UNSEALED CONVERSATIONS - DR. JAMES ALBERTY (RAW CUT)

yeah you know and then we'll we'll post this on the unsealed.com or pieces of it so if you guys want to check it out there as

well you can do that so welcome dr alberti thanks for joining us

thank you first of all your story is incredible and for those of you that don't know when

i'm actually going to let you tell it what is your story well how do you see your story when people ask for like a

30-second version what is your story um my story is basically um

a kid who was basically given no no chance of survival uh it was kind of a it was a shock it

came it came as a shock it was very uh sudden um and unexpected and it was one of those

things i was left with very little options i was back into a corner and um my only option i did the only option

which was as everybody probably read was the amputating of my hands and uh

that wasn't an option for me at the time you know so um we uh so we saw my parents let me they

saw other you know avenues you know of possibly you know trying to

uh you know get me healed or have you a treat this situation is cancer and um

you know ultimately i ended up beating it you know and i was i always say to kind of fast forward the irony is in the you

know later on in life becoming a chiropractor which like it would say you know cairo means hands and practice means the use of and

actually using my hands to help a lot of people so yeah since since i learned of your story i've

been like calling my friends and people who work news i found the coolest story like it's such an amazing inspirational

story and i've been telling them about it i'm excited to write it and i took a little extra time to work on it because i

thought it was such a good story and um when i when i was telling you that i loved it and then when people are

reading it you're like i didn't realize that it was just it was so interesting or it was such a powerful story or that

i was inspirational why do you think you didn't understand you didn't see it

i didn't see it i always looked at it my whole life i always looked at it in a totally different light i always looked

at it as something that um you know could possibly be a handicap i didn't want it to be a handicap i didn't

want to be because of being so young uh kids are cruel you know and uh people

can kind of look like oh you can spread cancer to me by coughing on me or something you know um i didn't want to you know in

sports or anything like that i didn't want it to be anything to be telling you i want no nobody to take it easy on me if you

liked me i wanted you to like me just naturally for who i am if you hated me i wanted you to hate me for who i was

um you know but i didn't want anything handed to me regardless of whether i had six months six years or 60 years i

didn't want anything i don't want anybody to feel sorry for me i wanted to be treated as normal as possible so i never looked at it as some

type of oh i got to tell people this i wanted to keep it to myself it's something that sounds like that you

felt almost embarrassed by a shameful or even um just something that you didn't want you

want people to change the way they acted around you but now it's like it's almost i always say like turning

secrets into superpowers it's almost now you're super powerful because look what you've done right that's pretty cool

um what goes through an 11 year old's mind when someone says you have six months to

live if you're lucky i'm scared just

scared it took me a while to process it and almost like i was almost like i was in

denial i was really in denial like no not me you know uh other than other than

this pain in my hand i feel at the time i felt i felt perfectly fine you know later and i started to get sick i started to feel

a lot of the symptoms but at that point i was just like it's just my hand it's just some pain in my hand and i'm okay but yeah i was yeah i was

ex i was frightened i was scared yeah pretty bold decision to go against the doctor at 11 years old what

what inside of you said no first off the doctor was extremely cold

and counts um now that i know a bedside matter is his bedside manner was trash to say for lack

of better words uh he he was like hey well this is what we could do we can just we amputated

first he was like we could amputate his finger maybe move his thumb over or we could just you know what i would just amputate his hand and when i asked

him i just was flat out like so if you ever take my hand what's my chances of living

you know kind of weighing it out and he was like i might buy you a few more months or so you know and that's when he told me if

you make it to 16 you'll be able it'll be a miracle and uh and i was just kind of like well

if you can't if that it with those type of numbers of you know possibly surviving this

i really just live out the remainder of my life happy you know not trying to learn how to use my left hand or not trying to

i've been six months just rehabbing it so yeah yeah yeah so i just wanted to be just happy

and live out whatever time i had left as normal as possible what did your parents say to you when

you were diagnosed it didn't say much other than they were

very um more so they were just like reassuring that it's going to be okay

you know everything they said was just reassuring now one second we did for now for now one second they'd give me you

know i had i was looking today you know that hey this is gonna be bad you know

i i told you uh when we spoke the last time it was more of a i kind of stumbled upon my dad

you know crying and i've never seen him cry before and i was like oh oh this is bad now this this must be worse than

that letting on you know yeah but um but to me they always just gave me hope

constantly they

yeah yeah i still honestly i don't and even speaking of my older brother recently he even said he was like dude i

really didn't know the gravity of the situation because your parents you know my parents really didn't even speak to me about it

my youngest brother was probably uh he was six at the time so

and my oldest brother even though he was about um 16 17 he was like yeah i really know the

gravity for the situation you have doctors telling you that you're not going to make it and you're

not telling any of your friends you probably weren't googling back then so the only other influence you had

was your parents and they were saying this do you think that you would be alive

today if you didn't have the parents you had who are telling you you got this if you

didn't have that i don't because i would have i would have lost hope right in the doctor's office that first day

because he he gave me zero hope he gave me he gave me zero hope he was

just like this and you know and as i'm trying to and i only i don't know but so much you know i'm 11 as i'm trying to ask and

my dad is trying to actually just kind of like look he's my options these are this this is all i got you know

so let me know if you decide and that was pretty much the gist of it so if no if my parents weren't as

reassuring as uh you know and standing behind me the way they did i no i probably

wouldn't i would have get i would have probably given up where did you hear that saying um

if you have faith the size of a muslim scene i actually looked it up it's not exactly

that it's it's but it's that's the same that's the idea it's and it's your bible yeah

yeah you know who first told you that my dad your dad yeah yeah he was at this point

he was uh you know he was getting it was pretty much he was getting into the church more and more and uh

i think this this really pushed him even closer you know and uh but yeah he he kind of he told me

that and he actually gave me the mustard seed you know so and i took it and i taped it

into my wallet and i was you know every time i have doubt every time i start to feel like you know this is i'm i'm not going to make it or it's

not going to happen i'm going to you know open my wallet up there's nothing in there but a few dollars anyway but i'm gonna open this

wall you're 11. i open up with this five dollars in here and i'm looking at this mustard seed and

i'm just like i can move mountains you know this is i'm gonna move this mountain you know so

when was when did it go off on your brain hey i'm going to beat this

i want to stay when i hit 16. you know i think yeah your life was already clean for a

year your blood work was already cleaned for a year at 16 right

yeah but i just when it came to anything they told me out i really didn't believe much of what they said

you know i didn't know what i really didn't know what to believe so because every time they told me okay well hey this kind of came back clean

but it was always a butt you know it was never uh hey

everything's free and clear i think you're gonna be good it was always hey well these numbers are good these numbers look good but you know

so it was always that that had a doubt even when i thought i was doing better you know at your lowest moments when you were

sick when you couldn't play with your friends when you your parents had to carry you when you're losing bladder control when

you're uncomfortable you know headaches and sleeping all day did you still have hope in that moment

in those moments yeah honestly it was the only thing i had left i had i was it was the only

thing i had left because uh at that point i was just kind of like

i mean of course i and i have my doubts i mean i'm not good i can't i can't sit up here and say hey i was strong the

whole time no i wasn't i had a lot of we i had a lot of weak moments a ton of weak moments you know and uh especially

as i got sicker and i got weaker and i started losing the weight and i was kind of like all right now it's more

now i feel like i'm feeling like this diagnosis they gave me before i didn't feel it now i'm feeling it i'm seeing it

in the mirror you know my clothes don't fit anymore you know um

you know so yeah at that point i was like oh man this is this is real i i really might not i really might not

make it to 16 i might not make it to 13 for that matter so you make it to 16 and

you have this perspective of being such at such a low point and also such a scary point in your life

um did that change the way you lived the rest of life going forward did that change your perspective that changed

your attitude you know have being a cancer survivor at you know 11 12 13 14 15 years old

oh yeah significantly yeah i think i don't think i would have the same type of i know i wouldn't have the same type of mentality in a lot of different

aspects of life that i do now if i didn't go through the situation and and beat this situation what mentality is

that and what do you think you can offer other people in terms of like hey you know this is how you should see life because

i've seen it from a whole totally different angle that's really scary and this is what it taught me what do you

think you have to offer other people in terms of your perspective perspective is first off

you never give up hope never give up faith um you know i don't really ask you know necessarily because everybody

believes in you know whether people even higher power whatever they believe in however but um i do i you know and i did at the time

and uh but you just you gotta never give up if if it's something that you want and which

me i want what i want was the one the will to live you know go out swinging you know go watch me not just because

somebody says something can be something can be you doesn't necessarily mean that can beat you

you know and i've lived my life that whole way because people have it's been in several situations where people was like oh you

can't do this oh you can't do that or you know you might not be able to finish this and

no i i beat this if i can beat this i could pretty much beat anything yeah you know i might not beat it gracefully but

i'm going to beat it so i might not do it but i'm going to beat it so then you go to you go to uh finish

high school then you go to college major in biology and then someone says hey why don't you become a chiropractor

which we talked about in the letter means literally chiropractic means you practice of your hands use of your hands

are you crazy you still don't have full feeling back in your right hand with your right hand dominant

is there a thought in your head that went does she understand what i've been through

i don't really have a did you have both that moment like can i really be a chiropractor of all things

yeah and then you know once i at the time i really didn't know what chiropractic entailed and until you know

i went to the school and uh you know took a tour and uh you know they kind of educated me a lot on it and i was kind

of like i like how it sounds i like this oh i can get you know i can get some other degrees while i'm here and i was

but at the time i was also having my own dollars because i was just like yo this is a lot of i have to really be

able to feel this and feel that and um yeah i don't know

you know i don't know you know as far as anything gross is concerned all that you know gross you know manipulation and

things are gross things like i was fine but you know it's the small tactile things that i will have some difficulty

with it from time to time and you know i couldn't feel as i could grip things harder and stuff like that so i was like

it might be a little challenging but i like this and i think i want to do it and then once i actually got into school

and i started to you know do it like the technique classes i was like

i'm actually good at this you know you know i'm actually good at this maybe i should this maybe this is the school i

should be here maybe i should be doing this maybe this is my field but even if i graduate i still wasn't quite

sure this is where i should be this is why you know whether i was good at or not but you ended up sticking with it you

graduate you start working then you get a call for a job including then you end up getting another diagnosis with a benign

brain tumor but thank goodness that was benign then another really interesting part of

your story is that you're working for a practice you're making good money you have the job that people who go into

your line of work want but it wasn't fulfilling for you you had people coming in that didn't have the

right insurance and that didn't have enough money and you weren't able to help them even though you wanted to but

you worked for somebody else and they said hey no you can't do that right and you

decided to start your own company where or your own practice where you will help everybody regardless of

their economic situation regardless of their insurance starting your own business

takes a whole lot of courage yeah yeah and you weren't starting your own

because you wanted to make more money you were starting your own business because you wanted to help people

yeah do you think that going through cancer and having the perspective you had gave

you both the courage and compassion to do something that's hard to do for anyone to do in

terms of having own business but also requires so much love for other people and so much selflessness

actually is is one of the main things i think they gave me this compassion patience uh

you know um yearning to serve others to uh help others because

that that doctor he flat out he gave up on me day one you know he was his compass he had zero compassion and

i didn't want to be anything like that you know i wanted to look at if i was and i always say

you know i told myself if i want to treat every patient as if that's my mom my grandmother my father

one of my siblings uh my nephew sitting across from me i want to give them the same care

you know saying that i would give my parents or i want somebody to give my parents all my one of my siblings because that's somebody's mom that's

somebody you know they're cared about their love you know saying and they deserve that you saw the pain in your own family's

eyes and they had someone they loved you suffering and they just were looking for people to

help any way that they could so it seems like that gave you the compassion to want to

have other people be treated the same way do you think even just um having the guts to start a business you

think the courage aspect also stemmed from going through something so difficult and having to just go through

it and persevere through that do you think that kind of gave you the mentality well i got through that so i

can figure out how to start a business like how hard could that be right and it's it's hard so

it is hard and you're right i don't think it's as hard as going through cancer at 11.

no no it's not no it's not so which let me know that hey you know what i can get

through these i can get through these values and reach these peaks in my career as well too so because you know you're serving

people you're doing and you're doing things and you have a patent you're passionate and i'm and i'm pretty sure most of my patients

have not always tell you that i'm extremely passionate about what i do i genuinely love what i do and i hope that energy comes out and how i treat my

patients but um yeah we do i come to work and it's not work uh actually other

than when i'm exhausted other than that it's other than that i love what i do and uh

but is if i didn't have if i didn't go through that it was like you said leaving there

the money's not guaranteed uh you don't know sometimes you don't know your next meal is coming from

you know you can't you might be able to travel just uh just some of the stuff you used to you know and um

but i was like you know what i'd be willing to i can stick it out i can get through this i always it's the one thing

i uh i'll go back to all the time even this is random but even when i placed maternity when i got hard i was kind of

like you know what though i beat this so i can't get through this at least i know if i finish this it'll

be by the end of the tunnel i can get through this too so i'm sorry go ahead no i was saying so it

has it's honestly been like as much as it was a weakness has also been an anchor in my life as well too

people who go through trauma they have a gift and that gift is for the rest of their life they know exactly how strong

they are you know that you're strong you know that you can persevere you already have so it's like everything else is like

okay well i could start a business because i can persevere i can you know move to cleveland away from my

family whatever it is you know that you've had that inside of you because you've already seen it

what advice do you have for people who

who are who who feel hopeless who are in a situation whether it be cancer whether it be their job whether it be their

family whether it be a relationship who just don't know where to find hope who don't have parents like you're you

saying like we believe in you and we we believe you're gonna beat it where can people find hope and why

should they actually have it because hope is such a real hope faith you know

kind of there's such a real thing and i feel like

and i would tell them just don't give a hope because the second you give up hope you've already lost that fight and yeah

and you they might not have those parents so they might not have you know somebody but you know it's the other thing and

it's been other things besides my parents and other situations of life that i had to kind of look to to kind of get me through certain situations but

find find that something you know even if it's just that something is to get through that tough time

yeah to get through what you're going through whatever it is you're going through even if it's just hey you know i have hope that

i know that eventually i can if i you know if i persevere i can get through this yeah you know

and um and it honestly might be it might be just so worth it to that struggle the struggle

you know sometimes he said you know the journey might be bad but you know the destiny the journey is what it's really about more than a destination sometimes

yeah you know i asked you a question in our initial interview and i said how do you how do you

create a system where you offer affordable health care like i was like what plan do you have that nobody

else figured out and then you were like well i take the head i was like no

that makes sense yeah i take the hit how many uh how

often do you have patients walk into your office that nobody else would see daily

daily what are some of the

your proudest moments in terms of helping these patients what are some of the things we talked about a little in the letter but what are what are some of

those moments where you're like this is why i did this this is why i'm here this is we talked about it too the fact that

you were looking for your purpose and you've you've finally found it and what are those moments where the light bulb goes off and says hey this is my purpose

this is why i'm here yeah i will say it's um i keep phoenix on my desk now it gets

it gets a i guess it gets a lot of use um it's a lot i have a lot of criers

but these are tears of joy and i find myself weakly saying you know

when somebody gets off my table and they're like and they they're in tears like not even so much too they're just they run up and hug me whatever the case

may be and they're like listen i've been dealing with this pain for 10 15 20 years or i've had this

going on and nobody and they'll and i hear this all the time you know no one got to contend what was wrong nobody

seemed like they cared nobody would explain this to me the way you did nobody would just take the time out to just you know hear what was going on

with me and uh and it's just and it's that those ones like oh my god and i maybe come back and

i'm able to do this now i'm able to spend time my grandkids i'm able to you know exercise again and it's just these

things where they're able to you know get back to the daily routines have some quality of life that's my biggest thing

is i'm giving you a quality of life that you either have or that you always wanted to have and if

i'm able to do that that's what makes it worth it that's that's definitely what makes it worth it for me the irony in your story is that

you are creating miracles for people and you yourself are a miracle but you're creating those miracles with your hands

what do you make of that irony does that is there something that do you say like i believe in god because this

is just too weird or like is it because you didn't even it wasn't like you set out to be a chiropractor just gonna happen that way and then you're like

whoa this is kind of crazy what do you make of that irony one of the things that i'm asked all the

time is uh man what made you choose chiropractic and i'm and now to the point

i didn't choose that i think kyle bradley chose me it really chose me you know i was like i wanted i was

looking to get into health care some you know some aspect but also i hadn't really made up my mind

because i think i was too busy just enjoying college so at the time but um yeah no it's the irony and it really

never hit me initially until this has really happened over the last couple years more so although i always

knew it it just never really just that bulb just never went went off like you're still processing it

yeah it just never went off and i think more so as i wrote my uh me and my partner open up my practice and it was

kind of like one of those things where it's like and the the res and i'm seeing more

patients 200 200 like 200 300 patients a week or something like that i'm just kind of like and now i'm getting all these

success stories and things that i'm like man the irony of this that you know i'm

really changing like this is my flex is that i'm really helping people you know what i'm saying and the fact that i'm using

just the very things that they wanted to take away from me you know

what's that how ironic is that you know this couldn't i would have never thought this in a

million years you know amazing i'm gonna take a wild guess on who your parents are and i'm

gonna put them on the spot hopefully they don't mind and i just wanted to ask them a question if they don't mind

though you're right but let me tell you one thing real quick this is a side note okay so

when i had a tumor in my head i don't think i told my mom until the day before i went into surgery oh

goodness oh she was pissed she's she's not a big traveler like that

she's not a good fighter but let me tell you she was ready to hop on a plane and come in i was like no just stay home i got it yes you know i didn't know

i knew like five people in cleveland you know what i'm saying so she was uh oh

she was not happy she let me have it you know i felt like i felt like i was 11 again she was not happy about me not

telling her about that but i didn't want her

i wanted to ask you guys when you listen to your son's story are you just overwhelmed with pride

not only did he for all that he went through but also what he's doing for others as a parent how does that

resonate with you guys well

i like to go back to that 11 year old experience okay james um when we found out

um that we we did a lot of research we didn't just accept something that the physician said and we confronted them

with the results of research you know uh they wanted to amputate his hands um

and our question was if you amputate his hand wouldn't would it increase his quality of life his longevity and so

forth and they they didn't give us a clear answer so we did the research and we went and we talked to them and i

said well the national institute health said it will not improve his quality of life or extend his life

the national council site said the same thing and then i quoted three or four you know uh seriously um

conspicuous sources then i asked the doctor i said they said that it will not

improve his chance of survival you i want you to tell me that you're saying they are wrong and you are right

i need to hear from you that you are right and the doctor will not say a word he

will not open his mouth and i think too when james said about uh the mannerism of the doctors i remember

when we took him to this uh medical center and the doctor told him well you know we have to take your hand i have a friend a

doctor friend 11 year old child that he has one hand and he has a career well

an 11 year old child doesn't understand what a career is you know you know he wanted to play basketball

yeah exactly that was his his it was just so uh

unfilling i guess that's what i want to say towards him and uh that's okay that's he

said so we're gonna speak another opinion and i want to add

this james was you know like he had to go through one day he was just a normal

kid the next day nothing was normal and the thing that that hit me the most is that

after i did the research you know helped fight cancer one of the things was that he had to become a vegetarian you just

say this one we had to go to florida um we went to disney world he had just got sick and we

went down there and he had just become a vegetarian we didn't really know about vegetarianism in that time

and so um we went to kfc and we got a bucket of chicken

i said james we're down here and uh we can't find a restaurant we're driving around trying to get a restaurant we

can't find a restaurant it was late that seriously you have to eat you don't have to eat this chicken

no no no i'll eat the fries he was determined too

and one of the other things is that uh when we went to this one this doctor the first doctor was dr kite i won't call it

another doctor's name but since dr kite did such a wonderful god dr kite actually took the specimen sent it off

uh had a biopsy done on it it came back three different labs yeah three different layouts and it came back and

um it was up with tbr sarcoma and i remember when he he called and he he

said i need you to come in and i asked him i said you need me to come into your office he said yeah i said for what i

said i said i never heard of a doctor say call someone at home and say come in unless they have bad news and i say so i

said i'll drive your office i'm not being your pretentious here i said why should i drive to your office and you give me bad news and i can't drive back

home i said so why can't you just tell me he told me uh do you have a chair i said dr ky please

just tell us what's going on and that was the moment our lives changed i never heard the term everything else i've come

before but i want you to have never seen someone so willing to fight as james was

as a kid he had had mental attitude and fortitude of an adult well seasoned

beyond his age and he made it easy what we did we were afraid that we were

the medical system would say no you can't do this

he has to go through these you know these particular procedures and we were afraid they might take our child from us

so that was a fear that we were dealing with but you know apparently the other doctor never told

anyone and so we started allopathic care we still go into naturopathic care

trying to find ways to and the doctor i want to say his name but it was a doctor who was a have been a medical doctor who

also believed in medicine and alopecia naturopathic care and so we began a journey driving we

drove everywhere we'd go everywhere looking for help you know uh for him people who were you know legitimate i

don't mean you know you know these five nights people one leader was an author you heard

that you said to your son you're going to beat this and and you were the way he described it to me you were adamant

about it you weren't letting him think anything else where did that come from

yeah well i don't want to throw it in but i'm a cancer survivor and i had gone through an ordeal and but

but my son you know i'm an adult when i did when i'm dealing with it and and so

i believe i believe in god i believe in the power of god and i believe that god

is uh to everything but i think that god give us wisdom of course you don't deal with other

individuals in the world and understand their perspective but i believe in god and i believe in faith i'm uh

my family was raised james um was kind of say this james we had to drag

james to church every week too he was that kid you know even in the pew

giving his mother a heart you know but uh but he but god is good

because uh we could not afford okay here's this question i asked what option do we have

oh if we if we accept anything up than what the the doctors are saying then

we're gonna be seen in a negative light by them but we what is our goal our goal

was the restoration of his health and that hit and we didn't care what that took we wouldn't make every sacrifice sell

home or anything else there was nothing no value greater than the life of my child and i think his willingness to get

better yeah he helped us yeah he helped them he didn't fight us yeah that's right he's so determined and

i remember one day i was taking him into the woods we were driving down the road and he couldn't hold his hole and i had to take him into

the woods and i noticed when um um it was at that moment it was how

very skinny was it built that was now hanging over you know just just

there and and i just looked at him and then that was one of us i tried not to ever cry around i didn't want him to

think you know anything you know that that we had lost his battle and so i just kept telling him constantly

you know uh we're going to beat this we're going to be you're going to be this god's going to beat this you know

because god made a purpose and you haven't made that purpose yet so what what do you make of the fact that today

i think he's 42 james 43 years old at 42 years old he's using

his hands to literally give miracles to other people and restore their quality of life

and make them feel healthier what do you make of that before he moved before he moved to um

cleveland there was he worked with a chiropractor and he had his own office within that chiropractic

let me use your space and i and he named and he named i don't know he knew what he was doing or not but he

named this practice gifted hands and i told him i said do you see that so

i wonder if he knows what's operating within him you know because his hands were a gift

and he's not just he's not just good as a chiropractor he is exemplary i mean this this guy

you know and we never knew chiropractic yeah

it told us he was going to be a chiropractor i said what's up james you know you know i

and he said he said mom he said i think this is my calling oh okay well that's your call

and go for it he surprised all of us we had no idea

none whatsoever how much joy and pride do you feel seeing him

not not just he's alive you know he's 42 years old and doctors are telling him he was supposed to die 11 but

to see him thriving and helping people and living his purpose as a parent

having gone through what you as a family went through and then seeing where he is today did you ever think that was possible and

how does it make you feel to have that to just have him be thriving and helping and the kindness

and compassion that he shows others as a parent what is that like number one it makes me feel gratitude

and number two it makes me realize that he has never forgotten what he went through and that

if he just makes a lot of money eventually whatever he will never forget

the path that he had to go through he will always stay humble one of the true things people say that a

a young child they may they may not remember what you what you said to them or or how you treated them but they will

always remember how you make them feel and

yeah yeah and james understood that process um

it's just something about the way he went through this he climbed this mountain i have i have a total of we have a total

of three sons and we have one amazing daughter that that uh that came to our family of our marriage but but

every one of them are amazing but this this kid what he went through you know none of them had to go through

this and i'll just say this he has not made us proud he made us um

respect uh the the power of choice he's made

choices not guided by financial you know the accumulation of fighting well

that he has a goal and i'm sure but he people are a part of him more so than anything else

i'm i'm gonna open it up two questions uh shay lucy sorry if i said your name

jay shy uh she's not on camera so i'm gonna ask the question for her just in case she does

not want to ask it and i'm sorry if i got your name wrong uh do you still have that mustard seed

you know what uh i do but i don't have it on it's at my parents house i have all that stuff in a

uh shoe box i hope y'all still got that shoe box

okay so yes i still have it because they didn't throw it out but i put all that stuff in the shoe box and put a lock on

it and uh see it's at my parents house do you have any tactics that you use now

that if something's stressing you out like here's what i'm gonna do to make sure that i keep pushing myself forward

yeah honestly uh i use i use exercise so everything most of the stuff that i do i uh to kind of

deal with that type of stuff is normally things that help release endorphins things that i feel good when i'm done i feel help so i

like exercise or just something like so when i'm that's what that's what kind of where my advice i go to that type of

stuff so no matter what i'm going through it's something i'm doing something healthy to deal with in a sense

so there is another comment i think he meant to send it to everyone but he sent it to just me so i'll read it for

he said your story hits home with me as my sister was diagnosed with human sarcoma at age 16. she had the option to

lose her leg and chose to keep it in fight the cancer spread to her lungs and her battle ended at 20. i'm so happy for

your miracle and very proud of the value you put into your life and the lives of others stay blessed and thank you

oh thank you and he and he texted me when he read this story and he said i was very inspired and he he really it

resonated a lot so i wanted to read that one if anyone has a question anyone else can question or

comment we had it's an open conversation whatever you guys want to add um

what are you most proud of james in your story

honestly where i'm at right now uh i think where i'm at right now uh i i didn't just

the fact that i actually uh you know you know i beat it but i still turned around i was able to use it i was

gonna use something positive you know not just beat it and just kind of go out and just do nothing with my life you know what

i'm saying in a sense but i was able to actually use it and turn around and do something positive i think this is

you know right now and i and i'll say during the pandemic it gave me a lot of time to think about stuff you know

i had it makes you sit down and kind of think and i think during pandemic is when i've been when it really hit me

so um but yeah it's you know finally getting sit down everything else is kind of quiet now and kind of really thinking

it's just kind of like wow but yeah that's i think right now do you still live with fear and worry

oh slightly you know i'll get every every blue moon i'm not gonna lie every now and then i

can get like hey this just don't feel right all right you know my mind was straight today you know what

i'm saying so yeah every now and then yeah i do it's is is definitely it's definitely always a

thought i just try not to think about it i try

not to you know i'm saying like oh it's not it's more for like uh not to put it off like you know this

could be nothing because i don't want to be naive either yeah you know but um it's also one of the things i just kind of like all right let me just keep an

eye on this for a second you know and then i kind of but i try not to let it stretch me i was trying to worry about i think about it too much

you know because i'm like i'm good i'm good and i recently got blood work not too long ago and everything was

absolutely amazing so that makes me feel even better so what are some of the what do you advice

you find yourself often giving your patients

first of all drink water they don't like to drink water

nobody likes to drink water but yeah so uh drink water um that's just one thing

but no seriously just to be active be active uh you know i tell them all the time you know this kind of the

scenario i give is if you have a car if you have a car you have a you know

it's not if you buy you purchase a vehicle and what you're going to do with that vehicle you're going to get the maintenance you're going to get the oil

change you're going to get the windshield wipers change you're gonna you know rotate your tires change your tires might even upgrade you know make

it you know to make it a better better vehicle you know so why not this is but however

when you get tired of that car or something happens to that car you can always trade that car and sell it buy another one however so why would you

treat your car better than treat your body you know and that's my biggest thing so i have to you know that i tell my patients like

you you only have one body to let me you only have one body in it that you can't trade this in

this this is all you got you know so and i think sometimes that's kind of

wake-up call like damn i never thought of it like that you know so i want to ask your dad another question

or a dad or your mom what advice do you have for parents who are watching their children go through something difficult

and it's difficult for them to how do you tell them to how what advice you have for parents

about helping your child persevere through something that's hard for you to watch them go through because i'm sure as you mentioned you had cancer and i'm

sure that was incredibly difficult but i'm gonna bet that it didn't match watching your child go through cancer

i think the greatest thing the greatest laws a person can have is to is to lose a child i mean the

greatest law and if we were going through that experience and to answer your question i think that

my counsel would be to number one um focus on focus on

on positive endings don't don't think in terms of you know that he could or she

could that what would that change but that that positiveness that you're speaking to

your son or your daughter about you know you and you're just constantly trying to

uh i just feel like the human mind is a cup and and it it can only hold so much and so if you give a more more positive

thing than the less room in it that there's in it for negative things so i would tell them to encourage their

children i would tell them to to real faith you know uh and that that was my strongest and my wife's

strongest point was faith uh you simply you have to have faith i know that every

and i'm not saying whatever whatever it is you can have it again but you you got to have something to hold on to like

james said take away hope and i have nothing left you know i have nothing left

yeah i used to think that love and hope were the two most powerful emotions and then i did a story with actually the

person who introduced me to james chris and he taught me that

love hope and faith i think are the three most and powerful powerful emotions and then james's story

reinforced this so two more people sent me direct questions one is from pete and pete wants to know

when you saw your father cry did you start to think about what if what if you passed away

and how sad your dad would feel and did that inspire you to fight even harder to kind of protect your parents

actually yeah um not so much just my parents but well yes for my parents and also because

i mean me and my brothers are really close and this is probably the only time i'll say that about to them but

me and my brothers are really close and you know and i got a and i had a you know six-year-old little brother and you

know who you know i love i love them you know i still do but you know what i'm saying i love them at the time i was

like i don't you know i want to be here with i want to be here with them you know i'm saying so i want to be here with them i don't

know i can't imagine and you know the lost they'll feel so at that point i'll say this at that

point i was doing this for more than just myself so you know that's why i didn't want to

you know that's why when they gave me that this insanely strict diet which you know how hard it is in the 90s to stop

eating meat sugar and all this other stuff as an 11 year old yeah and you said that you're you know your family

everyone you're around they all ate meat you said you know you're really excited they all like me but i will

but i will say this one thing they did try to do was when they came into the house they were trying to eat let's meet the house they tried to eat meat like

outside the house it's kind of as i was transitioning to make it easier for me i was like manchester united

yeah but they tried they tried you know james has a question as well he said have you ever gone back to that doctor

that was cold that gave you the initial diagnosis and just like hey still here

let me tell you something if i can find him listen hey

by the way look what i like when i do now so your friend i think lenard i hope i said your name right he has a question

i'm gonna let him ask him did i get it right you did i don't know i'm gonna let you ask your question since you're on camera

so thank bro so did you make it did you make it a conscious effort not to share that story

with people in the past if so why and why have you chosen to share it now

in the past i you know kind of touched on this a little bit but mainly in the past is because

i did not want to be treated any differently i wanted to be treated as normal as everybody else i didn't want

anybody to hand me anything i didn't want any anybody to treat me nicer because you

know they felt like it felt sorry i just wanted nobody to feel sorry for me i just wanted to be as normal as possible

although i knew i wasn't i still wanted to be and feel as normal as possible and so um

and that's why i just i just kind of kept it i really kept it to myself and like only a handful of people really knew you had to get really close to me

for me to tell you you know what i'm saying that's why i'll start explaining why my diet was the way it was or why i

didn't do certain things or why you know because i'm also worried about my health and um

but now as i'm old especially as i feel like you know what i've i can't get that type of cancer again i

beat this i did it and yeah and the whole irony of everything is kind of now i'm like you know what and it took

people close to me kind of like dude that's actually a pretty that's actually something you should you should share and i'm and i still wasn't doubted about

it i was kind of like i don't know about that you know but um and finally i was like you know what

maybe i should you know maybe maybe i should share this maybe who i don't know you know somebody

could touch somebody maybe somebody to give somebody hope or maybe somebody's doing something similar or has somebody i know

somebody who is you know i never know who i can help and this is a way of me doing it honestly without my hands too

so you know i i just felt like it was this was the time it took me forever to do it but you know

and i don't think he really knew what he was getting himself into when he did this letter

we i did a letter with one of his friends who has an incredible story too and um i was laughing like you two going

to golf together it's just like these two amazing people with these amazing stories it's just not fair it's just the two of you like you need an audience but

he me i met him through a friend and he said i gotta tell my friend story and i i did the interview and he said you said

to me the other night i really didn't know what to expect and i keep asking questions and people until people give me answers so he once he was on the

phone with me he didn't have a choice yeah yeah we was on phone for about two hours yeah

so yeah yeah so like so i think i think i think that also probably helps too it's like

when you have someone else who's because chris had never shared a story on a public platform either he was he's

a lawyer in cleveland who was a homeless child and so i i think sometimes that helps hearing somebody else like share

their secret or share their truth yeah yeah so and i didn't know it touched christians like i said we was on the uh

we was playing golf one day and we just kind of having casual conversation and kind of asking me some things about

talking about our past a little bit it kind of just came up and not even i didn't really even go into detail detail about it but you know i told him

the story he was like you know that's bro that's kind of deep you know and then so i didn't know i didn't know he was going to come back

and you know say mention it to you at all so i just kind of thought it was going to stay right there on the golf course but i'm glad he did

i'm glad you did and i told you when i heard your story i like i'm calling all

my friends you got to hear the story this is so amazing and this is so powerful and you're like is it really

i'm like yes i was like for real 100 he wants to know how you got

feeling back in your hand so i started doing a bunch of different

uh like sensitivity exercises i started looking at these different exercises but it was also one of my professors he had

me it was and i think i don't know if this was the one thing that did it but this is crazy we took uh

do it do we still even make phone books now but then i just got i was in chiropractic school

and they gave me this uh this phone and i had this phone book and just like a strand of hair just a

strand of hair we put it in the phone book put one page over it and uh i would sit there all and i was

in my time my free time and i would just kind of rub until i could feel that so i can feel that strand of hair so i can

feel it you know different fingers until i can feel it then two pages over the hair until i could feel it until like in the

end three pages and i was constantly working on like my sensitivity to touch that was one of the things that i did

so and you called your dad when you got it back right yeah yeah like

i still and the thing the thing is i still don't think they knew you know the gravity of that because

i didn't want to tell i kept some things from my parents i just didn't want to freaking out unnecessarily so

to be honest with you no i don't want my mom blowing up my phone

but even when your dan read this letter he teared up it was just like it was this raw emotion

everything was happening all over again and it was things in that letter like

when you went to sleep and you were afraid to go to sleep yeah i never knew that we didn't know that

[Laughter] so the line they're talking about is in

the letter you wrote um you said that you were afraid to go to bed because you were afraid that if you had closed your

eyes they wouldn't open back up the next day yeah i mean

i was scared to go i did not want to sleep at all like sleep i was scared to sleep it was

like you know i said sleep is the cousin of the death i was yeah that's exactly what i thought um

i forgot to thank leonard for his question thanks for your question and i think it's interesting listening to your dad's version of the story in your

version because like you have different perspective and and when you told me like about the amputation at hand you

said you told your dad that he didn't wanna you don't want to amputate it and your dad listened to a 12 year old boy i

mean 11 year old boy and really your dad went and did the research but he's not going to tell you all the research he's

giving so it's just interesting you know you guys were approaching it from you were a child and only knew the

and then your dad was doing stuff behind the scenes to fight for you and do what was best for you so it's interesting because i didn't know your experiences

were a little different and there's things that you kind of both didn't know about what each other was experiencing i

thought it was more of like a look man i'm not getting my hand at potato that's it okay

so um so we have two more questions about

this so i'm gonna go to tom tom what you got hey lauren how's it going

good it's good to see you hi james um so my question was um you know what advice would you give to

you know a young child you know between you know 11 or younger you know who is going through a challenging time you

know um and how would you um you know kind of um you know what advice would

you want to give to that person first i would just read i will reassure them that you know tough times or even

with you even as a kid tough times could be normal so because a lot of times you'll think that hey you know like i

don't suppose like i was thinking i don't supposed to go through this you know what we do go through this you know even as

even as children and i you know but i would reassure them that um that you know tough times happen

but you can't but you're just with yours but you're stronger than even as a child you're stronger than you realize and i think some of you don't realize

how strong they actually are you know and that's more so of what i'll reassure them that listen you are

stronger than you could possibly even imagine and this is just something that could be temporary you know you know you might

not like it you know might be uncomfortable might be you know whatever the case may be however you're strong enough to beat anything

you know just like those just like you see these superheroes you're a superhero you don't even know

you are a superhero you know so and that's you know that's that's the advice i would give them to know that

you don't need a cape to be a superhero you are but you are superheroes you can beat this so yeah thank you so much

now you're a superhero for everyone else not just good to know because

pain and headaches people i mean that's that's compromises people's quality of life so

making people better and that's a superhero yeah yeah yeah

james i have a five-year-old her name is katie um so that's really reassuring i'm

not just what to say to her but also you know i think that as a parent you think that children shouldn't go through

hard times um but to kind of to hear you say that that i couldn't say that to her and that that's you know

acceptable you know reality you know children go through difficult times also you know um that actually was really

kind of are you are you were in 1979 because i just turned 42 this year before i was i was i was born i'm a

tourist yeah awesome yeah also yeah so i also i want to hear i want to show you um a friend

of mine um gave me a mustard seed and has reversed matthew 17 20 on it and

it's here hanging on the wall i actually just got this about two months ago i really wanted to say that yeah so

thank you for that inspiration lauren it's great to see you as always i like your hair uh really nice

yes a late shower

okay i love that that you had a mustard seed soda

i'm gonna go get myself a mustard seed yeah um shai has another question she said

when you the doctors talk told you about your benign tumor in your brain how did you feel were there any negative

emotions or doubt that you faced were you afraid and what was it where exactly

was it out on your brain and thomas thank you for the question

oh man i was uh oh yeah i was scared i was like oh i was

like this is happening again but then again now it's here so i it's in my head so this is oh this is gonna

be bad like it was like i was like and then like i had no support system either

so it was like it was just me i just moved to cleveland i didn't know i knew like one or two people maybe that i had

and that you know other than my uh the guy was my business partner from grad since grad school other than that i knew like just people from work so we didn't

know each other you know but uh at the time oh man i was let me take waiting on those results i

was freaking out so yeah yeah i was definitely freaking out and uh it was actually um

yeah it was on the side so i still have like a scar here and um but yeah it was it was the surgeon was

the surgeon was amazing um he was even like yeah i want to minimize the scar man so you can you know brush

over it and still keep a cool fade so he was he was and i showed you the picture of my head all bandaged up and everything i just i

woke up and i didn't know what i was going to take those bandages off too because everything my entire head was just numb i swear for like a day and a

half but uh yeah no i i i don't think you can have something

like that happen to you in the past and then you have something similar happen to you and you not you know feel scared and not have you

know that type of emotion so yeah i'm but i'm happy i got through it too

though i'm happy it was it was what it was i'm gonna bring i'm looking for kevin um

kevin if you're if you see me i'm looking for your he has a really powerful comment and i

want i want him to to make it if he's willing other kevin do you want to come on

kevin okay so he's not mute himself but he said thanks for sharing your story

i am facing a tumor on my adrenal gland you're inspiring me not to face this with trepidation or fear thank you

thanks a lot and we're praying for you kevin no definitely praying for you kevin definitely

did you what was some of the response you got from the letter and were you surprised that you are an inspiration to people

did it feel good to be an inspiration it felt great the responses were extremely positive i was saying a lot of

crime a lot of people said it was in tears reading it a lot but i got a lot of stuff i got a lot of you know and

this is you know whether it was women whether it was men they were all like you know dude i'm tearing up i'm crying and i'm frantic

i'm going to hug you when i see you i got a lot of people was pissed at me like i thought it was tight how come you

didn't tell me i was kind of like you know yeah i mean we're not i don't want to

play basketball we all we in the gym and i'm like hey bro so i got this cancer right you know so it's

it's just it's not something i throw out there as a topic yeah um you know so i i got a lot of i got that

too as well but the the response has been i have people who are telling who are

teachers and who's saying they want to read class elementary school class uh stuff like that tomorrow i'm reading

this i want to show people i want to show my students who i think she teaches like fifth grade i believe but you know fifth sixth grade i think but i want to

show my you know my students that you know hey you can get through this and do that and how you know i want to say what i want to be with a real life success

story somebody who you who looks like y'all you know as well so i thought that was actually pretty dope

so yeah it's uh the response has been amazing and just your mental toughness

your perseverance combined with your heart i think is it's beautiful for children to see and i

actually texted one of my friend who works in the education i go you have to watch the tonight's and

i'm going to send him because i don't think he's on but i said children should be on these calls and should listen to stories like yours

especially children who look like you and they need to know these stories and they

needed to have they need to see see people persevering in the way that you did that they can go through tough

times and persevere and that tough time could be anything it could be sickness it could be homelessness like chris or

it could just be something smaller but it's big in their world and seems difficult at the time so i i do think

your story is really important for everyone but especially young people because i think everyone needs to have some form of a mustard seed in their

wallet or in their heart or in their mind because that's how people that's how we become our best selves is

persevering through through the worst of time to the hardest of times but i think i also think it's important for people

to hear about a support system like your parents like i asked you before do you think you'd be here without your parents and

you said you didn't think so and i think your parents deserve a lot of credit for their strength and their

perseverance because it's not easy for a parent to watch their kid go through cancer i'm not a parent but i know my

parents love me a lot and i can't you know i know that that would be extremely difficult so i give you guys a lot of

your strength in your perseverance as well and the way you just rallied around yourself in a way that was selfless and

positive and and purposeful and helpful so who knows do you guys do

thank you guys yeah they're on you could probably give them

thank you so much for doing this and for trusting me with your story i know it's kind of weird to tell a stranger your

whole life story when you didn't tell your best friends but i do appreciate it and i'm glad you really liked how it came out and i'm glad um you got the

response that you did not that i would at all surprised because as i told you i was

very moved by your story so thank you and i'm gonna unmute everyone so everyone else can say

thank you and good night uh you guys can i meet yourselves or

whatever thank you for sharing thank you so much you're welcome for coming i know you've

been a proud puppy says

i heard my dad's voice in there and he said i don't know you but i'm proud of you i heard about that

james i want to say dad i'm looking for you i hear you're my

dad's voice i'm looking at home my mother's maiden name was albert and after hearing your

story i'm hoping that we're related somewhere in the past did you have an extra letter in your name well we

forgot to let it but i think we're related because i i want to be related to you and you hey man that's awesome man thank you everybody looks so much

alike i think we do okay bro come on guess go come get some

of this vegetarian chili bro

i'm in cleveland make it happen a little bit of a trip from new jersey

i have patients that fly off fly from all over to get adjusted so hey new jersey has been one of those spots

but thank you everyone for coming and hey maybe we're cousins and we didn't know it maybe we are covered

good night thank you thank you you all have a great night my dad's crying by the way yes can you see i just

want to call him out my dad's crying more than your dad

and he's a lot more that really means a lot good night everybody

thank you james thank you to wonderful parents