'He's very determined': Mason Stueve battled infectious bacteria before competing in IFYR

SHAWNEE – The spurs on Mason Stueve’s alligator skin boots clicked as he adjusted his legs.

He shot a snickering glance toward Trey Adams, who sat across from him at a round, fold-out table, as Stueve continued talking.

Then, they broke out in laughter.

There are years of camaraderie between the two. Stueve, a 17-year-old from Newton, Kansas, and Adams, an 18-year-old from Junction City, Kansas, have been team roping partners for years.

Their latest stop: The International Finals Youth Rodeo, where the pair is currently ranked No. 2 in the team roping event.

There’s always a great story to tell. Late-night road trips of them hustling to make it to a rodeo for check-in. In the mornings and afternoons, red dirt country music blasts from the speakers in Stueve’s truck. Zach Bryan and Turnpike Troubadours are their favorites.

In the evenings, the music switches to rap and podcasts.

“We always seem to have a good time, wherever we’re going,” Adams said.

The latest tale involves the pair blowing out two tires on their trailer near Edmond on the trek t o the IFYR. After moving their horses into a friend’s trailer and running to a tire shop in Edmond, the pair hastily swapped out the flat tires.

“It was 100 degrees out, and I’m running out of air all the time,” Stueve said.

Stueve’s shortness of breath isn’t without reason.

Several days earlier, Stueve woke up feeling dizzy. He stood up and subsequently passed out on his bedroom floor. He then went to the kitchen for some water, again passing out on the floor.

“I wouldn’t be able to walk 10 feet without being completely out of air,” he said. “It felt like I just ran a quarter-mile.”

He called his parents, who advised him to return to bed. He slept for several more hours, but nothing changed.

Then, he started vomiting blood.

His father, Adam Stueve, rushed home from work to take Mason to the hospital. The doctors were stumped, having to draw blood twice to run tests.

Then, they saw his hemoglobin count – a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen through the body – was dangerously low.

Mason received the diagnosis of helicobacter pylori, a bacterial infection that attacks the stomach. It allows blood to flow into the stomach and is usually caused by drinking untreated water or eating with dirty hands.

He was given antibiotics, which he needs to take for two months.

“The doctors suggested to stay rested and be on the down-low,” Stueve said.

But Stueve wanted to continue competing, so that wasn’t an option.

A day after the diagnosis, Mason competed in an open rodeo with Adams, despite his doctor’s recommendations.

While competing in the calf roping event, Mason had Adams stand in the arena in case he needed to hand his horse off.

“I always thought muscle-memory and adrenaline would carry me through my run,” Mason said.

Out of the gate, Mason felt the dizziness he’d become accustomed to, but he was able to successfully rope the calf, and didn’t require Adams’ help.

“(Adams) told me, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do if you pass out. Like what am I supposed to do, pour water on you?’” Mason said.

After the successful open rodeo, Mason’s parents and doctors still had reservations about him traveling to Shawnee to compete for a week. But his parents left the decision up to Mason.

For the past several years, Mason has been paying his own way in rodeo. He saves the money he earns from winning competitions, building fences and shoeing horses to pay for travel and registrations.

“He’s very determined and that’s what he’s going to do,” said Nowa Stueve, Mason’s mother. “He sets his mind to something and you really can’t quite talk him out of it.”

So, they let him make the choice.

“My doctors were not real happy about it,” he said. “They highly suggested I don’t go to the rodeo, but I clearly stated to my parents that’s not an option.”

The H. pylori hasn’t been the only health scare Mason’s had. He was born with a diaphragmatic hernia, a birth defect creating a hole in the diaphragm allowing organs in the abdomen, such as the intestines, to move upwards into the chest.

He had emergency surgery, which was successful, but it resulted in one of his lungs being smaller than the other.

“Ever since then, I’ve gotten real bad pneumonia every winter,” he said. “It’s gotten better now, but ever since I was little, I’d probably have pneumonia probably five or six times a year.

“I was a sick baby.”

Throughout the IFYR, Mason says he doesn’t feel ill, but gets dizzy occasionally.

“If I pass out in the area then I pass out in the arena, but I’ll be there,” he said.

Mason doesn’t know what long-term effects the H. pylori will bring. He’s scheduled for a scope of his stomach after he competes in the National High School Finals Rodeo in Gillette, Wyoming next week.

The NHSFR will be a trip Mason makes with Adams, one of their final together before Adams leaves for college.

It will be another long road trip, another night of rap music and podcasts and another week of team roping. But for Mason, who’s competed in rodeo since he was 4, he wouldn’t want it another other way, infection or not.

"I love it," Mason said. "It's my favorite thing."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: IFYR: Team roper Mason Stueve competes despite infectious bacteria