Wings assisted relapsed Hodgkin's patient

Randall Johnson, 28, has a healthy glow and quick smile that belies his brutal battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer originating from white blood cells.

“I really feel good,” he said. “I’m not in shape physically but I feel awesome.”

In spring 2010, Johnson, who lives in Lakeside, finished a stem-cell bone-marrow transplant at the Billings Cancer Care Clinic.

Wings, a local nonprofit that assists cancer patients, provided money to help him with expenses such as the transportation, housing and meals he needed while receive the life-saving treatment.

“I had three or four trips back and forth to Billings,” he said. “Between housing and transportation, it gets expensive.”

Johnson didn’t hesitate to add his voice to those of other cancer patients last January during the Wings annual fund-raising radiothon.

He plans to participate again this Thursday and Friday as Wings’ 15th annual radiothon takes flight from the Sportsman and Ski Haus in Kalispell via Bee Broadcasting radio stations.

Like many in the radio audience during the Wings broadcast this week, Johnson never expected to find himself or anyone in his family facing cancer. Yet in 2004, his mother Laura Loven was diagnosed with breast cancer and, just a month later, he learned his swollen lymph node was Hodgkin’s Disease.

At the time, Johnson, a 2001 graduate of Flathead Valley (Stillwater) Christian School, was working at Midway Rental while also taking classes at Flathead Valley Community College. Hodgkin’s developed quietly during his busy life at 22.

“I didn’t really notice anything until I had a swollen lymph node in my neck,” he said. “I went to the doctor and, after a biopsy and a PET scan, they diagnosed me with Hodgkin’s.”

His mother, who died in 2007, had just started radiation therapy when he got the news. Johnson immediately started chemotherapy in Kalispell.

“Chemo was not fun,” he said. “But I tried to stay active as much as I could. I went on short hikes and I was still working part time.”   

When he finished those treatments, he was optimistic. His oncologist said that 90 percent of people diagnosed are still cancer free after five years.

“My prognosis was great,” he said. “I had a scan in October and it was clean.”

Life returned to normal as he went back to work and finished up the classes that his treatments had interrupted. Johnson spent six months with Youth with a Mission in Peru then finished up his pre-nursing associates degree.

Deciding nursing wasn’t for him, Johnson went to work full-time at the rental business and enjoyed life. He continued to have screenings for Hodgkin’s for five years with no troublesome results.

In October of 2009, Johnson said he starting feeling off.

“I would eat and have nausea and I lacked energy,” he said.

By Thanksgiving, his symptoms got worse but Johnson still didn’t think anything was wrong. In December when he started turning yellow with jaundice, Johnson finally became alarmed.

“I knew that was serious — I went straight to my oncologist on Dec. 21 and he ordered CAT scans right away,” he said. “By the end of Monday, they knew my whole insides had growths all over the place.”

To treat his stage IV (4) Hodgkin’s, his oncologist recommended an autologous stem-cell bone-marrow transplant. The procedure harvests a patient’s own stem cells, stores them, then transplants them back into the patient to replace stem cells destroyed by high-dose chemotherapy.

“They don’t do it locally,” he said. “I did a few cycles of (chemo) treatment here to shrink the cancer in the lymph nodes.”

With help from Wings, Johnson traveled to the Billings Clinic Cancer Center in the first week of March for tests and got on board for the transplant.

“They have a beautiful clinic,” he said. “It’s all brand new and state of the art.”

Johnson said he was given drugs that made his body release bone-marrow stem cells into the blood. The harvesting process took just one day.

“I had a port in my chest that they hooked up to a centrifuge,” he said. “It was kind of weird watching my blood go up that tube into the centrifuge that takes the stem cells out then the blood goes back in.”

His assistance from Wings helped him return to Billings early in April and rent an apartment close to the hospital where he went for even more intense chemotherapy. Following his last session on a Friday, Johnson went into the hospital the next Monday to have his stem cells transplanted back into his blood through an IV.

As expected with this procedure, he experience side effects that put him back in the hospital.

“I got weak and developed an ulcer,” he said. “I was admitted for 11 days when my immune system was at its weakest point.”

Just prior to leaving the hospital in June, a follow up PET scan showed all the cancer was gone. According to his doctor, 50 percent of patients remain cancer free after undergoing the transplant treatment.

He came home to the Flathead Valley, had a good summer then worked a short-term job teaching at a Youth with a Mission school.

“I just had a PET scan before Christmas that showed one small area in one of my sinuses that showed activity,” he said. “They don’t think it’s anything.”

 Johnson remains positive about his prognosis for the future. He said sometimes that 50 percent number flashes through his brain but most of the time, he remains optimistic with support from his family, friends and Wings.

“Over everything, I know God,” he said. “He speaks to me and I have this peace with life.”

People may tune into the Wings radiothon Thursday and Friday to hear Johnson and other cancer patients describe how donations to the nonprofit organization helped them deal with their devastating diagnosis.

Wings provides grants to help relieve the financial stress on patients of the many non-medical out-of-pocket expenses such as transportation, meals and lodging. Tax-deductible donations may be pledged by phone at 257-9464 or in person at Sportsman & Ski Haus in Kalispell during the Wings Radiothon.

“They helped me out hugely,” Johnson said.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.