However distasteful, colonoscopies are something of a right-of-passage for the AARP crowd. But you don’t expect a teenager, midway through his freshman year at Florida State, to have to go through the procedure.

Hank Lebioda couldn’t keep any food down, though -- in fact, it hurt to even eat. He’d also been losing weight, quite a bit of weight, actually. So, doctors decided to schedule a colonoscopy for the 18-year-old.

Leboida faithfully did the prep. Only clear liquids the day before, maybe some Jell-O for variety. And later that dreaded chalky drink that is supposed to completely clean out your innards so that the doctor can have a look.

Only it didn’t work.

“I had a complete obstruction in my gut,” the PGA TOUR rookie recalls. “I was rolling around in pain essentially at 3 in the morning and I had to go to the ER.”

He was given pain medication and eventually the obstruction passed. A colonoscopy was finally performed, and biopsies taken. The diagnosis came back as Crohn’s disease, an inflammation of the digestive track that can lead to pain in the abdomen, diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition.

“I didn't know what it meant to be honest with you,” Lebioda says. “It's not really a disease that's very popular or mainstream.”

Four days after he went to the emergency room, on New Year’s Eve of 2012, in fact, the teen was discharged. Lebioda is the first to tell you that he didn’t know how his life would change going forward as he learned to live with the disease.

“I didn't understand the severity of it until later on which I'm glad I didn't,” he says. “It might have freaked me out knowing how screwed I really was going into this.

“But I kind of made it a mission of mine to say, hey, I can be part of the problem for myself or I could be part of the solution. How do you want to address each day?”

Turns out, Lebioda’s recovery has been steady. He was able to stay in school, and he was even able to compete for the Seminoles that spring, eventually earning Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Year honors.

“Just crazy,” he says. “Looking back on it, it's nuts.”

Still, Lebioda remembers a period of several weeks where he was just lying in bed “pounding” nutritional drinks and protein shakes. He weighed 175 pounds when he first started feeling the effects of Crohn’s and bottomed out about 40 pounds lighter.

“I had no muscle, no fat, nothing,” he says, adding that it took almost two years to regain the weight.

To get him moving but to minimize the stress on his body, the athletic trainers at Florida State had Lebioda ride an underwater treadmill and do agility exercises in the pool. There were other concessions, too.

“I couldn't run,” he recalls. “Like the process of running, the vibration is shock that would hurt my gut too much. … I wasn't cleared to carry my bag, anything like that, so I had to use a pushcart. It was just a process.”

Another part of the process was to change his diet. Lebioda met with a nutritionist and a chef to develop a food program. He’d text the chef several hours before he headed to the athletic dining hall and there would be an “awesome meal waiting on me,” Lebioda recalls. “It was incredible.”

Lebioda has learned to avoid foods that are greasy, acidic or have heavy cream sauces. When he’s not feeling well he won’t eat salads or roughage like broccoli or nuts. Even fruit can be a problem – especially bananas that have seeds in the flesh that can infiltrate the intestinal lining.

So just what can he eat? Turkey sandwiches, Lebioda says quickly, adding that grilled chicken, rice, butter, noodles and tons of fish are on his menu – particularly salmon, which he considers a comfort food that he has learned to make a “million different ways.” He even eats red meat, occasionally.

“Right now, I am so healthy, so beyond where I should be that, like, if I really wanted to I could eat anything,” Lebioda says. “Anything.”

At the same time, he’s not going to push it and maintains what he calls a “pretty simple diet.” And Lebioda is mindful of the shots of Humira – imagine a big highlighter as the delivery method -- that he must give himself every other week.

“I hate needles, but I’m perfectly comfortable doing this,” Lebioda says. “I have blood drawn all the time for different procedures and things like that and I can't watch. I hate getting shots, but when I give myself the shot, like I'm fine with it.”

“It doesn't freak me out because I'm in control.”

And taking control has been key for Lebioda. After all, Crohn’s disease is something he will live with for the rest of his life.

“I was on an aggressive treatment plan right at the start and I think that's what ultimately helped me succeed,” Lebioda says. “I'll never defeat it. This is not something you completely cure yourself of but it's something that you manage.”

“I'm at a point where I can manage it in my sleep essentially, that's how healthy I am.”