Kevin Johnson attaches a temporary prosthetic to his left leg. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

'I've been doing good'

Lodi teenager rallying after losing leg to cancer

A lot can happen in three months. If you're 15-year-old Kevin Johnson, you can go from being a typical skateboarding teenager to a cancer patient having your leg amputated.

To say that Kevin's life has changed since he was diagnosed in March with cancer, is putting it mildly. But considering that he has only been back home in Lodi for a week since his left leg was amputated just above the knee, Kevin's OK.

"I've been doing good," he said Friday in his typical low-key way of talking. "I was walking the second day after surgery."

The Tokay High School student is getting around with the help of crutches these days, since his temporary prosthetic leg can only hold 20 pounds of weight. He'll get a better leg in about two months, and is hoping his mother's insurance will cover one that includes a mechanical knee and costs more than $30,000.

There is now has an 80 percent chance that the cancer is gone, and perhaps that's why Kevin seems to be more upbeat than he was in April.

After more than a year of leg pain with no diagnosis from multiple doctors, Kevin was diagnosed in March with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer. He started chemotherapy, but by then the cancerous tumor had eaten much of his bone.

By April, doctors were talking about possible amputation, though the idea was a bit too much for Kevin.

Kevin Johnson uses a pair of vice grips to tighten the pins on his prosthetic leg. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

In the meantime, chemotherapy made his hair fall out. Rather than waking up each morning with hair on his pillow, Kevin's dad, barber Ray Harrington, shaved his head.

"I hope he doesn't lose his eyebrows," his mother, Aimee Harrington, said.

Then June 16 found Kevin at a hospital in San Francisco. Doctors gave him an epidural in his back to serve as a powerful painkiller, though the injection itself was painful and hard for his mother to watch.

Surgery took about two hours, and then Kevin awoke in a recovery room, sooner than doctors had expected. They had planned for him to remain at the hospital for about a week, but Kevin was determined to go home sooner. He did it — leaving on June 19.

After a week at home, he's getting used to the temporary prosthetic leg that screws into a contraption on his leg, which is currently encased in a thick cast with surgical staples until skin heals naturally over the end of his leg.

The temporary prosthetic is metal and doesn't look real. The leg does end in a foot-like shape, which Kevin has covered with one of his black-and-white skater shoes. The leg requires a wrench to tighten the screws, but ever-resourceful, Kevin soon found that he could just stick any tools he'd need into the sock of the fake leg. He's gotten the hang of putting on the prosthetic leg, though it sometimes has some problems.

"This leg is being dumb," the teen said Friday as he wrestled with a screw. "I can't wait to get a better one."

He'll return to the hospital Wednesday for a thinner cast on his upper leg, and in about two months he'll hopefully have a new leg that includes a working mechanical knee.

The leg Kevin wants costs $30,000 for the knee alone, and his mother is waiting to see if insurance covers it. So far, insurance has worked, so they are hopeful about the leg. If not, Aimee is still determined to make sure her son can walk normally and once again skateboard if he so desires.

"We'll make payments if we have to," she said.

Kevin Johnson, 15, right, sits with younger his brother, Daniel, in the living room of their home in Lodi. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

Aimee is on medical leave from her job at a Lodi grocery store, which means she is not getting a paycheck but still gets medical insurance for Kevin. Lodi residents contributed to a fund-raiser in April for Kevin, and she said customers still ask her co-workers about Kevin.

She started to make a list of everyone to thank — ranging from family members to Kevin's teachers to strangers who donated — but there were enough names that she worried about leaving someone out.

Kevin's younger brother, Daniel, isn't sure what to think of all the attention his brother is getting. When the 10-year-old said he could get cancer too, it was a bit much for his already stressed mother to think about.

In addition to adjusting to a prosthetic leg and still having phantom feeling in the place where his leg used to be, Kevin also has got more chemotherapy to get through.

Though doctors say he has got an 80 percent chance that all cancer is gone from his body, there's still a risk that some cancerous cells may remain somewhere. He had stopped chemotherapy before the surgery, so it wouldn't complicate matters, but that starts again July 7.

Chemo will last another eight months.

Despite everything, Kevin is taking things as they come, and he's still able to be a teenager. He argues with his brother, plays video games and hangs out with his girlfriend of more than a year.

But he's not too thrilled about the no-shower rule, due to the cast that extends up his thigh. And it's still a bit weird to go from having brown hair touching his shoulders to none at all.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.