PERHAM — Access to cancer treatment in rural communities can be limited, making some patients drive hours just to get the health care they need to survive. That’s changing for the Perham community with the introduction of the Roger Maris Cancer Center at Perham Health. After opening in August 2022, the center has continued to expand and change the lives of patients throughout the Perham area — including married couple Jodi and Wade Sjolie who’ve lived with cancer in their lives for over 10 years.
“It was April 26 (2013),” Jodi Sjolie remembered. “It was Wade’s 50th birthday. Our doctor out of Fargo was on vacation, and he came into the office. And by 10 in the morning the next morning, Wade got the diagnosis that he was completely full of multiple myeloma … They had told him that he probably had three years to live at most.”
Multiple myeloma is best described as a blood cancer that is terminal but treatable. Treatment, however, only works for so long. Eventually, the cancer tends to find a way to work around treatment and any progress. When this happens, doctors work to find a new treatment. Wade himself, after over 10 years of living with multiple myeloma, is currently on his fifth treatment plan.
After his diagnosis, he and Jodi traveled hours to the Mayo Clinic and had to live there for several months while he got a stem cell transplant. Though they were able to move back to Perham following this, the two still had to regularly drive out to Fargo for Wade’s chemotherapy and treatment.
“Immediately, Wade had started chemo back in 2013 in Fargo,” Jodi remembered. “And back then, he went two days a week every other week. Then a few years ago, it moved to one time a week every other week, and that was, like, a four-hour trip. He’d see the doctor first thing in the morning and do blood work. So, we would go up there, leave the house at like five in the morning. And it isn’t something you get to call in and cancel when the weather is bad. You just go. So, we’d go up there four, five hours.”
They continued driving to Fargo regularly for years despite the many hours it took because cancer treatment such as chemo wasn’t available near them. That is, at least, until the Roger Maris Cancer Center at Perham Health opened to the community in 2022. Around December, Wade started receiving his treatment at Perham Health.
“It’s a godsend,” Wade said. “It’s so hard to explain how great it is to be able to go to Perham.”
Jodi continued, “It’s definitely an answer to our prayers. You can’t even say it … With 10 and a half years (Wade has been on chemo), he just turned 60 in April. We’ve had 14 grandchildren.”
He was able to see this birthday and meet his grandchildren thanks to the treatment he’s been given, now available in Perham. Even when his cancer came back in March and Wade had to change to a more intense treatment originally only offered in Fargo, the providers at Perham Health’s cancer center continued to step up. One Fargo provider taught people at Perham Health how to give this treatment.
Now, Wade and Jodi are only about a three-minute drive from the hospital. Treatments take about 20 minutes. This saves them hours each treatment day. Recently, Wade’s immune system was too low to receive chemo. Because he’s able to receive treatment closer to home, he and Jodi didn’t drive an hour and a half out to Fargo before finding this out.
“Access to specialized cancer care in rural communities has historically been limited, forcing patients to endure arduous journeys in pursuit of treatment,” Perham Health CEO Chuck Hofius said in a press release. “These travel challenges can not only introduce delays in treatment but also impose significant emotional and financial strains on patients and their families. By extending the reach of cancer treatment services, we aim to alleviate this burden, ensuring that every individual, regardless of their geographic location, can access high-quality care within their local community.”
When the center first opened in August 2022, it had two infusion chairs with plans to expand in the future, Perham Health explained in a press release. Since then, it’s continued to grow with a total of seven infusion chairs and a new cancer care provider. On top of cancer treatment, other services are also available through the center including treatment plans and survivorship support services.
“The Roger Maris Cancer Center shines as a beacon of cancer care in the upper Midwest,” said Kim Wolf, Sanford Roger Maris Cancer Center director. “With decades of experience and unwavering dedication to enhancing the lives of cancer patients, we’re thrilled to expand on these services to Perham and the surrounding communities.”
For more information, go to perhamhealth.org or call Perham Health at 218-347-4500.
“You really can’t say it enough how grateful we are for the facility in Perham and how wonderful the people are,” Jodi said.
Elizabeth Vierkant, Forum Communications Journalist
About Perham Health
Perham Health is a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital with three primary care clinics, a 96-bed nursing home, home health care agency, adult day services, memory care assisted living, and senior housing. The medical staff consists of 24 physicians, a nurse midwife, 14 advance practice clinicians, and three chiropractors. Visit perhamhealth.org to learn more.
About Sanford Health
Sanford Health, the largest rural health system in the United States, is dedicated to transforming the health care experience and providing access to world-class health care in America’s heartland. Headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the organization serves more than one million patients and 201,000 health plan members across 250,000 square miles. The integrated health system has 46 medical centers, 2,800 Sanford physicians and advanced practice providers, 170 clinical investigators and research scientists, 186 Good Samaritan Society senior living centers and world clinics in nine countries around the globe. Learn more about Sanford Health’s commitment to shaping the future of rural health care across the lifespan at sanfordhealth.org or Sanford Health News.
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