David Raubach: I want to thank you for joining us on today’s episode of the Cancer Project podcast. We’re really privileged to be joined today by Dave Bush. He’s a prostate cancer survivor and he has a fascinating story because Dave was diagnosed with prostate cancer right in the middle of harvest season and so he had to navigate continuing working while also getting to and from treatment and he lives over an hour away from the proton center where he was treated. So we’re going to talk to Dave about his experience and his journey and the advice that he has for guys that are diagnosed with prostate cancer today. So Dave, thank you so much for joining us.

David Bush: Thank you for having me. It’s very humbling experience.

David Raubach: Yes sir. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your life today. I know you’re down in Altus. You have a farm. So what what does Dave Bush do?

David Bush: Well, we’re in Oklahoma City today to watch our granddaughters show their steers and pigs at the OE. And so that’s why we’re here. But mainly we’re here today to do this podcast because in 2023 in December, I went to the urologist and after the PSA came back, it was high. And then we did an MRI and a PET scan and a biopsy, and so wound up with prostate cancer. It’s kind of an interesting story how that went and we went through two urologists with disappointment that we didn’t think we were moving fast enough.

David Bush: And the last one we saw, Mel and I went there and he said, “Well, you can’t get in any hurry and you need to do this and do that.” And of course I already knew what the Gleason score was and some of the things that go along with prostate cancer. I said, “This is not a good deal.” And I told her when we left, I said, “Well, I don’t know what we’re going to do, but it’s not this.” And she said, “Well, what are you going to do?” And I said, “Well, we’ll find out.”

David Bush: So, this is where it gets interesting. I’d been looking on the computer about prostate cancer treatment. I’d never seen the Proton Center. So I get home that night and it’s not dark yet. So I flip my little laptop open, punch in prostate cancer treatment. God led me to the Oklahoma Proton Center. Never saw it before. With a phone number. And I thought, well, I’m going to call them in the morning.

David Raubach: Wow. Okay.

David Bush: So I called that next morning. They said they open at 7:30 — now they open at 6:30. So about 7:45 I called and got one of the ladies at the desk and she transferred me to Megan Sullivan. Megan said, “Well, tell me your story.” And I said, “Well, Megan, this is going to be a long one.” She said, “I need to hear everything from the beginning to the end.” And I said, “Okay.” So we got through it and then she said, “Well, you’re already in our door.” So she said, “I’ll set up a consultation.”

David Bush: So we got up here and Dr. McLaughlin was our doctor and Bren and Diana were my nurses. And then I had the list of the people that were going to be on my team and Dr. McLaughlin went through what I was dealt with. My prostate cancer had spread to my pelvic bone.

David Raubach: Oh, okay.

David Bush: And we didn’t know that. And they kept saying, “Well, it’s a false positive and you probably don’t have anything to worry about. You got plenty of time.” And Dr. McLaughlin said, “Time’s not in your favor.” He said, “It spread to your pelvic bone.” And I said, “Okay.” So I asked him, I said, “Well, can you cure me?” And he said, “Oh, we do people worse than you all the time. No problem.” So that’s how it started.

David Bush: I have to say this, from the time you walk in the door here, people are so kind. And everybody here is. The first person that treated me was a lady named Kim that doesn’t work here any longer, but that’s an interesting story, too. She gave me my first treatment and when I was here for my last — which I got 40 because it had spread to my pelvic bone — she walked up to me and hugged me. She said, “I gave you your first one and I’m going to give you your last one.” So you can’t say enough about the friendliness and the morale around here. The way people’s morale is around here, it’s amazing how upbeat it is, and you become friends with everybody you encounter here.

David Raubach: So you got diagnosed in December, but that’s when you found out you had prostate cancer. And then when did you start treatment?

David Bush: Actually in March here. Yes, it was March.

David Raubach: In March. Okay. And so then talk about the driving back and forth.

David Bush: Yeah. It’s 147 miles from Altus here and at the time they set up the appointments — and this was pretty neat because wheat harvest was fixing to start. I’m lucky that there’s a group of people that helped me there that work for me, that just came to help, you know. Running the combine. See, we have three combines and had four semis and a grain cart. Of course, my son’s there. You kind of need everybody there. So I asked for an early morning appointment — somewhere around 8 or 8:30. And we got an 8:30.

David Bush: So about the first 15 treatments, we drove up here while we were cutting wheat, and that’s the neat deal about the proton therapy. We’d leave about 5:30 and Mel would drive me up here and I’d sleep on the way. Without her, it would have been tough. Back and forth. So anyway, we’d drive up here and get here at 8:30 and I was in and out in 30 minutes. And I’d go home, get back home at 11:00, change clothes and go to the field, get on the combine and cut wheat till 10, 11, 12, 1:00 in the morning a lot of mornings when it was dry enough. So we’d do it again the next day.

David Raubach: Oh my gosh. So we did that about 15 times before harvest was over?

David Bush: Yes. And then I asked them if they could move me up a few hours so we don’t have to get up so early. So we completed the rest of the 40 after harvest.

David Raubach: So you were driving every trip?

David Bush: Yes. We drove every trip. We didn’t stay up here at all. It just didn’t work out where we could. And 147 miles — well, Melody driving it’s less than 2 hours. She’d reset it at about 80 or 90 coming up the turnpike. So we’d get here, but the neat thing about the Proton Center is that 8:30 was our time.

David Raubach: Right. And that’s the part that impressed me so much — you know, you go to medical appointments, doctors, dentists, you’re told 8:00 or 9:00 or whatever and then you’re sitting there until 10 or 10:30. That’s really pretty tough when you sit there that long. But that’s not the case here. Did you know other people, or did you find out there were other people that had gone through proton therapy?

David Bush: Didn’t know anyone that had come through proton therapy till I started. And then after I started my treatment here and later on completed it, there’s been at least probably 10 or 15 people, maybe more than that, from Altus that have come here. Some of them came because they knew I came and some found out other ways. But I didn’t know anybody, never heard of the Proton Center till I found it on that computer and got on the phone the next morning.

David Raubach: That’s amazing. So people find out about the Proton Center from a variety of different mechanisms. Sometimes their doctor talks to them about it, sometimes they find it online, sometimes it’s a TV ad or a radio ad. Our goal really is — we’re an independent facility, so we’re not part of a big hospital system. We don’t have this big network of physicians like primary care physicians that are referring patients to us. So we have to do everything we can and be creative to get the word out and let people know that we’re here. We do treat over 400 prostate cancer patients a year, so I think we’re the busiest treatment facility for prostate cancer in the state at this point.

David Raubach: And as you mentioned, you’re coming from two and a half hours away. There are multiple other people coming from Altus, and we have people coming from Arkansas, from Texas, from Kansas. So did you get to know people as you were going through treatment?

David Bush: Oh, we made some remarkable friends while I was here. I mean, we still talk, we call each other. But yes — I think the best thing about the treatment I had here is I didn’t have any side effects. There’s no way that I could have been treated any other way and been able to work the hours I worked without any fatigue, without any pain, without any sort of discomfort in any way. There just wasn’t any. That was amazing.

David Bush: I met one gentleman, his name was David, so I can remember that because both our names are David, but he was being treated for bladder cancer. One morning I came in and he was waiting. His appointment was 8:00 and mine was 8:30. He asked me, “Can you trade with me tomorrow because I can’t do this 8:00?” And I said, “Yeah, I’ll trade with you.” So we did. And about two trips after that, I came out and he was sitting there in the lobby and he said, “Do you think this stuff really works?” And I said, “Well, I wouldn’t be here if it didn’t.” And he said, “Man, I don’t feel a thing.” I said, “Well, that’s good.”

David Raubach: There is a little mystery to it. One of the questions we get the first couple of days a lot of times is, “Well, did you do anything? Did the beam turn on?” Because you don’t see anything, you don’t hear anything, you don’t really feel anything. Over time you can maybe get a little bit of redness where the beam is going into your body, but proton therapy is noninvasive in the sense that we’re able to get the treatment to where the tumor is without cutting you open, and often times there aren’t major side effects for patients going through treatment. So tell me a little bit more about Melody. You said she drove you to treatment every day.

David Bush: Oh yeah, every day. Actually, we came up here probably 44 or 45 times total, you know, getting the process set up and everything, but the treatment itself was 40 times. And every morning we’d get up and leave and she’d drive me up here and I’d sleep on the way and most times I’d be awake going home. You don’t really go solid asleep — you nap. But without that it would have been kind of tough because a lot of times I wouldn’t get in till 2:00 in the morning and then we’re up at 5:30 running back up here again. She’s a real trooper. She and I did it together. We’ve been married 50 years — be 51 in September.

David Raubach: That’s amazing. 51 years in September. And she’s sitting right off camera. She’s making sure you don’t say anything wrong.

David Bush: Yeah. I’ll get something thrown at me if I say something wrong.

David Raubach: Exactly. So what has been your message to some of the other guys that you talk to — like Glenn, who is somebody that you and I have spoken about — guys who are going through this process after you’ve gone through it?

David Bush: Every one of them has been so amazed at how it works, how few the side effects are. The worst thing I hear is, “Well, we got to drive every day.” I said, “Yeah, you got to drive every day. That’s the way it works.” It’s lucky you don’t live here in the city, but it’s worth it. I just tell everybody, “Look, you’ve been diagnosed with cancer. My suggestion is to at least talk to them. Take your case up there and see if you’re a candidate for what they offer as treatment, because you owe it to yourself.” Most of them do. They try, and most of them have been treated here. I know at least 15 people that I’ve recommended to come here that have come here from out in our area.

David Bush: And I guess the sadness to me — we were just talking about this before we started this podcast — is I’m disappointed in doctors that don’t know or don’t want to know or don’t spread the word that, “Hey, this might be an option for you. Maybe not, but if it is, you need to look into it.” At least talk about all of the options. At least say, “Hey, you know, this might be something you need to look at because it’s not very invasive and the side effects are not very much. It might be something for you to look at.” But maybe that’ll change. Maybe people will be made aware of it.

David Raubach: You know, when this center opened, it was the sixth proton center in the United States, and there’s almost 50 today. So there’s really been a growth of proton therapy as more patients have gotten treated and we’ve seen the benefits. And you talked about prostate cancer and the guy you met who had bladder cancer, but we treat a lot of other cancers as well — breast cancer, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, brain cancer. So it’s really beneficial for a lot of different types of cancers.

David Raubach: So I want to talk to you about last week, because you guys — the Altus Mafia, maybe — brought a portable woodfired barbecue smoker pulled behind a pickup truck, and you cooked steaks and chicken for the whole staff. Tell us a little bit about how that came about and why you guys came and did that.

David Bush: Well, to start with, Glenn Wyers and I are really good friends. He’s been my insurance agent forever. We go back to college days. And this is just Glenn — that’s the way he does things. He brought it up to me one day, and in fact the first thought was to take all the staff to a restaurant. But of course that couldn’t happen with the hours and everything. So he said, “Well, I’ll just get Justin Landers to bring his cooker up there and we’ll cook.” And I said, “Okay.” And he asked Melody and me if we’d come and serve. And like I said, this is just classical Glenn. So we were honored to be able to come serve. Melody and some of the other ladies made desserts and it was pretty neat. But that was all Glenn’s deal. I can’t take any credit for it except being honored.

David Raubach: Well, you helped serve. And how many patients were up here? Four, five, six?

David Bush: Yeah, probably around six. Every time I turned around, there was another guy from Altus that I shook his hand. In fact, I’ve got a very good friend of mine that we go back to the third grade together — he’s fixing to start his prostate cancer treatment.

David Raubach: Okay. Yeah. And it wasn’t just steak — there was chicken too, and Justin was hand cutting everything. How long have you been farming?

David Bush: Well, I started farming when I was just young. I started on my own when I was in the 10th grade. Got my own land, started my own deal in the 10th grade. So it’s been a long time. And that was down in Altus. My family settled there in 1880. And Mel and I own some of the land that they filed on in 1880 when it was Greer County, Texas. See that Red River dispute down there? That was Texas. Oklahoma really didn’t open up for settlement until 1889.

David Bush: My granddad settled out west of Altus in 1880 and that was Greer County, Texas. He lived in two states and three counties and never moved. It was Greer County Texas, then Greer County Oklahoma, and when they divided that county up into Beckham, Harmon, Greer, and Jackson, he became a resident of Jackson County, Oklahoma — and never moved.

David Raubach: And where did he come from originally?

David Bush: Alabama. The Civil War drove them out of Alabama. They were cotton farmers there and after the Civil War they went broke and were looking for a place to settle. Some people think, well, they should have looked somewhere else, but we love it there. That’s our home. And that would have been covered wagon, bringing everything they owned. They started with a half dugout. My granddad had three brothers and his mother and dad came out after he settled there and they filed there also.

David Raubach: So as each generation gets older and older, there are fewer and fewer of you. Like a lot of farm families. But you did say your son helps on the farm?

David Bush: Yes. One son partnered with me farming and the other one’s a lawyer there and he’s involved in farming also. We farm about 6,000 acres together — which is pretty small really for there now. We’re certainly not the largest by any means. But he farms about 3,000 and I farm about 3,000, and we’re scattered out over a length of probably about 15 miles from north to south.

David Raubach: What do you do in the off season? Walk me through what the year looks like.

David Bush: Well, right now we’re experiencing a severe drought in Jackson County. Wheat crop is coming on — it’s not going to be very good. We finished cotton. We had a good cotton crop last fall because it did rain a little bit in the summertime, very timely. So we made a good cotton crop and then prepared for a wheat crop, got it planted, and some of it never came up until that ice storm we had back in February brought enough moisture to bring it up. So it’s not going to be very good. Thank goodness for crop insurance. But that’s just how it is. It’s a good place to live.

David Raubach: Yeah. And when did the Air Force base go in?

David Bush: The Air Force base started in World War II, then it closed after World War II and was reopened. In fact, they used that base after it was closed to salvage those old World War II bombers — they melted them down for the aluminum. The Memphis Belle was actually there to be melted down at Altus and somebody saw it and got it out of there and flew it back to Memphis, Tennessee, where it was named after.

David Raubach: Oh, that’s interesting. Now, have you ever been on one of the Air Force planes?

David Bush: Yes. They have a Farm City Week there and they offer an opportunity for farmers to come fly. We’ve got C-17s and the new tanker — used to be KC-135s. They offer you an opportunity to fly on a refueling mission. We flew all the way up into Colorado and back. Pretty interesting. And they have a drop zone west of Altus where they practice dropping cargo and they haul it back and load it and drop it again. The base and Altus seem to fit well together. There are a lot of activities done through the farmers and we have a livestock show there. Some of the commanders will come out and show animals for the first time. It’s pretty fun.

David Raubach: You get to learn about the big planes and they learn about farming. So it was your granddaughter showing animals?

David Bush: Yeah, two of them are here showing this week at the OA. Yes, sir. They hadn’t shown yet — it’s coming up. It’s very competitive here. The best of the best are here. We just kind of hope and pray they do well.

David Raubach: Well, that’s exciting. So just to kind of close up today — for anybody who might be watching this, you’ve talked about the fact that you’ve spoken with a number of guys who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. What would be your message for how to think about getting through the process mentally?

David Bush: You know, I probably dealt with that better than most people. When I mean, I pretty well knew after we ran a few tests — the PSA was high, the MRI showed a shadow there — and I pretty well accepted it. I never lost any sleep. I just prayed to God to direct me the right way and heal me. And so my advice is come up here and let these people see the results of your testing and see if you’re a candidate. And if you are a candidate, you don’t have anything to worry about. You’re not going to experience any pain. That’s the part that’s so neat — you can go through this and not be sick. Just live your life like you did before and come out of here blessed to be cured.

David Bush: It’s easy to tell people about the Proton Center because people here are so nice, always upbeat. When you come in here you become friends. I become friends with a lot of these technicians that prepare you and deliver the proton therapy. John down there — every time I see him we just hug and shake hands. And Kim, she no longer works here, but I mean you develop relationships with these people that do this for you every day after 40 trips. It becomes a family. We still come by here all the time when we have time. And I carry the pamphlets from the Proton Center in my pickup and I’ve handed out a lot of them. Because I feel like that’s the only way I can give back — try to direct people to the opportunity to come here and see how you guys do things.

David Raubach: Well, I am really blessed to have gotten to know you, Dave. You’ve been such an encouragement and joy to our staff. They do this for the patients — that’s why they’re here. But they also do it because of the relationships they develop over time. So it means a lot that you would come back and say hi, and it definitely meant a lot that you came back and served lunch.

David Bush: Well, you know the thing is — you can’t not become loving to these people here because of the way they treat you. It’s so much different than most medical places where you’re just a number. Here, you’re a name when you walk through the door. “How you doing today, David?” That’s how it works. That has a big effect on someone with cancer when people’s attitudes are the way they are. And once a week we had a consultation with the doctor. Dr. McLaughlin would come in and say, “Have you got any questions?” And I said, “No, sir. You explained everything so well. If I knew what to ask, I’d ask. I don’t know what to ask.” You have an opportunity to see your doctor and talk to him once a week and they’re not rushing you. You got plenty of time to talk about whatever you want to talk about.

David Raubach: We want to make sure you get all your questions answered whether you have them or not. And it’s also good to check up on you because you never know when things might pop up during treatment. So having that opportunity to converse with the physician is really important. Well, I appreciate you joining us today on the podcast. Is this your first podcast?

David Bush: First one here. I’ve done some before, but not here.

David Raubach: You did great. I see a post-farming career for you in podcasting. Well, let me say —

David Bush: Well, let me say this. I mean, I owe it to people I know and people that I will know to help spread the knowledge of what you people have here — to help spread the fact that you could come here and be treated and not carry any side effects home with you, and be cancer free.

David Raubach: Yes, sir. Well, I really appreciate you stopping by and thank you for all of the kind words, Dave. It was great talking to you today.

David Bush: Thank you, David, and thank everybody here for being the kind people they are.

David Raubach: Yes, sir. Thank you. The Cancer Project podcast is made possible by the Oklahoma Proton Center, a state-of-the-art cancer center where precision treatment meets real compassion in care. We’re grateful for their support and for you for spending this time with us. If you’d like to learn more about the Oklahoma Proton Center, you can visit their website at the link below. And if something you heard today resonated, we’d love for you to stick with us. You can subscribe to the podcast and follow along on our socials linked below for more conversations like this — honest stories, thoughtful perspectives, and the kind of support people don’t always know where to find, but do truly need. At the end of the day, this podcast isn’t just about cancer. It’s about what it means to be human inside of it and how we keep living, connecting, and moving forward together. We hope you leave each episode feeling a little bit more informed, a little bit more supported, and a lot less alone.