00:00Today I'm with three men and the supporting women in their lives to have an unscripted
00:04conversation about the health journeys and experiences of Black men.
00:12You know, I'd love you as a couple to tell us about your health journey.
00:16I found out some things that I didn't know about myself when she said,
00:20when was the last time you went to the doctor? All of a sudden we started going to the doctor.
00:24I started finding out things that were going wrong with me that I didn't know about.
00:27I got dizzy sometime. I didn't know what that was about.
00:30So that kind of led me to go more and more increasingly to the doctor.
00:35So without her, I wouldn't have been going.
00:38I would have just kept on doing what I was doing, working every day and just working,
00:42not thinking about my health like that because I was feeling good.
00:45I didn't really know there was something wrong with me, but there was something wrong.
00:49Now we are fortunate. We share a primary care physician and he is, he's Black and he's very,
00:56yeah, he's good. When he sees him, when he's treating him, he's asking him about me.
01:02Yeah. It's just, it's a unique experience.
01:05My preference would be selecting a primary physician of color because I think empathy
01:09is important. I think being able to relate to your physician is important.
01:13You know, for those out there who don't have positive physician, you know, doctor-patient
01:18relationships that does exist and we deserve that. And for the two of you to have a doctor that you,
01:23that you do feel comfortable with, we all deserve that.
01:26We don't talk about it as Black men. We, you know, we're taught to be tough,
01:31don't show no emotions. We got to get out of that thinking. If you care about someone else in your
01:35life, you need to do what's right.
01:38It's just important for us to have our children, you know, and our children's children
01:42understand that they need to care for themselves as they see us caring for ourselves.
01:50I think it's unfortunate that most or a lot of Black men
01:56don't pay too much attention to their health until they experience something that's traumatic.
02:01We don't place a high priority on seeing a doctor. It doesn't mean we aren't concerned about our health.
02:07I think we respond to it a little differently. It almost has to be something serious,
02:13because we take it serious. But the other issue is, you know, when you go to see a doctor,
02:19because you haven't had the experience of seeing a doctor, you don't know what to expect.
02:25You don't have any criteria for determining how you want to be treated.
02:29I'm a family doctor. What's going to get Black men into my office?
02:32With these discussions like this, and more discussions of this, and with more Black men
02:37involved, I think that would help them to look at it and say, well, maybe I should go get that checked
02:44out. Maybe I need, because I've been having this problem here, and I don't want to discuss it.
02:48Maybe I need to go get this checked out to see what it is.
02:51I would say, you know, taking ownership of your health, and don't be afraid of leaving that practice.
02:57Recognizing what you need, and if you're not getting it, don't be afraid to find someone else.
03:02Finding the right doctor, staying where we feel comfortable, having agency to do that,
03:06our families wrapping around, and I think that's very important.
03:16Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell.
03:22Healthy plasma cells help fight infection by producing antibodies that recognize and attack germs.
03:27In multiple myeloma, the cancer cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells.
03:33African Americans are twice as likely to get this rare blood disease that most patients have never
03:38heard of until they're diagnosed. While none of the men in this video have multiple myeloma,
03:43this discussion is important because early diagnosis and treatment of all medical conditions,
03:48including multiple myeloma, is important.
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