LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An 18-hole round of golf can tell you a lot about a player. Maybe they flubbed a shot or hit the fairway. But none of that matters to University of Louisville Women's Golf player, Lauren Thibodeau. She’s all about the comeback.
“I really have a lot of peace out here, it's just doing what I love like everyday, I'm just grateful for that even more now,” Thibodeau said. “It's not about the score, it doesn't define us.”
Since her first swing, Thibodeau, also known as Tibby, fell in love with the game.
“I played many other sports, I started with skiing and soccer,” she said. “So it definitely surprised me that I ended up in golf, but I've loved it ever since.”
But in December of 2020, Tibby’s clubs were packed up and her game was put on pause.
“I thought it was just some GI symptoms, I thought it was my celiac disease or something food related,” Thibodeau said. “So I had to wait until I got back home for Thanksgiving to go to the doctor and it was just really bad.”
Tibby was admitted to Boston Children’s Hospital where she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a chronic disease of the large intestine.
“They gave me the decision to rather try this one last medication or to remove my colon so when you're 21 years old hearing that, it's just crazy and something you'd never think you'd have to go through,” Thibodeau said.
Tibby had adverse reactions to the medication, resulting in a medical catatonia. The last resort was ECT, also known as electroconvulsive therapy.
“Shocking my brain, inducing a seizure and it was scary stuff, I wonder how my mom signed the papers for doing something like that for your child but it was good and really had great results right away,” she said.
After spending 55 days in the hospital, Tibby was finally back with a club in her hand in May 2021 and she is now competing in her senior season at the University of Louisville.
“Your illness doesn't define you, you can go out and still do what you like to do or whatever your goals are in life, taking every day and making the most out of it,” Thibodeau said.
The University of Louisville women's golf team will compete at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic in Athens, Georgia on March 25.