The Question That Changed Everything
People sometimes assume Ask One More Question came from one dramatic moment.
It really didn’t.
It grew out of something I kept experiencing throughout my cancer journey.
Every time I thought I understood what was happening, another question seemed to appear.
What does this number mean?
What happens if we wait?
What would you do if this were you?
What are the alternatives?
What isn’t this test showing us?
What happens next?
And perhaps the most important:
What question should I be asking that I haven’t asked yet?
That mindset became increasingly important because my cancer journey repeatedly reminded me that one piece of information rarely tells the entire story.
Before surgery, imaging appeared reassuring.
After surgery, pathology showed aggressive disease that had extended beyond the prostate and reached a lymph node.
Neither piece of information was meaningless.
But one was not the whole story.
That changed the way I approached my healthcare.
I stopped thinking of questions as challenging my doctors.
Questions became a way of partnering with them.
There is an important distinction here:
I am not anti-doctor. I am pro-you.
Doctors spend their careers learning how to diagnose and treat disease.
Patients have the responsibility to understand enough about their own situation to participate meaningfully in decisions.
You don’t have to become an oncologist.
You don’t have to understand every medical study.
But you should feel comfortable saying:
“I don’t understand that.”
“What does that mean for me?”
“What are my other options?”
“What would change your recommendation?”
“Can you explain that one more time?”
Cancer can make you feel powerless.
Questions give you some of that power back.
Not because every question produces the answer you hoped for.
Sometimes it doesn’t.
But an informed decision is very different from a passive one.
That’s why Ask One More Question became more than a phrase for us.
It became a movement.
A mindset.
A way of navigating the journey.
Because sometimes one additional question doesn’t simply give you another answer.
Sometimes it changes the road ahead.