From Psychosis to Streamer University: The J Shock Story

J Shock was born Jerome in 1999 with a condition so rare that doctors still don't fully understand it. Kenny Caffey syndrome — a name that sounds like a rapper from Buffalo — is a primary bone dysplasia that means his body doesn't produce growth hormone or absorb calcium properly. Without daily injections and pills, he could have a seizure and die. That almost happened when he was seven, after he got sick and threw up his medication. His mother Debbie had let him sleep in her room that night, and when the seizure hit, she caught him, called an ambulance, and likely saved his life. "Thank you, Debbie," Theo Von says quietly when J Shock tells this story.

A Body That Never Cooperated

The medical challenges stacked up from the start. J Shock was an oversized baby — eight to ten pounds — which is typical for his condition, but his eyes looked unusual. By kindergarten, teachers noticed he was holding paper an inch from his face. He couldn't see. He needed enlarged textbooks and a step stool because his legs dangled from standard desks. His hearing was equally bad. When he got his first hearing aids and put them in, he cried — he had never heard birds chirping or the high-hat in a song. "I never heard shit like this," he says.