Show Transcript

0:00:01 - (Kevin Lowe): When you think about faith, what is it that you think of? Do you think of faith in terms of a belief in God? You think of faith in terms of believing in something, even though you cannot see it. Today's episode is a story about faith, a story of both of those definitions. David Pascalone was a kid who grew up, and you could say the cards were stacked against him. I don't know about you, but how was your childhood?

0:00:33 - (Kevin Lowe): Did you have the cards stacked against you? David sure did. Matter of fact, he went through childhood with so many medical issues, yet nobody would listen to him. He was just a kid. Everybody just kept blowing him off until, of course, there came a time when he became an adult and he could take control. Even through all the hard times, through his childhood into his adult years, David kept his faith, his faith in something better, his faith in something more, a faith in his creator.

0:01:10 - (Kevin Lowe): And at the end of the day, when you hear David's story, you're going to think to yourself, my gosh, this guy has been through a lot, and yet he still keeps his faith in God front and center. Today is a story meant to inspire you, to empower you on the good days and the bad. When you're having a rough day, I want you to think of today's episode of today's guest, and I want you to be empowered by it.

0:01:45 - (Kevin Lowe): To remind you that, you know what? I can do it, too. My friend, I welcome you to episode 268. What's up, my friend? And welcome to Grit, grace, and inspiration. I am your host, Kevin Lowe. 20 years ago, I awoke from a life saving surgery, only to find that I was left completely blind. And since that day, I've learned a lot about life, a lot about living, and a lot about myself. And here on this podcast, I want to share those insights with you.

0:02:16 - (Kevin Lowe): Because, friend, if you are still searching for your purpose, still trying to understand why or still left searching for that next right path to take, we'll consider this to be your stepping stone to get you from where you are to where you want to be. Hey, how's that personal development going for you? Are you keeping track of your score? Being sure you're doing good, improving a little bit each day?

0:02:43 - (Kevin Lowe): Well, chances are you said no. Not at all. Well, this podcast focuses on personal development, so it makes sense that I'm going to give you something to help you out. I want you to download our brand new rise and thrive personal development tracker. It's totally free, and I've made it specific for you, my friend. All you have to do is text the word rise R-I-S-E rise to 3377. Again, get your very own personal development tracker by texting the word rise to 33 triple seven.

0:03:26 - (Kevin Lowe): Or if you're not into texting, you can also find the link inside of today's show notes to get access to that tracker as well. My friend. With that said, here we are diving into the story of today's guest. I introduce David Pascala.

0:03:47 - (David Pasqualone): So my parents were never married and then both families didn't like each other and both parents had issues they didn't deal with. So my parents not only weren't married, but they weren't together. So I was raised by my mom, a single mom, and she moved in with my grandma. And my grandma, when we moved in from birth, she had like cancer. So I knew her for the first four and a half years. She was an amazing woman but she was always sick and struggling and then on the other side.

0:04:17 - (David Pasqualone): My mom loved me but she had her own issues and demons she was dealing with and I spent a lot of time with my grandma. And then when my grandmother died, my mom got super depressed and added to the already existing issues. So it was never like a normal, let's say childhood there. And there was issues which I love my mom, she's still alive, I still talk to her and she's in town. But it definitely wasn't the ideal childhood, so to speak.

0:04:46 - (David Pasqualone): So then when I was, we were really poor, like very poor. I'm american poor, but still poor. And when it rained stuff, water would come in the house and the roof was like no joke, like 6ft high maybe it was just an old house built. People came over from Italy, my family, and they built it and they built out of scrap wood and they just built room to room to, you know, I'm thankful for a home, I'm thankful for a shelter, but it just wasn't, again, ideal. So when I was a kid, I was always getting sick and they didn't really know why and they just assumed nothing was wrong and they thought, I think basically sometimes how your parents, they use you for attention.

0:05:30 - (David Pasqualone): Yes, I think pretty much what the doctors thought was I was always getting sick because I was modeling my mother's behavior or she was putting me up to it to get attention. So again, it was just back then it was just you are what you are and you stay with your family and you just work through the problems or you just take the abuse. So I never said anything to anybody. I just went through it. But when I was like eleven and twelve, I started getting really sick and sick, meaning, like, tired all the time, couldn't breathe right through my nose, really just weird things. It was like I was getting the flu or strep throat every couple of weeks.

0:06:05 - (David Pasqualone): It was just really bizarre. And so everybody was telling me I was depressed and all this stuff. When I was 15, I just stopped going to the doctor because I was so sick of them telling me nothing was wrong and just prescribe me antibiotics. And then from 15 to 18, I just kept getting sicker and sicker and sicker. And then my senior year, I turned 18. Now I can actually have some say in what's going on.

0:06:32 - (David Pasqualone): So when I went to the doctors, I'm like, I want my tonsils and adenoids out, and why? I'm like, I get sick every week or two, and I'm always feeling run down, and I just want them out. I'm tired of this. And I'm like, whatever. So they're like, they're going to take them out. And at this point in my life, I was always trying to work to make money because I didn't want to be poor, and I was always trying to work out because I didn't want to be sick and fat.

0:06:59 - (David Pasqualone): So when I was 18, I was wrestling, and I love wrestling, but I could literally go to practice and feel like trash. But other people would tell me I was, like, Strong. I was like, what? I thought they were making fun of me. And then I go run, like, 6 miles, but then I'd go to bench press, and I couldn't even lift 100 pounds. It would just fluctuate. Like, one day I could bench 225, no problem. The next day, I couldn't bench 100 pounds, and I was sleeping all day in class, but I couldn't sleep, like, straight through the night.

0:07:32 - (David Pasqualone): I carried a backpack with a roll of toilet paper in it at all times because carrying tissues just wasn't enough. Constantly blowing my nose, constantly sick. Anyway, so I go to the doctor. I told him, do it. And back then, they did pre op inspection. I don't know what you call it. And a week before the surgery, I went in, and the nurse is like, hey, oh, hold on. I got to back up. I went on a trip to Orlando.

0:07:57 - (David Pasqualone): It was the first vacation we ever took. Second vacation we ever took in 18 years went to Orlando, and it was a trip I didn't even really want to go on, but it was like, okay, it's a vacation. Going to Disney world might as well, right? And when we went, you know how, like, you go on a flight in your ear blocks? Yes. My ear blocked, and it stayed. Blocked the entire trip. And then we flew back and it stayed. And at this point, I was interviewing. I don't know what you call it, but I was talking to the army, marines, air force, Navy.

0:08:28 - (David Pasqualone): I wanted to serve God in my country, to go to college, to become an officer, to serve my country. Well, I remember getting back and my ear was blocked. And I was telling the air force recruiter, we're sitting in the public library. It's like, just grab your nose and blow. And I'm like, pushing, pushing, pushing. Could not unblock my ear. And he literally laughed. Like, basically, you're a puss. Like, you're a wuss.

0:08:51 - (David Pasqualone): We don't want you. And he got up and walked away, and I was like, that guy's a giant ahole. I don't want to deal with guys like him anymore. So I'm like, air force is off the table. And then I took my asvab just because I didn't plan on going enlisted, but just in case, I took it, and I scored like a 99 or something, or 98 out of 99. And then I found out they had a mistake on their test, so they were really trying to recruit me.

0:09:15 - (David Pasqualone): But all this is going on. I hate school. I'm always sick. My house was a nightmare. I'm not even going to talk about that. Like, the personal life there. And then now I'm in this pre op I haven't been able to hear. And during the same time, there was a lump in the roof of my mouth, which I told the doctor about when I went to see him about my tonsils and adenoids. He didn't. He said he didn't even acknowledge it. So now the nurse is there, and she's like, hey, when did you get this abscess? I'm like, I've had it for, like, six months. It's like, what? I'm like, yeah, I've had this for six months. I told the doctor, and she's like, it's not in the notes. I'm like, that's not my fault.

0:09:50 - (David Pasqualone): They're like, okay, well, we should get a CAT scan just to be safe, to make sure it's not near. And guess what? We'll give you antibiotics. I'm going to get a big surprise there. Yes. So I go to take this CAT scan, and then I go back home and normal. I've finished school, finished wrestling. I'm sleeping because I'm exhausted, right? I'm sleeping on the couch. My best friend's over sleeping on the other side of the couch. And I get a phone call, like 08:00 at night. My mom's still not home from work, and it's the hospital. And like, hey, we got your CAT scan back.

0:10:25 - (David Pasqualone): And they told me over the phone, like, you have a tumor. You need to come in right away. We think it's cancer. You need to come in right away. What's going on? And I was like. I was like, yeah, I'll call you tomorrow, get some booked. And I hung up. And then instantly I felt this relief, because all these years they've been telling me, nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't hear. I'm a kid, nobody listens to me.

0:10:49 - (David Pasqualone): So I tell my best friend, I'm like, guess what? I'm like, you know, I'm always sick. He's like, yeah, it's like I actually have a tumor in my head. And they think it's cancer. And he turned white as a ghost. Because you remember the movie kindergarten cop?

0:11:03 - (Kevin Lowe): Yes, I do.

0:11:04 - (David Pasqualone): Sees me all the time and go, maybe it's a tumor. And then sure enough, it's a tumor, right? So he turned white as a ghost. Like, dude, it's okay. I'm like, you're fine. I'm like, this is great news. He said, number one, I'm not crazy. And number two, if I die, at least all the money problems will be solved for my mom, and I'm going to be in heaven. I don't care. I'm going to be with God forever. I'm happy. So I totally had peace. And I went and I took a nap, and it was great.

0:11:30 - (David Pasqualone): It was fantastic. So then my mom comes home, I tell her, and she flips out. I'm like, what are you flipping out about? I'm either going to be okay, I'm going to go see God, or you're going to be rich. It's the end of it. So, long story short, they go in, and I'm going to fast forward through all this. The dude at the hospital, the one that they found it, okay? Dude butchered me. Like he was trying to take biopsies, putting cuts in my roof, my mouth, and just butcher job.

0:11:56 - (David Pasqualone): And then he's like, shaking, literally shake. Because all these doctors know, oh, damn, we're screwed. This kid's been telling us years prior, then he stopped coming, now months. Something's wrong. We didn't take him seriously. This is total malpractice. And he's shaking. He's like, hey, do you mind if we send you to Boston? And remember, I'm so poor that I didn't have insurance or anything. And so when I turned 18, I was on my mom's insurance until 18. But then once I turned 18, I didn't have anything, so they put me on the state insurance.

0:12:28 - (David Pasqualone): And even though welfare and all the socialist programs in their true form, they're made to help people in this exact position while you need it, and then you work yourself out of that position. You know what I mean? Exactly. I was 18, and I had no insurance, so they gave me the best possible insurance. I was so thankful. And they sent me to Dr. William Montgomery, the head of the Ent at Massioner in Boston.

0:12:55 - (David Pasqualone): And this dude was world known. He's wrote books. He has. Has any ENT doctor listening now they probably know who Dr. William Montgomery is. He was flying to foreign countries to work on chics and princes and then coming back to work on a poor kid from Milford, Mass. So it was just great how God worked it out. Long story short, he's like, hey, this is what we think you have. We don't know. Death percentage for the surgery is over 50% easy.

0:13:23 - (David Pasqualone): He said, deformation is near 100, retardation is 80. I mean, they were being just legit with all the stats. When I was done, I was like, I'm good. Let's do this right. I'm like, kill me. And that is son. I had a private conversation with him. I said, hey, I know you can't legally make these decisions. I said, but I don't want to be 40 years old and my mom's changing my diapers because I'm handicapped.

0:13:46 - (David Pasqualone): I said, if things go south in the surgery, just snip, snip, cut something that shouldn't be cut, and just let me go home. And he just went at me and said, I promise. I said, good. We're good to go. Either send me to see Jesus or heal me. So I go into the first surgery. It was brutal. It wasn't like a couple of hours surgery. It was a three day surgery.

0:14:05 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, wow.

0:14:06 - (David Pasqualone): First day, you go in, they do an embolization, because the tumor was a size of, like, you'll see in the story. It kept growing back. So I think the first one was the size of a baseball with a tail down my throat. And they went in and they planned to break my jaw, deform me, do all these things. And when he was in surgery, so the first day they did embolization they go through your groin, they go up, they fill your. Basically, they fill the tumor and everything they're going to cut with superglue and plastic.

0:14:33 - (David Pasqualone): And when they're filling this with superglue and plastic, if you budge or move, you can have aneurysm, you can die. There's all sorts of bad things that can happen. So after they did this surgery, which was hours and hours and hours, you can't move for 24 hours afterwards. That Kevin, to date, is still. I've had crazy stuff happen that was the most painful thing ever. I mean, you can't move. You can't move your head, you can't move your back, you can't move your feet, can't move your hands. You don't want anything that's going to increase blood flow or pressure.

0:15:04 - (David Pasqualone): So as soon as that was done, they're like, what do you want to eat? I'm like, I want to take a shower. I took a shower and then I ate. And then the third day you have surgery. And I think my surgery was like 16 hours. But when he was in there, God just gave him the idea. So he cut out my palate. Your roof of your mouth, are you in touch with your tongue? Yeah, he just took off the right side of my palate, and he said as soon as they went in, the tumor just rolled out into his hand.

0:15:36 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, wow.

0:15:37 - (David Pasqualone): It just, like, delivered. So the surgery still took. Like I said, I get confused because you're going to see another surgery. I don't remember if it was 14 hours or 13 hours, but it was a long time. I was in that room. Hundreds of stitches, but they didn't have to break my jaw, deform me. So I wake up and everybody is like, are you okay? Can you see? I'm like, yeah, I'm fine. And after a major surgery like that, usually you get blood transfusions and huge long. They told me I'd be in the hospital for 30 days or more.

0:16:08 - (David Pasqualone): Back then. They actually try to help you, not just run you home and.

0:16:13 - (Kevin Lowe): Yes.

0:16:13 - (David Pasqualone): So, long story short, I woke up, it was a Wednesday, and I got discharged Saturday. And during the surgery, I only lost 250 ccs of blood. Wow. My number one concern that was, remember back in the 90s, hiv was huge and non understood. They still don't fully understand it, but it really wasn't understood. And I was terrified of a blood transfusion. And they said, you lost less blood having a major surgery than most people losing a nosebleed. So I was like, cool.

0:16:43 - (David Pasqualone): So they discharged me on Saturday. And then I feel so good. This was stupid, but I was, like, mowing the lawn a week later, and that's really retarded, but that's the truth. So I just felt so good. It was years of not being able to breathe, years of not blood flow, so all that fatigue. The tumor was not only it was a benign tumor, they found out, but it was acting malignant. I'm going to show you how.

0:17:10 - (David Pasqualone): But it was eating away at all of my bone and my jaw, and it was sucking my blood supply, and it was putting pressure on my brain. And when I was 14, I couldn't breathe sometimes, and the doctor told me I had asthma. I'm like, I don't have asthma. I can go run around and I don't have any issues. It's when I get hot. So what happened is it would get hot and I couldn't breathe. So then I'd go in front of the refrigerator freezer, and I breathe in cold air, and eventually it would get better.

0:17:38 - (David Pasqualone): So what would basically happen is the tumor got hot, things expand, couldn't breathe. So looking back, it's almost humorous. I'm going through all the details. I don't know why, but anyways, so I go through, and then I try to go off to college, and then I start feeling run down again, like the same type of rundown three months later. So now we're in August, and I'm feeling just trash. And I go to see the doctor, and he's literally, again, he's overseas working on, I think he was working on a print.

0:18:08 - (David Pasqualone): And I get the other doctor, who, again, mass, general mass in ear. These are some of the best doctors in the world. But this guy was such a jerk. He was a scumbag. He's like, your tumor didn't come back. He's like, you're fine. He's like, you're having. Basically, he was saying, it's in your head, just like all these other doctors. And he goes, wow, you just were so sick so long. Your body's just balancing out. It doesn't know what to do, blah, blah, blah. And he made fun of me. And I looked at him, and at this point, I knew, no, nobody knows my body better than me.

0:18:40 - (David Pasqualone): And I might be a poor kid, and I thought I was stupid and idiot, and I did not have a high opinion of myself after years of being told you're worthless. But at that point, I was like, if I'm going to die, I'm going to die on my terms. So I looked at him, I said, listen, man, every time you order an MRI, you get a kickback for your Mercedes payment. I said, shut your mouth. Sign the paper and give me it and prove I'm wrong.

0:19:02 - (David Pasqualone): He's like, fine. It's like, I'm going to prove you're wrong and laugh in your face. I'm like, fine. And it was that hostile back then. I was 18. I had a girlfriend with me, and she was just, like, looking at him like, this guy's an ahole. And I'm like, yeah, this is what I've experienced my whole life, Dr. Montgomery. So I go back, and so I'm feeling, like, questioning myself again. Am I really sick? Is it.

0:19:25 - (David Pasqualone): I. What's that? Hypochondriac. Week later, I get a call and like, hey, this is Dr. Montgomery's office. You got to come in. I'm like, okay. So I get in the car with my mom and my girlfriend, drive the hour to Boston, sitting there talking. And the doctor's there, Dr. Montgomery, he's back. And the doctor who gave me the you're an idiot lecture is standing behind him with his head down, quiet. And Dr. Montgomery goes, Dave, you know your tumor was really rare. He's like, we've only seen a handful in recorded medicine. And when I say a handful, not a handful of the tumor I had, but a handful of the size and magnitude and the aggression.

0:20:04 - (David Pasqualone): And he know yours grew back. He's like, we don't know if it was like a barbell type effect. And we were so focused on one side, we missed the other. And I'm thinking to myself, as an 18 year old who have medical grade, that doesn't sound very reasonable, but we can't imagine it growing back that fast. He's like, it's almost the same size, and it's near the same position. We got to get it out. And I'm like, okay. I'm like, that's cool. And then he looks at the other doctor, and he's like, you have something to say? And the doctor, he's like, I'm really sorry. He's like, I just didn't think this was possible.

0:20:41 - (David Pasqualone): And I'm wrong. And I'm like, listen, man, I forgive you. I understand. It's an exceptional situation. I said, but if you've ever been on this side of the chair, every time you're told nothing's wrong, it makes you feel crazy. And if I had a real problem or if I had a fake problem, it's just going to get worse. I said, you got to do your due diligence and believe people. I said, especially if you have the history of proving there's something really wrong.

0:21:03 - (David Pasqualone): So Dr. Montgomery looks at him and says, I feel what he said, but basically, don't open your mouth again and stand there. And then he looks at me, and this is the number one dude in the world. He's like, dave, this guy have a lot of degrees. It's like, there's a lot of people out there who are more intelligent than me. He's like, but as many phds as we might have, he's like, nobody has more knowledge about your body than you.

0:21:27 - (David Pasqualone): He's like, I don't care if it's me. If you feel like there's something wrong, you pursue it, and you be your best advocate. He's like, because we're just men, and this is a practice, not a profession. He's like, you tell us what's wrong. You don't let us tell you what's wrong. And that is, like, for the listeners, that's a huge takeaway. If you know something's wrong, fight for yourself. Fight for what's right. Fight for your kids. Fight for whatever you need to fight for, but don't quit till you win or die.

0:21:57 - (David Pasqualone): That's how I look.

0:21:58 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. And, I mean, I would like to just add to that is. That is an attribute that makes a doctor amazing is a doctor who understands that. That is incredible. Standing there in one room, you have the total opposite of wow. So what happened with this second time?

0:22:25 - (David Pasqualone): So the second time they said, okay, dave, listen, you have a huge amount. Your palate's gone. You have a huge amount of your veins. It was a vascular tumor acting malignant. And when I say acting malignant, it was like dissolving bone. Right?

0:22:41 - (Kevin Lowe): Okay.

0:22:41 - (David Pasqualone): So he's like, we have to take it out again. But now your death rate is, like, 75%, whatever he said. And then he's like, your deformation rates basically 100%. We're definitely going to have to break your jaw and mandible, and you're going to have some issues. And then I'm like, okay, just do it. I said, just same deal as before. I don't want to be a vegetable. I don't want to be crippled. So just snip, snip. If you got a snip, snip.

0:23:06 - (David Pasqualone): Everybody makes mistakes. So we go into the surgery, they're sending, like, counselors to my room, and I'm like, I swear I'm fine. They're like, back then again, in Boston, even the policies I don't agree with. The thing I love about Boston is most people. If you actually interviewed people and took a checklist to see if they're, let's say, democrat, Republican, we'll keep it simple. Right? Okay. Most people in Boston say, I'm a Democrat, but if you looked at the value system, they're going to be a Republican, but they don't even understand what it means.

0:23:36 - (David Pasqualone): We were trained as kids. Democrat, good, working class, Republican, evil, rich, bad. So when they have policies up there, even the most, back then, at least sending a counselor to your room before surgery, they had good intentions. Right? Someone had good intentions. Now, 30 years later, things are very skewed, and a lot of people don't have good intentions. But back then, they were sending counselors to my room because they were trying to say, this 18 year old kid who could die or be deformed, he's going to need some kind of mental help.

0:24:07 - (David Pasqualone): But when I was there, I'm like, listen, I know God. I trusted him as my savior when I was 15. I know that no matter what happens to I'm me going to be with him in eternity. I know that if I live or die, it's his will. I know that no matter what happens, we'll adapt and overcome. Right? So the lady is like, yes, you're fine. She walks out of the room. So then the next day, I have that same surgery. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Monday, embolization.

0:24:31 - (David Pasqualone): Tuesday. The rest to let it dry. And then Wednesday again, 14, 16 hours, whatever it is. Well, this time, when Dr. Montgomery goes in, he has this idea. What if we take off his cheekbone?

0:24:45 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, gosh.

0:24:46 - (David Pasqualone): So they cut my lips, like, underneath, between, I guess, your gums and your skin. And they pull my lip, like, above my head. It's like, basically, it's just skin. It'll snap back. And then they take a chisel and hammer and make a square window, a rectangular window in my cheekbone. And his theory is, he's 18. He's still growing. It'll heal. So he goes in, and then, sure enough, just like the first one, he can access the tumor and take it out through that window, just like he did the palate the first time.

0:25:19 - (David Pasqualone): And then he sews me back up. And this time, Kevin, I lost only 25 ccs of blood, which is not even realistic after the embolization. Remember I told you there's a bunch of the first day where they put the plastic and the superglue. They tell you you can have strokes and all sorts of issues and blindness and blah. Blah, blah.

0:25:38 - (Kevin Lowe): Okay.

0:25:38 - (David Pasqualone): I actually woke up from that. And you wake up and you can't move. Like, you can't move, you can't scratch, you can't do anything. And when I woke up, I couldn't see out of my eye, my left eye, and I was like, oh. And I was like, hey, mom, can you get the nurse? And I'm trying to stay cool because I knew my mom would flip out more than me. And I just had no vision in my eye. And I was like, God, I can't tell you what I prayed, I'm not going to lie.

0:26:07 - (David Pasqualone): It was just basically, help me. I don't understand. I don't want to be blind, but whatever your will is. And I remember crying, but it wasn't like, there's different types of crying then you can cry happy tears, sad tears, fearful tears. Maya was just like, frustration and helplessness tears. And when I cried, my vision came back, just washed it away. So my vision came back. And I know you and I, we've talked about this, just at that point, that was a different experience, of course.

0:26:35 - (David Pasqualone): So then I get up, same thing. I want to take a shower, then I ate, then I go into surgery, and then I wake up and there's a giant sign. And I mean, a giant sign. Like, remember when printers had the paper where it was on a ream and you had to tear off the little circles? Okay. The nurses and my family and friends made this sign that went like. It must have went 15, 20ft across the wall of the hospital. It said the luckiest boy in Boston. And then they all signed it.

0:27:01 - (David Pasqualone): Because when I woke up, I found out the tumor came out like it did. They didn't have to disfigure me. I had no damage that they knew of. And the surgery was a complete success. And like I said, I was discharged the next day.

0:27:16 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow.

0:27:17 - (David Pasqualone): Just incredible. It was all gone. Now look at some people have God and their outcome, and I can talk about, I don't know if we have time, but, I mean, I got sick when I was older, and I was sick for years from something totally different, and it was just agonizing pain for four years. Right? So God's going to plan, and I don't ever want to go through those days again. But looking back, I'm thankful for them because I learned so much.

0:27:38 - (David Pasqualone): But at this point, I'm 19, I wake up, says the luckiest boy. No, I'm 18, says the luckiest boy in Boston. And I'm back. So now I'm, like, going, I'm like, okay, well, I don't want to go back to college because I just had two major surgeries in a row. And my face is like, I got a hole in my palate, hole in my cheekbone. Wrestling is off the table because if I got hit, I could have real bad issue. I didn't have the facial, just stability, the structure.

0:28:04 - (David Pasqualone): So fast forward now we go from September, October, November, around December, I start getting sick again. Oh, no, man. This can't be happening. I'm like, no way. Even I'm like, there's no way I'm sick again. So I go in, talk to the doctor, take an MRI with contrast, and they're like, dave, it's back again. And this time we know it's not a barbell. Your body. They said, what happened? This tumor is only in men between the ages of twelve and 25.

0:28:29 - (David Pasqualone): It's a hormonal tumor. And your body, because it was there so long, they said, it's usually a small p sized tumor in your nose that causes nosebleeds. No big deal. They said yours was there so long because the doctors didn't listen to you, that it grew out of control and it's just become part of your body. There's like, we need to do radiation or chemo. And I'm like. And now I'm thinking maybe I should be considering other paths here, right?

0:28:57 - (David Pasqualone): So I'm like, okay. I'm like, let's look at the options. And I knew chemo was poison, so I'm like, I'm not going to do poison. Radiation causes cancer, and they want to radiate my head to stop a tumor.

0:29:10 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:29:11 - (David Pasqualone): So I said, what's statistically, like, what's atritis the truest? What's got the best success rate for this type of series? Like, Dave, there's only been two people in recorded history. They're close to this. And he's like, I got to be honest with you. You're going to be in the record book. You're number one. I'm like, okay. I'm like, so we got new ground here, right?

0:29:26 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:29:26 - (David Pasqualone): So I'm like, okay. Praying about it. And I said, well, you told me what you think. And he's like, I think radiation would be the best approach because we can basically pinpoint it and zap it. But it was in my face and throat. So he's like, we're going to have to do double the dose and do this. Basically, instead of doing something we do in 30 days, we do in 14 or 21 days they sped the process, because once you start getting radiation, you get sores and all sorts of other complications and.

0:29:57 - (David Pasqualone): Am I giving too much detail? I feel like I'm just taking a long time.

0:30:01 - (Kevin Lowe): No, I mean, this is your story.

0:30:05 - (David Pasqualone): Okay. Hopefully I'm not boring the listeners, because this all comes down to, honestly, God is good. He loves you, and he's going to get you through it.

0:30:13 - (Kevin Lowe): But absolutel