Cattails
Stevens Point location was key
Justus and Barbara Paul with an annotated bibliography they co-authored.
Barbara Paul and her husband, Justus, made the most of the three years and eight months she lived after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2005. Being able to get much of her treatment close to home at Marshfield Clinic's Stevens Point location was a major plus for the retired librarian and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, who died on July 18.
Her oncologist, Adedayo Onitilo, M.D., said multiple myeloma is a cancer caused by plasma cells in the bone marrow that suddenly start multiplying uncontrollably, producing abnormal proteins, settling into the bones and in the process destroying them. "When I first saw her in 2005, she was one of the worst myeloma cases I've seen," he said. "She had about 80 percent or more of her bone marrow replaced by the myeloma, which was very aggressive."
Justus Paul, also retired from UW-SP, said the body scans "looked like termites had been working on her bones."
Fortunately, a clinical trial of the drug Revlimid had just become available to Marshfield Clinic. Despite beginning the drug at home, she ended up in Saint Michael's Hospital in Stevens Point. "I felt just miserable and hit rock bottom on Christmas Day," she said in an April interview. "I thought I was going to die and prepared my family for it."Slowly but surely, her "miracle drug" — as she referred to the Revlimid — gained the upper hand and she gradually regained enough strength to sing with her church choir again on Easter Sunday. She was also able to resume singing with the Monteverdi Master Chorale of Stevens Point until the spring term in 2009.
Dr. Onitilo said Revlimid at the time was considered a "treatment of the future" but is now an accepted standard treatment for this disease. More than 100 similar nationwide clinical drug trials are available through Marshfield Clinic oncologists.
The success of the drug allowed her to have a transplant in August 2006 of her own donated bone marrow, centrifuged to separate diseased and healthy cells. Marshfield Clinic Hematologist/Oncologist Seth Fagbemi, M.D., performed the bone marrow transplant at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield. The transplant and accompanying massive doses of chemotherapy were physically draining and eliminated most of her body's natural defenses against disease. But her body did recover, and she and Justus resumed most normal activities.
"Barbara had always wanted to see the Canadian Rockies and we were able to do a bus/train tour of them in August of 2008. We were so glad to be able to do that together. And last May we had a wonderful trip to Nebraska and Williamsburg, Virginia," Justus said. "We had a good period of time together, and those extra months gave the entire family a chance to show how much we cared. She and I played games almost every day, and mentally she became a gourmet cook from watching the Food Channel. Thanks to Dr. Onitilo and the others, we got much more quality time together than we expected."
Just before Christmas of 2008, she relapsed sharply as the disease attacked her kidneys and she had to go on dialysis for a month. She alternated time at Saint Clare's Hospital in Weston, Saint Michael's Hospital in Stevens Point and her home for 35 nights as the drugs and the cancer essentially fought each other. She gradually regained some of her strength, but the disease flared again in July, ultimately claiming her at age 68.
"We know it's not curable," she said in April. "So every month we can push it back is another month. Dr. Onitilo already got us years." Most of their visits with him were at Marshfield Clinic's Oncology Unit at Saint Michael's Hospital, just five minutes from their home.
"Having that unit in Stevens Point is wonderful," Justus Paul said. "I don't know how long we could have done it if we had to drive an hour each way, with her as sick as she was."
