Jensen Strong - Crushing Leukemia

06/16/2026

One of the many many AMAZING nurses caring for Jensen! We have been blessed with the best. Congratulations Samantha! Jensen loves you and would still go home with you in a heartbeat! 🫶🏻🎗️

🎉 Congratulations to one of our extraordinary cancer care nurses, Samantha Hamrick, who was honored with the DAISY Foundation Award for Excellence in Nursing!

"There are nurses who do their job well, and then there are nurses who change how it feels to survive something like this. Sam is the latter," wrote her nominator.

Thank you, Samantha, for taking the very best care of your patients and advocating from the heart!

06/12/2026

Jensen did well with chemo yesterday. We discussed concerns about the nausea and his doctor increased his zofran dosage and gave him something different yesterday. Not long after getting home, he did throw up once but had otherwise done okay. We finally had to shave the rest of his hair because it was causing him to scratch his neck and back up. Hairs were starting to get in his eyes and everyone’s mouths. I think he feels better now not being covered in hair all day. His levels were good yesterday. No need for any transfusions but ANC has definitely dropped to a neutropenic level and his glucose came back sort of high. They retested his glucose a little later and it came back normal. 😮‍💨 steroids have got his appetite good and his attitude bad. He got home around three yesterday and ate spaghetti, several popsicles, pancakes, chicken nugget happy meal, hamburger happy meal, Dino nuggets, French fries, two bowls of cereal, more pancakes, jelly toast, pizza rolls, a tiny bowl of veggies, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something. No he didn’t eat ever little bit each time but he just wants everything he sees! Y’all keep sending prayers and send groceries too… 😂

PS: yall come see The Freedom Flyers tomorrow! 🐎🇺🇸

06/11/2026

06/11/2026

06/10/2026

Zofran and scope patches are no longer enough to hold back the nausea. Jensen is now vomiting and unfortunately I’ve had to start giving him Benadryl in between Zofran doses. I was hoping to avoid it so he wouldn’t be more tired than he already is and we could avoid another medication. As you can see, the poor baby is on enough! Pray this alleviates his nausea and that we have good lab results tomorrow. He has been going strong for the first quarter of this phase, and we want him to keep pushing through with good counts so he can remain comfortably at home for as long as possible. 🙏🏻🎗️🧡

06/10/2026

Today you could really see the decline in Jensen’s status. He was ill and moody most of the day. He still participated and did good in speech and physical therapy but he wasn’t his normal bubbly and wild self. His hair has been coming out a little the past couple of days but started coming out in huge chunks today. When he woke up this morning he still had a normal head of hair. By the time we got home from speech and PT, the top of his head was almost completely bald. His appetite is still really good but the nausea is definitely hitting him. Poor baby is tearing up his spaghetti (his favorite of course) and gagging in between the bites. Zofran and scope patches are helping though. I’m assuming his counts are also dwindling down because he had a little bit of a bloody nose today. This is his usual indicator for low platelets. Anxious to see his labs on Thursday. Thursday he gets another round of Vincristine and Doxorubicin. He will also be starting back on his steroids in the morning. Continue praying for Jensen. His little body is working so hard. He really is an amazing little super hero. 🎗️🫶🏻🧡

06/08/2026

And the hair loss begins again 😭🧡🎗️

06/04/2026

Jensen is on his way to New Orleans for another round of chemo. Today he will get Vincristine and doxorubicin. He’s been really constipated (side effect of Vincristine) and it’s been difficult trying to help him get some relief. Finally got him there, so Pratt thus round doesn’t start all of that over again because our poor baby was just miserable. I know we said before that he would play for a little and lay down for a little but all he wants to do now is lay around. He watches his iPad, snacks, and naps on and off. We are relived to see that he still has an appetite. Side note, his awesome physical therapist said that he has come so far and is doing really great! His speech has been doing really great too! He’s had a couple of weeks off because our wonderful speech therapist got hitched 💍 (congratulations btw). But he’s been saying more words, some only we know and understand, but he’s really trying! Pray today goes well, pray for safe travels, and pray for the difficult days to come and treatment continues to ramp up.