Laurel and Walter's Story

Laurel Stoll created the Organizer, a one-of-a-kind medical records organizer in honor of her late husband, Walter Schwartz. Walter battled Multiple myeloma, or blood plasma cancer. During that fight to live, they wanted to know the full spectrum of the treatments and in-depth knowledge of the disease and its treatment. Joining a myeloma group helped them keep up with the treatment and trial drugs being used by other members.

Laurel and Walter carefully tracked every part of his treatment. She kept the calendar and he kept track of the medications. This partnership during a traumatic ordeal kept them steady and on course. As an organized person, Laurel took notes and went back over them later. Taking notes and recording conversations distracted Laurel from the thought that she was losing her best friend and husband.

Laurel and Walter had been dating when he was diagnosed. She was the first person he called when he reached a telephone. She helped him adjust to the news. During this time they completed plans to marry and build a home together. They were busy during their first months together.

Laurel went with Walter to all doctor appointments. She learned from the doctor that his prognosis was 15 to 17 years. During these appointments, she took notes so that they could discuss everything later. Any questions she had would be asked them at the next meeting.

Shortly after their marriage, Walter was laid off. So Laurel decided to retire also so that she could easily go to all the doctor appointments. This proved very important as his hip got worse and she would not let him drive because it was his right hip.

Some friends called him in the hospital from the barbecue and passed the phone around. And in the meantime they enjoyed the barbecue. There was enough food left over to host a block party when he was well enough to attend. Then they took a honeymoon in Chicago in September thanks to his work group.

They started to build a new house that they moved into in June. They were referred to a transplant doctor who wanted Walter to get a stem cell transplant as quickly as possible. He harvested his stem cells in October.

On Valentine’s Day the next year, Walter collapsed in the bathroom. Laurel frightened when he didn’t answer her. She couldn’t push the door open because he had fallen with his feet up against the door. He had just been to the doctor the day before so she thought it was a drug interaction. The very patient nurse assured her that it wasn’t a drug interaction and that he should go to the emergency room.

They spent the day in the emergency room. Walter was admitted into the intensive care unit with a slow heart rhythm. Walter received a pacemaker. Two weeks later Laurel received her Valentine’s Day gift, a pair of earrings. A few months later he developed several plasmacytomas around his pacemaker stitches. He went through another round of radiation.

After two rounds of chemotherapy treatment Walter’s counts to get ready for the transplant, he went through extensive testing to insure that he was healthy enough for the transplant. When they went in to review the results, which all looked great, the doctor was holding out the papers to sign, when Laurel asked about the CT Scan on his sinuses. The doctor quickly looked and immediately sent him to an ENT doctor. The surgery on his sinuses delayed the transplant until Memorial Day. That transplant failed. By July, he developed another plasmacytoma and started another round of radiation

That doctor however, encouraged Laurel to take Walter to the Multiple Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. They made several trips. The Arkansas doctor wanted to make sure he wasn’t suffering from another disease besides the multiple myeloma. He started needing blood transfusions.

Patients visiting doctors at the institute have access to recorders to capture conversations with their doctors. Laurel took detailed notes and recordings so that Walter’s doctor at home could have a copy of the recordings.

They attended a lecture and learned that when myeloma attacks sutures and not just bone, it turned aggressive. That’s how they found out that Walter was on the downward end of the disease.

Multiple myeloma is the fastest-growing cancer in the U.S. It has been considered an old person’s disease. It can slip by undetected for years. Patients usually don’t get it until they’re in their 70s or 80s. Today it is attacking younger people because they are exposed to more chemicals that can trigger it early. With treatment, a patient can extend their life by 15 to 17 years. The doctors at the Multiple Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy have been working to have myeloma reclassified from a fatal disease to chronic one.

A week before Walter died Laurel woke up with the idea to create a tool that would help patients to fight cancer and other chronic diseases. That tool became the Organizer by NaviMaze®. NaviMaze comes from the phrase, “Navigating the maze of healthcare.” They had encouraged other people to record and organize their medical records and conversations. Laurel started putting this tool together and told Walter it would to dedicate it to him.

A chronic illness requires intense, ongoing treatment and generates a paper trail that can intimidate the patient and their family. The patient usually isn’t in the frame of mind to capture details of treatment and physician conversations that contain vital information. But the organizer encourages recording these details to consider later. It helps distance them from the full impact of what’s happening and allows them to listen to what the doctor is saying.

At 1:30 that day, the doctor told Walter that it was time to let him go and so he was taken all of his medications. He wanted to celebrate Christmas. She agreed that he would still continue receiving blood transfusions. Walter received platelets and red blood cells that week.

There was a special concert at their church on Friday. That day Walter was really tired but determined to go to the 7:30 pm concert. The guitarist played Spanish songs for the resident opera singer to sing. The pianist played classical music and dedicated a song to Walter. Walter always enjoyed listening to their music.

The next day, Walter could barely move. The doctor on-call that weekend said Walter may have picked up a virus. A hospice nurse came on Sunday to evaluate his situation and had him transported to hospice. On Monday Walter ordered frozen custard and Laurel brought it to him. The minister came to be with them when the hospice doctor evaluated his condition.

A friend joined Laurel to visit Walter on Tuesday as he was getting worse. The friend read Christmas cards and sci-fi adventure stories to him, which she hadn’t gotten to do earlier. Their minister came to talk to Walter and planned to come back later that evening. Laurel stayed with him in hospice and was there when he died at 11:15 pm.

Walter wanted “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha dedicated to all people with cancer because they could still strive with their last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star. It was sung during Walter’s memorial service.