reasons for winning the 1994 national championship wasn't about motive. We weren't motivated. No, we were inspired. We were determined.

We were dedicated. We made a decision because we knew how bad it felt to get cheated, Rico, in 1993 by Florida State. You know, when they took that ring from us by those two blown calls by the reps, there wasn't a dry eye in that locker room, 120, 125, you know, 18 to 22-year-olds. And our model became refused to lose that 1994 season. We had very strong reasons because we knew how it felt not to win. I knew how it felt to be sick in my situation right now, and I said, I'm not going back that route again. And if it does, it's not because I didn't bust my tail off.

So I had very, and have very strong reasons to keep with my doctor, to keep making, you know, checking my PSA levels, doing the things he said to do and not to do. So my reasons became strong. It's about reasons, it's not motivation. Your reasons, DP, to get out of that bed and even take that next breath, knowing that could possibly be your last. The reality is all of our next breaths could be our last. Yours even more so because what your body was fighting off, but your reasons were strong. You were talking about your grandson, your wife, your grandkids, your, you know, your children. Those become very motivating and reasons more than motivation.

I could not leave her in this situation. Exactly. I couldn't leave her. Exactly. I can't do that. Like, we waited a lifetime to live how we were living. Mm-hmm. And I wasn't done.

Right. and I'll tell you, right? Like I wasn't done. I'll tell you a few things that happened since then, right? So since that day, right? I mean, you go through all the things. And since that day, I, and my next book will be, what are the odds? Oh, I like that.

What are the odds, right? So what are the odds that the things that happened to me, happened to me in that space? And then since then, what are the odds that I find out, who my actual father is. Right. What are the odds that I find that I have four more brothers

and two more sisters? What are the odds that I find out my real name? Wow. What are the odds that I start love prints? What are the odds that I do a TED talk? What are the odds that I write a book? What are the odds that I do a second TED? What are the odds that I come to Lincoln, Nebraska?

What are the odds that I get a job, snatched away for me in the 23rd hour to put me in this job in this place in this room with these people and then what are the odds that I have the opportunity to buy this radio station and Lincoln and the perfect storm of the right owner the right time with the FCC before the pandemic that I get to meet this Puerto Rican kid Jay Foreman Aaron Davis to find my new family and my new brothers. What are the odds? And to tell me that I wasn't supposed to take a step.

I wasn't supposed to go. So I tell people, this has all been in the last five years. What are you going to be in five years? Don't tell me what you're not going to be. Right. Tell me what you're going to be. Because five years has changed a lot. Yeah, it has.

So if you don't get up off the chair, if you don't accept, the blue, the green, the red, the lasers. If you don't accept the catheter as a wake up and a thing to move forward, one of the greatest men I ever met was my father-in-law, Navy captain, an amazing man, Captain America, right? And he was strong every day of his life until he wasn't. And as he got ill, he said a thing to me, and we were just sitting at his house because he had gone, you know, he'd gone from hospital.

home and he's there and he says look if you're ever looking for me just look forward and up that's where the good things are right's powerful right right right you go oh okay and so then from that day forward the mission entirely is forward and up I have to take a step forward I have to take a step forward I have to take a step forward and the more you say it the more you do it easier it becomes. And then I have to remember that the trajectory is necessary. You have to change elevation and location. You have to.

So I need to get better. I need to improve. I need to be better. I need to be greater. I need to be greater. Forward and up. Yours is a story of forwarded up that you change your life. And it doesn't matter why in that sense.

It matters in the decision. Right. It matters in the choice that you were going to go forward and up. A.D., when the opportunity to put you under the lights and amplify you, that's for this community. That's for the listener who's sitting home going through his stuff. Right. Right?

Like today, it may not be today. It may be next week. It may be next month. It may be next year. But they need to know that AD is here. And you're the reminder. You're the beacon, bro. Just get off the chair.

That's right. That's right. That's who you are, bro. That's right. It's to the listeners out there, too, that, you know, we talk sports and everything, Huskers, and just sports in general. And for some of you, this is a great, this is a great distraction. We all need distractions at times from the chaos of life at times. But make sure that you're still, like you mentioned, D.P., that you're still, that you're taking that you're getting up out of that chair and it's just one step at a time and as

clichés that sounds we can't get anywhere without one step at a time anywhere every next great thing requires one thing first just one thing first man one step towards it that's right that's right it was i remember and we'll alter it the break here but i i i remember getting home from the hospital after the debacle and then having to use the walker to get through the house. Like you need to get up every hour just to move around the house. And then there was a day where I had taken enough steps in the walker that I felt like I needed air. I needed to get out of the house. I had to figure out how to, with a full body cast on, how could I dress.

and get out of the house with the walker. And I had to put down shame and embarrassment. That's right. Right? That embarrassment of people who saw me strong to see me weak. And being humbled enough that I would walk around. There was a cul-de-sac. So would I be man enough to do what I needed to do,

pass pride, past vanity, past that stuff, and just to take the slow, methodical, one at a time baby steps. I'm a grown man taking baby steps. Right. To the day that I could switch that walker to a cane. That's right. And the day you put the cane down,

I cried as though I was a child. Because I was. I was brand new. I was brand new. This is kind of what I needed the therapy to be for folks that are going through their stuff. And again, we'll get to sports. We've got 17 hours of sports for you today. Trust me on this one.

Trust me on this one. You'll get your sports here. But I think the spiritual healing and the ability for us to figure out how to get through the next thing. Absolutely. Because it's coming. It's coming. We just need to have a plan for us. So I'm with AD.

This is one-on-one, but we'll be right back. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to One-on-One-on-One with DP on 93-7 The Ticket and The Ticketfm.com.