MILL CREEK — Wisdom teeth extraction is a normal part of life for many teens and young adults.
It’s not normal, however, to nearly bleed to death.
As the anesthesia took effect on the morning of April 25, Jackson senior wide receiver Will Turpin looked forward to life without those pesky molars. He woke up to a somewhat bewildered oral surgeon calmly explaining, “We’re having some trouble stopping the bleeding.”
A few hours later, the news became much worse.
Leukemia.
Life changed drastically that spring day. Children’s Hospital in Seattle became his new home for the next two weeks. Everything that seemed so important the day before took a back seat to staying alive. The Advanced Placement tests he’d studied so hard for were canceled. Hanging out with his girlfriend was no longer possible.
The Jackson players in the weight room who’d all vowed to turn the program around since they were sophomores would be without one of their main leaders.
His senior football season: Over before it started.
Jackson’s Will Turpin, left, helps quarterback Colby Bossert warm up before their game on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
“That definitely hit me the hardest,” Will Turpin said. “When I asked my oncologist if I could play football and she said no — that was the only time through the whole journey that a tear came to my eye.”
The official diagnosis was Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL), a rare form of leukemia. The good news is that when a person doesn’t bleed out, it is curable.
Warning signs
Will Turpin knew something wasn’t quite right last spring.
He had some bruising on his feet. Just from doing squats in the weight room, he thought.
His teeth bled a little when he brushed them. Just some pressure from those wisdom teeth coming in, he hoped.
He felt a little off, too. He believed it was just from working hard to get better at the game he loves and studying for the five looming AP tests.
“I definitely ignored a lot of signs,” Will Turpin said. “I knew my body was feeling a little bit different. I remember being just a little bit low energy, but then again, I’m a football player. I was going to strength and conditioning every morning at 5. I kind of just ignored it, put it aside.”
His mother Jamie also thought he was a little different. Maybe his skin looked a little pale.
He looked forward to the visit to the oral surgeon, believing that would solve a lot of issues. Turns out, he was right, but in a very different way.
The longest day of his life
After the dental procedure, the surgeon worked to stop the bleeding. He tied one side of his gums closed with dental floss and sent the patient home.
His grandmother, Marky Olson, had driven him to the appointment. It was supposed to be a routine little surgery, so his mom went to work. His dad Troy had taken a quick dream trip to Alaska for some fly fishing.
A few hours after the surgery, Olson called her daughter with concerns about the continued bleeding. The surgeon, feeling like something abnormal was happening, ordered blood tests. He called the Turpins at 6 p.m. and told them to go straight to the ER. By 9 p.m., he was diagnosed with leukemia and riding in an ambulance to Children’s Hospital.
“Crazy day,” Will Turpin said with a chuckle.
That day, Jamie Turpin tried to process what was happening to her son while talking her husband out of trying to take a private plane back home — at a cost of $40,000.
“You don’t have any time to process,” she said. “You’re just thrown in.”
She continued: “We almost lost him the night he was admitted because he was bleeding out so bad. They had eight doctors swarming around him at 2 o’clock in the morning. It was extremely scary. You just try and stay in the moment and be as strong as you can, so that’s what I did. But looking back, I don’t know how I got through that.”
The morning after the diagnosis, he texted a group chat of teammates and friends. They, of course, were stunned, and rushed in to see him.
“My heart just broke for him in all the ways it can break,” said Jackson head coach Mason Siddick, who has five sons ranging from ages 1 to 11. “I felt so bad for him.”
Siddick continued: “Seeing him made me feel so much better. … Just the way he was attacking it, and his mindset was — and is to this day — something that’s awesome to see.”
He stayed at Children’s for two weeks.
From there, Will Turpin’s junior year took a very different path.
“I was still living in the hospital, and I was still on drugs (pain medication) — a lot of drugs for the next two weeks,” said Will Turpin, who has been commuting to Children’s Hospital almost daily for infusions the past five months. “My counselor and the teachers at Jackson High School were very supportive. Overall it was pretty easy, and I ended (junior) year with good grades. So, I can’t complain about the end of the year.”
During that time, it became clear how much his teammates loved him.
Jackson High School players line up with orange towels for leukemia awareness and to show support to Will Turpin before the team runs on the field on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
“For the rest of the two weeks I was there — every second I was awake in the hospital — my friends, girlfriend, coaches were by my side,” Will Turpin said. “That meant everything to me.”
They came in with laughter, posters and princess balloons.
“It hurt all of our hearts knowing what he was going through,” senior linebacker Jason Pham said. “It was so sad to see him try to keep up spirits and act like nothing was wrong.”
Not playing, but playing a role
Though his high school football career is over, optimism is high that life will continue for a very long time.
Will Turpin recently underwent a bone marrow aspiration — a procedure in which a surgeon inserts a needle into the bone to remove a sample of bone marrow.
The wait was long, but the news was good. He received the words he’d been longing to hear since that awful day in April.
“Zero percent cancer detected.”
There will be more testing and more treatment to make sure the beast stays away, but it looks like leukemia is getting blown out this time.
He’s grateful to be in remission, but he is a football guy who misses playing football. Siddick talks to his team about the importance of living in the moment, because the future isn’t guaranteed. He knows his team could use a sure-handed, quick route runner in the Timberwolves passing attack. And, it’s not easy for him to accept what’s been taken from Will Turpin.
“Everything you’ve been working so hard for is gone, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. … but accept it,” Siddick said.
Will Turpin hangs out with his teammates Jason Pham, left, and Cole Truant, right, as they warm up for their game on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Overall, Will Turpin looks and feels like someone who could help the team this season. But a port under the skin on his chest will remain until he completes treatment in late December, and that isn’t something that can take a hit.
“It’s been rough, for sure, to see not just a great teammate, but a leader and a friend have to sit out and not be on the field with us every day,” Pham said. “We all keep him really dear to us. He comes to practice every time he can. He’s always here supporting us, no matter what. I think we really use him as an example of how blessed we are to play this sport. We play with him in our hearts.”
While he can’t be out there catching passes, Will Turpin helps coach the receivers and sometimes wears a microphone during games to communicate with coaches what he’s seeing on the field. And always with a smile.
“He’s a joyful person,” senior quarterback and linebacker Edonyas Abebe said. “He’s the type of person that if our practice isn’t going so well, he’ll give us a speech and bring us right back up because we know how tough he is and what he’s been through.”
One of the lucky ones
“We’re super lucky, if you want to call it that,” Jamie Turpin said, laughing.
“Senior year is something you only get once in your life. It’s supposed to be the year of everything fun, so that’s been a disappointment. But, I don’t want to make it sound like it’s horrible-horrible, because Will is still able to hang out with friends and do things.”
Though one could argue that a leukemia diagnosis is about as unlucky it gets, Turpin believes he’s the lucky one.
Yes, he has 40-plus chemotherapy treatments scheduled at Children’s through December. Yes, there will be another doctor jamming a needle into one of his bones.
He’s happy to be here, though. He’s thankful enough people donated blood for the 23 transfusions he received his first few days at Children’s Hospital.
He believes everyone who is able should donate blood on a regular basis, and the Jackson football team hosted a donor event over the summer.
Will Turpin, who plans to study engineering at Oregon State, Washington or Cal Poly, is grateful to have a sudden, attention-getting essay topic for his college applications.
“Every single day when I went to the hospital, he would say, “My college essay is going to be the best thing in the world,” Abebe said. “There’d better be no colleges rejecting me after my essay.”
To donate blood, contact the Red Cross or Bloodworks Northwest.
Aaron Coe: 425-339-3081; aaron.coe@heraldnet.com; X: @Coe_Aaron
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