Black River Falls alum battling cancer while earning All-American honors for Pioneers

Platteville, Wis.-Three words changed Tonie Johnson's life, three words.  "You have cancer". On May 20, 2017, with Johnson's parents and sister around him, his doctor from Gunderson Lutheran in La Crosse, Wisconsin told him via phone that he had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

In the spring of 2017, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville track and field team were gearing up for the NCAA III Indoor Championship meet. Johnson and teammates Alec Burcham, Greg Stribling and Wyatt Thompsons were prepared to compete in the 4 x 400-meter relay.  Johnson had felt sluggish and under the weather leading up to the nationals.  Doctors initially thought it was influenza, and Johnson did not think much of it.  Johnson and his teammates went on to finish sixth in the 4 x 400 earning All-American honors.

Then the outdoor season started, Johnson and his teammates qualified for the prestigious Drake Relays.  "We qualified for Drake and ran there," Johnson said.  "And I ran terribly."  Disappointed in his performance, Johnson was anxious to get back to practice.

"Went to practice on the Monday after Drake," Johnson said.  "It was going horrible, worse than the previous week."  At that time, he sat down with head coach Chris Rotzenberg and had a tough conversation.  "I decided, even though I qualified, I wasn't going to run in the conference meet."

Rotzenberg suggested that Johnson visit the doctor again, this time suggestion to be tested for anemia.  So, Johnson visited the doctor again and had blood work done.  The results came back and the numbers didn't line up.  "My hemoglobin was super low, if your hemoglobin is low from natural causes, your ferritin (iron storage) is also low," Johnson said.  "But my ferritin count was awful high, along with my white blood cells."

The campus doctor recommended seeing an off-campus doctor in order to get a referral to see a blood specialist. Leading up to finals of spring of 2017, Johnson struggled staying awake, studying and focusing on classes.  On May 19, 2017, he was able to see the blood specialist, had five blood draws completed, was told to go home and they would have the results for him the next day.  May 20, 2017 the day Johnson's life changed.

Johnson began treatments right away, and took the 2017-18 school year off.  Every few days Johnson and a family member would make the 55-mile drive from his home in Hixton, Wisconsin to  La Crosse for treatment.  "The first four months, it was every few days," Johnson said. 

In September of 2017 the Black River Falls High School graduate started a two-week treatment cycle.  "It was basically a week long treatment," Johnson said.  "I would receive my chemotherapy in one day, and stay the next four to five days to make sure it was out of my body.  I would go home for the second week before returning to start the cycle again. I did that four times in total."

Johnson was hitting the marks the doctors wanted to see, doctors deemed Johnson in remission in July of 2017.  "I went into remission pretty quickly," Johnson said, but it wasn't all smooth sailing.  "In June of 2017, I was diagnosed with ketoacidosis diabetes."  Ketoacidosis diabetes is buildup of acid in the blood because the kidneys are not functioning properly.  "All the fat that I was intaking was staying and all the micro-nutrients were leaving.  I lost 35 pounds in the matter of days, that is when they put me on insulin," he said.

Eventually Johnson's number stabilized, doctors took him off the prednisone he was on, and shortly after he no longer needed to take insulin.  In March of 2018, Johnson took a big step in defeating cancer, he started his maintenance period.  For a male with ALL, the period is 3.5 years.  "September 12, 2020, I am done," a smiling Johnson said.

Johnson returned to school in the fall of 2018 and immediately returned to the track and field program.  "Not a chance," Rotzenberg answered when asked if he ever considered talking Johnson out of competing.  "He wouldn't have taking 'stop running' as an answer.  At the same time, I have trusted him to know his limits.  He unfortunately has become very good at recognizing when and when not to train hard." Johnson works closely with the sports medicine staff at UW-Platteville and his doctors at Gunderson to figure out those limits. 

Taking a full class load and training for track, Johnson is still in maintenance treatment.  The maintenance period consists of oral chemotherapy, IV chemotherapy, blood draws and lumbar punctures. 

The first two years of maintenance treatment is on a three-month cycle broken into four-week segments; Johnson will visit the doctor's office twice in a cycle.  The first visit consists of a blood draw, at this time doctors will make adjustments to his treatment and medicine dosage based off the numbers.  The fourth week, Johnson receives IV chemo and a lumbar puncture is performed.   On the third visit of the three-month cycle, Johnson receives IV chemo and is spared the lumbar puncture.

The final year and half of maintenance is similar to the first two years, the only difference is the lumbar puncture is done in the third month, not the first two.  He still has the blood draws and IV chemo treatments all three cycles. "September 12, I am done," Johnson mentioned again.

Johnson's time on the track is coming to an end as the senior is set to graduate in the spring with a degree in industrial engineering and a minor in biology.  Johnson's plan is to apply for a graduate program and seek a masters in bio medical engineering.  "I want to go into bio medical engineering to help people in the same situation I am in," Johnson said.  "85 percent of treatments is just waiting, not that we are not being talked to or cared for, there is other things going on and you are not the focus.  Treatments can be eight hours, days tend to be long, so if you can improve some of the processes in between and the machinery used, it would be less waiting.  Waiting, it sucks, even more than the treatment, so I just want to give back to others that are in the same unfortunate situation I was in."

The highlight of Johnson's track career was being named All-American by placing sixth in the 4 x 400 at the 2017 National Indoor meet.  Johnson was on his way to more accolades before the phone call on May 20, 2017.

"Tonie is self-motivated and a hard-working athlete, both before and after the cancer diagnoses," Rotzenberg said. "The only difference now is his hemoglobin levels are out of his control.  One week those levels will be high enough to train normally, and the next those levels will be down, which makes it impossible to train."

 "I want to get back to where I was before," Johnson said.  "To show even though I have this huge barrier, I can get through it and not let it slow me down.  Even through negatives, you can come back and be better.  I want to set personal records this year that I haven't met in the past."

Johnson has always kept a positive attitude throughout the whole process. "Tonie has turned into an outstanding student-athlete," Rotzenberg said.  "He has improved his grade point average since returning.  His training varies with treatments, he may lose some sleep in the process, but he has not let his cancer diagnosis keep him from committing the time to achieve the things that are important to him."

"I never felt like giving up, the hardest part was watching those around you, seeing the sadness in my family members," Johnson said.  "Watching others, who are 10-15 years younger than me going through the same thing I am, and they don't have the intellectual or conceptual grasp to understand the reasoning behind the treatments."

Johnson credits the physiological psychology class he took for helping him get through treatments.  "Physiological psychology was one of my favorite classes on campus," Johnson said.  "More because we talked about things that happen within the brain.  Kind of interesting to see how people react and what causes them to react, versus seeing other people react differently.  The whole pessimist vs. optimist theory.  It helped me understand more about the human body and how it works, which in direct correlation, allowed me to understand more about my treatments.  It was nice to understand what and why the doctors were doing things, rather than to just follow them blindly."

Johnson also leaned heavily on his track and field teammates.  "The fact of knowing, even on the worst days of treatment, that there are friends and family that will always support you even through your worst days," Johnson said.

"Tonie is the vocal leader of the team," Rotzenberg said.  "This was the case before and as he continues to battle cancer.  But you would never know what he has gone through, he has never asked for or looked for special treatment.  He deserves a huge amount of admiration for how he has dealt with this situation."

"Track is an individual sport, but it's still a team," Johnson said.  "I want to get back to where I was, I know that will be tough, and I have accepted that," Johnson said.  "Though I can't get back to where I was, I can help others get to where I was, and hopefully help them get to nationals and experience what I experienced and love track like I love track."

Johnson became an All-American when him and his teammates crossed the finish line in 3:19.70.  On September 12, 2020 Johnson will cross the finish line of his four plus year race to beat cancer, on September 12, 2020, Tonie Johnson will be known as an All-American and cancer survivor.

Written by: Jason Piddington, Public Relations Writer-Athletics, Communications, 608-342-7645, piddingj@uwplatt.edu