Roy Lee "Rocky" Dennis was born in
Glendora, California, to
Florence "Rusty" Tullis and Roy Dennis on 4 December 1961. When he was very young, Dennis frequently had
ear and
sinus infections. While undergoing a
tonsillectomy at age two, doctors detected abnormalities in his
x-rays. Over the next year, he visited doctors at
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)'s
medical center multiple times a week, culminating in a diagnosis of
craniodiaphyseal dysplasia (CDD), an extremely rare bone disorder that causes bone tissue to build up excessively, including in the skull, causing gradual compression of the brain and thus
intracranial hypertension. In 1965, Rusty said doctors had told her there were seven recorded cases of CDD, and based on those few, they predicted that the pressure from bone accumulation on the central nervous system and cranial nerves would destroy Rocky's eyesight and hearing, and eventually affect his brain, anticipating he would die prior to his seventh birthday. ==Subsequent years==