Tristan is a normal 12 year old kid who loves playing guitar and listening to 99X.  But something you may not know is that he has an 8-10 inch scar across his abdomen, has multiple visits to the hospital a year, is constantly on pain and experimental medication ($400-$600 a month of which insurance doesn't cover) and is scheduled to go back in surgery soon.  We at 99X figured that Tristan would enjoy a pair of tickets for him and his mom and a pass backstage to meet Halestorm, Godsmack and his favorite band, Staind.  We were right.

Without going into gory details, Tristan has a vein the grew around his kidney when he was 10 squeezing it nearly in half.  He had to have surgery a while back which left medical gauss inside him.  He's been urinating that gauss for about a year and a half now.  He also has to urinate about 30-60 times a day and is mainly home-bound.  While in a different surgery, they accidentally nicked Tristan's gall bladder spilling bile into his abdomen causing a constant burning inside him, similar to an Indian burn on the outside of his intestines.  This also meant that he cannot process sugars the normal way anymore.  Basically a 12 year old in constant pain that can't even eat chocolate or drink a coke that has to urinate large clumps of gauss.  He has had multiple endoscopies, colonoscopies, E.G.D's, and testing including a Pyeloplasty (a surgical reconstruction of the pelvis to drain and decompress the kidney).

Not only did Tristan and his mom get to enjoy the show, they got to go backstage and meet 3 of the bands.  Tristan's face lit up when Aaron Lewis and the rest of the band came around the corner.  We were told they would only sign one thing per person and NO guitars.  I just so happened to be carrying Tristan's guitar anyway.

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Tristan says that when he's at home, he likes to write songs and plays the guitar all the time.  His mom says that most of his songs are about the physical pain he goes through everyday.  During the concert, Tristan's mom texted me the play by play of how Tristan was under Lizzy's spell during Halestorm not taking his eyes off of her (me either..lol), swaying back and forth with Staind and fist pumping with Godsmack.

He and his mother showed up early to the Centurylink Center with custom made Staind and Godsmack shirts.  Before we offered tickets and backstage passes to Tristan and his mother, I invited her to lunch at the Blind Tiger after seeing her show up at one of our ticket drawings where she couldn't stay to be present to win.  His mom told me how she works as a nurse and takes turns keeping Tristan with her mother.  After giving her JUST THE TICKETS, we had a winner back out of being able to go to the meet and greet.  I instantly thought of Tristan.  I called his mom and let her know and she texted back, "He's the happiest 12 yr old on the face of the earth right now.  I video taped it...he is crying he is so happy."  A bit after this photo, Tristan got sick and had to head home early, but got to see a bit of the Godsmack show.

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We at 99X are proud to have listeners like Tristan and his mom.  For some reason, our listeners aren't the average, middle class soccer moms, or the well to do gated neighborhood folk.  Our listeners are the fabric of this city, state, and country.  We are the types that get stuff done no matter the adversity.  We grit our teeth and make the best of things.  Most of us overcome difficulties every day of our lives and still rise to the top when those brass rings come around in life.  We live, laugh, love, and rock out with one another no matter what life decides to throw in our face.  We know life is going to suck from time to time.  We accept that.  What we don't do...is give up.  When life punches our ticket and the lights go dim in our world, we stand up every time, we put our fists in the air, we throw it forward and yell out in the dark together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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