DEE ANN MARGRAVE
Survivor Since:
August 21, 2007
Home Town:
Shallowater (now living in Lubbock for 26 years)
Age: 46
Occupation: 6th Grade Reading and Creative Writing Teacher at Hutchinson Middle School
Family: Husband, J.W.; daughters, Emily, 16, and Libby, 14.
Hobbies: Reading CONSTANTLY, traveling with my family, gardening, and generally just enjoying being involved in our daughters' lives.

      "Today I am ready and willing to inform people that it is necessary to be proactive in their health care!

My motto is ASK QUESTIONS (especially when you feel "stupid")!"

'The key to survival is early detection'

I’ve always known I was born to be an educator.  I passionately believe the often used phrase:  “Education touches the future.”  And, I feel honored to be part of the public education system.
     
I’ve always been a nurturer.  And that is why I have to teach.  God has called me to do this.  Curiously, I thought that He wanted me to teach 6th graders to read with better understanding and to be equipped for their futures.  I still feel called to do this and work diligently to meet my students’ needs.  However; since my diagnosis of breast cancer just one short year ago, I believe that my call to teach and inform others has been expanded vastly.  I now have the privilege to help others understand that my story is the “poster child story” for early detection.  The phrase:  “The key to survival is early detection” is TRUE and I am here to testify as living proof!
     
My family has a history with cancer.  Three of my grandparents, and my father died of various kinds.  The two that caught my attention as possible dangers for me were both of my grandmothers’ bouts with cancer.  One died of colon cancer, and the other of breast cancer.  But, I always told myself that I could be proactive on the colon side with eating lots of fiber and beginning colonoscopies at age 45 instead of the recommended age of 50.  And upon considering my other grandmother with breast cancer; well, she was past the 60 age mark when she was diagnosed.  She had a very advanced stage which she chose to ignore since it caused her no real pain and other conditions she had were more pressing in her mind.  Anyway, for me, I was not supposed to have a significantly higher chance of incurring breast cancer since she was on my dad’s side of the family tree. 
     
However, I began mammograms at the age of 38 just “in case.”  That just “in case” saved my life.  Because I had eight years of baseline history, Dr. White at Lubbock Radiology was able to compare my mammogram of June 2007 to previous ones and astutely point out seven minute (to me) calcifications that looked suspicious to him.  Future doctors asked if I had felt a lump in this area.  But, I had not because I had fibrocystic tissue in my breasts, and I always had places that felt like small frozen peas upon self examinations. 
     
      When Dr. White suggested I consult a surgeon and arrange a core needle biopsy, I knew who I wanted.  My mother, Pat Cobb, had her own fight with breast cancer only months before in 2007.  I had already gotten to know and trust her surgeon Dr. Hyacinthe.  She was obviously my choice.  I met with her and scheduled the test at Arrington Cancer Center.  I was told that the results would take a week or so.  That was agreeable to me since my family was scheduled for a vacation that had already been arranged and paid for months earlier.  Even the beauty of Alaska was tarnished though as I privately anticipated my results.

School was beginning for teachers as we returned home from vacation.  Still, I stewed in my private torture of waiting.  The day I was to report for inservice training, August 21, I overslept and felt depressed; not wanting to face my well wishing friends when they would ask if I “knew” yet.  As I walked toward the door to leave for my meeting, the phone rang.  It was the nurse with my results.  I was positive.  Positive used to be an encouraging word.  On that day, it became a word of anxiety.  My daughters were in their rooms enjoying their last days of vacation from school as I cried out, “NOOOOO!”  Each of them attempted to comfort me.  I called my husband.  I called my friends at the inservice meeting.  I was numb.  Questions in my mind assaulted me:  What would become of me?  How would my family endure this nightmare?  What would happen if I couldn”t work?  Had I passed this on to my daughters? 

Being a lover of learning, I had already researched quite extensively and understood what I faced.  I knew that with my propensity to worry and obsess, a bilateral mastectomy with reconstructive surgery was what would help me best survive this devastating situation.  Once Dr. Hyacinthe removed my tissue, Dr. Arledge stepped in to lay the foundation for reconstruction.  Afterwards, Dr. Hyacinthe informed me that the pathologist who examined my tissue from each breast found suspicious early cancer cells in my apparently healthy breast.  God knew I wasn’t ready to face this twice and used my anxiety to make the right choice.  He also gave me hope in human form with Dr. Patricia Arledge.  She, fully understanding what I was going through, one day told me:  “You cannot live in fear.”  I then participated in genetic screening to look at my daughters” futures since my family now had three occurrences of breast cancer.  I found out that I did not carry the identified breast cancer genes, so there is hope that my daughters will not have breast cancer.  However, they will begin mammograms at age 20. 
     
      My family was so supportive and loving through all my tests and my surgeries.  My husband and daughters stood in the gap for me at home as my personal health care providers and cheerleaders.  Their positive words and love were invaluable while healing!  I thank them most for providing me with laughter which I believe heals our hearts and helps us to not take ourselves too seriously.   
     
      My cancer was Stage 1 and not in my lymph nodes; praise God!  With such early detection, I did not even have to endure Chemotherapy or Radiation.  My only follow up prescription from my trusted and encouraging Oncologist, Dr. Shalaby, was to take Tamoxifen and continue screening tests.  I am thankful to report that my one year tests show me to be cancer FREE!
     
      When you are a teacher, you have so many extended family members!  I feel connected to every student I have ever taught, and to every staff member I have co-labored with.  And I believe that they were part of my healing process as well.  Both Roscoe Wilson Elementary (my former campus) and Hutchinson Middle School joined forces and supported me through forming a team last October in The Race for the Cure.  Our team, “Team Margrave” was the largest team.  I was so very humbled and honored.  The love and support I have received through these people and many others has been a key ingredient in my healing. 
     
      And, unbeknownst to me, I joined a sorority I did not sign up for.  This sorority consists of not only survivors, but many who honor those women and men who are now only in our memory.  I once again have been blessed with a new extended family. 
     

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