Jeffrey Wood was born and raised in Watertown, New York. He and his wife Mary are the proud parents of two grown children.
Jeff graduated from Jefferson Community College in Watertown, New York in 1984 and began his career in Data Processing at New York Casualty Insurance Company. In 1992 he left NYC to pursue a business of his own. For seven years he worked as the Vice President of Network Services for IMC Consultants. In 1995 he was a co-founder of the first privately owned Internet Service Provider in Jefferson County. When IMC-Net merged with GiSCO in 1999 Jeff became the Chief Technical Officer of GiSCO. In 2001 Jeff joined Westelcom as a Communications Network Engineer. Currently Jeff is the Technical Services Manager for Samaritan Medical Center.
In 1999 Jeff was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer. Surgery removed the tumor and Jeff was in a state of remission until May of 2001 when his cancer returned. Four cycles of chemotherapy, extensive surgery, and 5 years of surveillance has left Jeff optimistic that he is cured of this devastating disease.
In 2002 Jeff and his brother Steve (also a testicular cancer survivor), co-founded North Country Against Cancer. NCAC is an organization that is dedicated to the education, awareness, prevention and treatment of cancer in Upstate New York. Jeff and Steve provide awareness programs and inspirational talks to many organizations, students and civic groups. Their signature fund-raising event is the SpokerRide for Life – a 50 mile bike race in Sackets Harbor New York that raises thousands of dollars each year that is donated to the American Cancer Society and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
When not speaking or working or writing, Jeff can be found on the streets of communities throughout the North Country directing the Original Yanks Drum and Bugle Corps.
So I lay there with my “friend” exposed while she left the room. About 5 minutes later she returned with another technician and proceeded to go through the entire “clicky – clicky” thing with the mouse again. After about another 5 minutes they both excused themselves and said they would be right back.
So another 5 minutes goes by, and the door opens and now there are 3 technicians coming in the door (all female)! They walked in, closed the door and started staring at the screen, then back at me, and then to the screen again. It appeared to me there was an equipment malfunction, but I wasn’t sure yet exactly what was going on. I didn’t know if they were really impressed or what! I also wasn’t sure if I should be embarrassed or not, as there were 3 women staring at my exposed part with great concentration. Eventually they got what they wanted done on the equipment, told me that I was done and I could put my pants back on and leave.
My ever growing ego aside – there actually was only an equipment malfunction, and they wanted to make sure they got the pictures right so that I wouldn’t have to come back for the same test. Again, I look at this as just another test, as another piece of the armor that helps me keep cancer in check, never to return. If I didn’t look at these tests as a necessity, and react to them with humor, it would just make this ordeal that much harder. I think too many men (and some women) look at the tests as a huge inconvenience, or they worry about them much more than they should. What most of us don’t realize is that the tests are for the most part nothing compared to the treatments that follow if you don’t get checked on a regular basis. I would gladly take a hundred ultrasounds, x-rays, CT scans, blood draws and urine samples instead of even one chemo-therapy regimen.
It’s too bad that many of us look at the tests and doctor’s visits as a horrible thing to endure. Unfortunately, there are people who ignore symptoms, postpone visits, thereby prolonging the inevitable. Many people are unaware of the fact that most cancers are very, very treatable if detected in their early stages. Not only are they more treatable with much higher cure rates, but the treatments are in many cases less invasive and traumatic to the body.
