“Be brave, Be Strong, Always remember to smile.”

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St. Patrick’s Day 2017 started just as any other. Tegan picked out what to wear making sure that she had some sort of green on, along with her four leaf clover bracelet. She was so excited since her 11th birthday was on Sunday and mom was going to be picking her and her friends up from school that day to celebrate her birthday that night! But before she went to school and had birthday fun, she had the dreaded 11 year old well check appointment. 

The well check started with Tegan asking her PA if she was getting shots. However, since she wasn’t 11 until Sunday, she had to come back to get her shots. But the next chain of events caused Tegan to never go back to get her shots. It was a miracle if you can call it that, that Krista DeLong, PA, felt that her spleen was a little enlarged and wanted to run some tests to see if Tegan may have had Mono the last month instead of just the bug that was going around. An enlarged spleen can be a result of that. Blood was drawn. Tegan and her mom went to breakfast and joked about how she may have had Mono while she still went to school every day, had swim practice every day, competed in her USA JO and YMCA State Swim Meets and had Competitive Cheer. Tegan went to school and mom went to work, expecting to get a call that all was good. 

Mom has always heard of the stories about that dreaded phone call, but never thought she would ever be the one to get “that” call especially about her child. But at 12:15 pm, March 17th, that call came in. Tegan didn’t have Mono and wasn’t just sick, she had Leukemia. The whirlwind then started to happen. Mom had to figure out what to do with the kids that she was supposed to be picking up that day, with Tegan to celebrate her birthday. She had to find her husband to tell him face to face as she couldn’t imagine telling him over the phone as she just experienced. They together then had to get Tegan from school and try and explain this unimaginable thing to their daughter and their son and then it was the long drive to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital all within a few hours.

From that point on, Tegan has experienced things that no child should ever have to experience. From wondering if she was going to die,  being poked so many times that you lose count, taking medicine that makes you lose all your muscle mass that affects being able to walk up 2 steps to taking medicine that makes you get sick. But one thing that originally stood out for Tegan was her hair. She was known by her hair. She had light brown thick hair that went down to her butt. She always had questions of “how do you get all that hair up in the swim cap”, “how do you curl all that hair for cheer competitions” and she always had double French braids for Softball. The second question that came from Tegan herself was, “is my hair going to fall out?”  She was growing her hair out to be able to donate it to Children with Hairloss and now no one knew what was going to happen and if her dream would actually be able to happen. Her plan was to donate it when her hair would still be long after she donated. 

After being inpatient for 14 days, Tegan went home and an appointment to cut her hair to donate was scheduled. She was able to donate 19”! Her hair fell out within a months’ time after and now she was Tegan, with no hair. 

With the Crowns of Courage project, it made Tegan feel so beautiful and cool. She was the only one that would be able to have a Henna Crown tattooed on her head (besides her Gym teacher, Mr. Robinson). It made her feel strong and empowered to go out and be herself. What Amanda, Steve and David and the support team has done is not only put something artistically beautiful on her head but has put some spunkiness in her heart. She will conquer anything and this moment in her journey helped with that even more!