Gary & Tristen Benefit

03/02/2025

Today is Tristen 19th Birthday!!! I can’t believe it! We are so thankful for this day, along with each and everyday! God has blessed us with this amazing strong young man! He has been through so much and is still going through a lot, but he tries so hard to keep his sense of humor❤️ I hope my kiddo has a Birthday! We love you more than you will ever know!❤️🧡💛💙💚❤️

01/09/2025

Tristen had his BMT appointment along with a bone scan! Praying his bones are healed and he doesn’t have to start of high dosage of infusion medication! Prayers the labs come back all test are great!🙏🏻🧡💛💙💚TristenStrong!!

12/22/2024

Today we celebrate Tristen 3rd Birthday/BMTTransplant! He has been doing great! It has become a tradition to eat at the restaurant that a sweet nurse who was by our side during the transplant ordered for him that night! 
We are truly thankful we can celebrate with him on his now 2nd Birthdate!

12/13/2024

Tristen has been through so much in his young life, and he has found a place where and with whom he feels like he is part of the family! He loves giving back and helping those sweet babies who need love and a home! He talks about these animals as if they are his own. He tells us all the good and sad stories and what they go through. I tell you I couldn’t be prouder of this kid and everything he is still going through, but he doesn’t let that stop him! So many people have told me he is destine for greatness and i know that is true!
TristenStrong🧡💛💙💚

🎉 Congratulations to Animal Care Technician Tristen for completing his certification in the Fear Free Shelters program! 🌟

This training provides shelter professionals with valuable skills to support a pet’s physical and emotional wellbeing, creating a more comfortable and stress-free environment for animals in shelters. We're so proud of Tristen for his dedication to giving our animals the compassionate care they deserve.

08/01/2024

3 years, 6 months and 1 week ago, this was Gary right before he was taken back to have his central line and port placed and his PICC line removed. Please keep him in your prayers this morning. In a few hours he will go to surgery and his port and central line are coming out! We’ve had a love/hate relationship with the port. It was a necessary evil sometimes. I can’t tell you the amount of chemotherapies, antibiotics, immunotherapies and other medications that have been pushed through that line over these past 3 years to save his life. It was also a source of infection and infiltration and knowing he would have to have his port accessed attributed to a lot of Gary’s anxiety. (To be honest, if someone was coming at my chest with a needle to insert while I was awake, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be too happy about it either and he became a pro at it). Port removal is sort of the final step at the end of active treatment. Gary is still considered T Cell ALL in remission and is done with active treatment. Once we hit January of 2026 he will be considered cured. He continues his monthly labs and check ups for the first year and then will go to every other month. He is still fighting histoplasmosis and on the daily antifungal itraconazole until at least September or whenever infectious disease believes it is safe to stop. We appreciate your love and prayers over these past few years and hope you’ll continue to pray for him. 🧡 If this mama disappears for a few days, I’m being hit with about a million emotions I’m trying to figure out how to process myself. 💕

06/27/2024

Gary is 12!!!! Happy Happy Birthday, sweet boy! Three years ago turning 12 seemed like such a long way away. I remember one night Gary and I were wide awake after he had a horrible nausea and vomiting spell and he asked me how old he would be when he was done with all of this. He was 8 at the time. When I told him he would be turning 12, I remember him crying out, “12?!?!” and then starting to cry. Guess what, buddy….you’re 12 today and such a blessing to so many. You did it! Your strength is unmatched. You are smart, funny and have such a bright future ahead. I can’t wait to celebrate with you!!! I love you so much!!

06/08/2024

Today is the day!!!💙🎓
I haven’t had FB since it went down back at the beginning of April, sadly it won’t let me back in. I tried all devices I use and it all says the same thing! So I plugged my old IPhone in and this is the only device that lets me in, sadly it dies after about 30 minutes and I hate having to send things to it, but at least I can put this up here!
Tristen has had a lot going on this past few months and I will up date everyone about that later! For today is a celebration day! We didn’t know if this day would happen, but he made sure it did💙 Tristen is the strongest kid/Teen/adult I know! Just in first grade when he was 6 he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes💙 and it’s hard for a kid to not be able to eat or drink whatever he wanted, he would sneak things so he didn’t have to get a shot. What kid wants a shot? But with Type 1 you have to cover everything that goes in your mouth, unless it’s under 5 carbs. As he grew up I watched it change him it took away things he loves like Soccer, he was an amazing soccer player and his goal at 9 was to play in the olympics with the USA soccer team! 6th grade was his last year, his blood sugars wouldn’t not stay up not matter what we would do, and he was always so exhausted after a game! I hated this, why my son?
And I don’t need to tell you what came next! At the age of 14 I had to hear what NO one especially NO parent wants to hear! And our living Hell started, I watched my son go through what I imagine hell would be, I watched him lose so much weight they had to feed him through a pump, I watched Lumbar Puncture go in his back because his blood sugar would drop so they would be scared to put him to sleep, I held him as he cried and as he was so sick not only from chemo the throwing up and other things, but as he had the worst case that they had seen of Mucositis, he struggled to breathe his throat, stomach and face and mouth was swollen so much so you could not recognize him. I watched him keep a suction in his mouth because there was containers of so much blood coming out of him. That was the only way he could breathe. There is so much more, but that is enough talk about that today!!
Today we Celebrate Tristen for all he has accomplished even when no one thought he would be able to get this done in time, he did it!! His strength and his love got him to this day, I can’t tell you how great and wonderful it felt to watch my son walk with his class who he hadn’t seen since the 8th grade! I thank God each and everyday for that kid, he is one of two of the greatest gifts I could have ever have been given, my Best Friend/Son!!
Congratulations Tristen we love you!!
TristenStrong🧡💛💙💚

05/26/2024

It was an amazing afternoon💙
Tristen has been through so much and not knowing if this day was going to happen to see my son in his cap and gown and hear his name was one of the greatest moments💙

05/24/2024

This is the day I never knew if it would come!
Our past 3 1/2 years have been a lot. There are no words to say how I feel about this day!!
He worked his tail off to make sure he Graduated with the rest of his class, with help of some wonder teachers and staff💙 even with all that he has been going through he made it happen! My Hero My Worrier! TristenStrong💙 

03/22/2024

This guy would love your prayers today. I feel like I’ve been as transparent as I can be through Gary’s journey. Today he has another chemo infusion at the hospital. April 19th he will have a chemo infusion and his final spinal (lumbar puncture). On May 14th, Gary will ring the bell and have his last chemo infusion. 1,218 days of chemotherapy will be finished. 3 years, 4 months and 2 days of chemo done. My baby who was diagnosed at 8 years old and spent more than 3 years of his childhood on chemotherapy will be a month shy of his 12th birthday when he rings that bell. I’m terrified. I don’t want to be, but I am. I know Gary doesn’t remember everything and I’m thankful for that. I wish I could somehow magically erase all of it from my mind, but I can’t. Everyone wants to know what we’re doing to celebrate and when that will be. I promise you all that I’m going to work on that, but for my own peace of mind, I want to wait until after we get the results in April from his last lumbar puncture. I need to see the cytology report say, “negative for leukemia blasts” one last time. think that’s when I’ll be able to take a deep breath and plan for a celebration for Gary. Less than two weeks after he rings the bell, Luke graduates. If you see me crying over anything and everything these next couple of months, just know they’re happy tears and tears of joy and relief and giving all glory to God for everything He has given me and for saving my baby boy.

03/02/2024

Today my strong, amazing son is 18!! What? I said it, 18 today!! He has been through so much his hole life at 6 diagnosed with Type one diabetes, and then 14 CML + PH in blast crises, 15 Bone marrow Transplant, in the past year suffering from depression with anxiety.
He takes it one day at a time and we are so proud of our hero.🧡💛💚
We are thankful everyday that we are blessed to have you as our son! I hope you have an amazing day, we love you sooooooo much!!!

02/22/2024

Yesterday was a long “fun” day with Luke bowling and Abby’s basketball game. Today will be a long “not so fun” day. Please keep this little nugget in your prayers today. It’s a vincristine chemo infusion day at Dayton Children’s and more than likely he will also be getting another IgG immunotherapy infusion. Pray for a smooth port access and minimal side effects. We’re armed with legos and kindles. I have so many mixed emotions as we’re racing toward the end of chemo. Obviously thankful and blessed, but also scared. We know the reality of cancer, specifically T-cell ALL-leukemia and there is a reason the treatment is 3 1/2 years long. We’d appreciate all the continued prayers. He’s a warrior. 🧡