In August 2018, 14 year-old Kristion went to the family doctor to get a physical exam for football. The doctor noticed that he had lost a drastic amount of weight and Kristion reported that he was starting to have stomach pains. The doctor continued to monitor him every week for a month. Then a bulge in his stomach appeared, he developed high blood pressure, an elevated heart rate and his mother demanded further testing. An ultrasound revealed a large tumor in his stomach area.
Kristion had surgery on February 26, 2019 to remove a 25-pound Retroperitoneal Sarcoma from his abdomen. He continued to lose weight in the hospital and was placed on a feeding tube for 20 out of 24 hours a day for almost a month.
In April 2019, Kristion went back to school. He gained back his body weight, started weightlifting again and joined spring football. He is looking forward to getting his life back to normal. He will have scans for the next 10 years as a Retroperitoneal Sarcoma diagnosis is highly unusual in pediatric patients.
Kristion is optimistic about the future. He says, “This is not the end of my story, this is just the beginning. This happened for a reason and now I have my story.” Kristion is looking forward to a bright future and hopes to play in the NFL someday.