Standing Strong, Continuing On
Stephanie Knowles, 54, is a local Texarkana resident and passionate teacher at Pleasant Grove High School. She is married to her husband, Paul Knowles, whom she met at a Panhellenic Back-to-School mixer in college at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. The pair have two daughters and one son. Samantha Knowles, 24, graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Business. She has always wanted to see the world, so she took a job teaching six-year-olds how to speak English in South Korea. Gillian Knowles, 21, is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in Biology and German. She plans to attend law school next fall. Logan, 19, is an engineering student at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, specializing in Robotics. He has qualified for the VEX World Robotics competition in high school and college.
Stephanie pours her heart into teaching many subjects for the Hawk student body, including AP European History, AP Government, Economics, and Personal Financial Literacy. In her spare time, her hobbies include reading and gardening. “I love to read, especially historical fiction and murder mysteries. I am currently in the middle of the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. I also piddle around in my garden, but my family teases me that our house is where plants go to die,” Stephanie says.
A little over two years ago, Stephanie’s life would change, and with her cancer diagnosis, she would learn a lot about herself and those who love her. “I had developed a red area on my left breast. The first doctor I saw felt it was mastitis, but any mother who has breastfed a child knows what mastitis feels like, and this was not like that. The doctor ordered a mammogram, just to be sure, because although it is rare, some forms of breast cancer are topical,” Stephanie explains. When Stephanie went in for the mammogram, the technician found one larger spot and a second spot that was smaller. She immediately sent Stephanie for a sonogram of the two spots, revealing the masses’ sizes and location. “The head of the department came and discussed what they had found. I asked him what he would recommend, and he told me that if it were his wife or mother, he would get a biopsy as quickly as possible. I called Paul to let him know what was going on, took a few minutes to pray, and went in for the biopsy.”
“I kept telling myself that this was going one of two ways: it was benign or cancer. I have known many women in my life who have had experiences with both. I tried not to worry but to trust that whichever one it was, this was God’s plan, and as long as I trusted and believed, it would all be fine in the end,” Stephanie says.
Stephanie had the biopsy on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, and by Friday, the scheduling nurse called to book her an appointment the following Monday. “Paul and I already had an inkling what the diagnosis was going to be before the consultation. This situation was moving too fast for it not to be serious. But even knowing that, it was terrible to hear the words,” Stephanie says.
On Monday, April 25, 2022, Stephanie received the news that she had Stage 3B Invasive Ductile Carcinoma breast cancer. Stephanie remarks, “I immediately started crying, and thank goodness Paul was with me. He took notes and asked questions while I just sat there sniffling and numb, trying to absorb everything the doctor was saying.”
Paul and Stephanie decided not to tell their kids right away. Samantha was in Korea, and Gillian was a week away from finals week, so they chose not to tell them until a second opinion was received and a treatment plan was in place. Logan, however, was still at home and would quickly notice all the trips to Dallas for tests and doctor visits, so the couple relayed the news to him.
Stephanie began the daunting tasks of arranging days off for her new diagnosis and the load it would bring, leading to a discovery she refers to as a “God-send.” Stephanie says, “After I got the initial diagnosis, I was in the office at the high school trying to arrange days off for doctors’ visits and further tests. Joyce Cook and Lisa Buchanan told me very firmly that I needed to go to Dallas and see Dr. Grant. He is a wonderful, godly man who had treated some of their close friends. When I went to church, I had two other ladies who were breast cancer survivors tell me that I needed to see Dr. Grant. I took this as a sign from God that I needed to consult him, and I have never regretted it for a minute. As soon as you walk into his office, you begin to notice signs of his faith, which is so reassuring. He even prayed with Paul and I at the first visit.” Dr. Michael Grant, who specializes in diseases of the breast, became Stephanie’s surgical oncologist. He then recommended that Stephanie see Dr. Antoinette Matthews at the Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center. She is an oncologist who worked with Stephanie and her test results since she had two internal lumps and an external area to treat.
“Because my cancer was fast-growing and aggressive, Dr. Matthews recommended that we attack it with the strongest chemotherapy available. She did a lot of tests to make sure that I physically could handle it and cautioned me to be vigilant about keeping myself as healthy as possible during treatment,” Stephanie says. She started her first treatment with the chemotherapy drug, Doxorubicin, often referred to as the “red devil chemo” both because of its distinctive red color and because it can cause serious side effects, including potential heart damage, in some individuals. “My experience with chemotherapy was, honestly, not as bad as I expected. Dr. Matthews was very direct and told us that whatever side effects I was having, they had a medicine for that. She told me not to be ‘brave’ or ‘tough’. If I had nausea or any other side effect, to let her know because they now have medications to alleviate them,” Stephanie says.
The most devastating side effect for Stephanie was losing her hair. “Within two weeks of my first treatment, it was falling out in clumps. I decided to have Gillian shave my head. I asked her if it would be too traumatic because I could have my hairdresser do it. Gillian was thrilled because, as she said, ‘How many kids get to shave their mother’s hair off!’”
Stephanie’s friends, family, and co-workers surrounded her and began to show an overwhelming amount of love and support as she battled her cancer. “We received the most help from my co-workers at Pleasant Grove and our church family at Hardy Memorial Methodist Church. They were both amazingly supportive. We had meals delivered to us, and others would bring us gift cards to restaurants. Logan, who was a Senior at Pleasant Grove High School, was playing football during this time, so he would take one of the gift cards and bring home dinner after he finished practice,” Stephanie remarked. Mostly, Stephanie loved to hear the words, “we are praying.”
Another source of support and the most important medical person in Stephanie’s cancer journey was, and still is, Jennifer Black. Stephanie remarks, “She is a breast cancer survivor herself, and her knowledge and understanding of cancer and medical terminology was so important to Paul and me mentally. Jennifer gave us guidance on questions to ask and what different test results meant. She told me at the very beginning that she would do research and explain what everything meant to us. She said that if we started doing online research and didn’t understand it, we would scare ourselves even more. She has been a fountain of medical and technical information while simultaneously being a rock that we lean on emotionally and in our faith.”
Daunting news, overwhelming doctor’s visits, surgeries, treatments, and waiting can all become bleak and tiring. While it is never acceptable to downplay a cancer patient’s experience, only talking to a patient about their experience in a serious tone can become quite frustrating. However, Stephanie Knowles knew that levity was her best friend and knowledge for her high school students was empowering. Through her experiences in the classroom, Stephanie’s students would grow to support her and help her through her cancer journey. “I received so much support from my students. I was able to start the 2022-23 school year when the students came back in August. I started the first day by addressing the ‘elephant in the room.’ I told them that I had breast cancer and that I had the choice of crying every day or laughing. I told them that I needed them to be careful of me because my immune system was weak, but my heart was not. I encouraged them to ask questions because more knowledge is empowering. It helps to kill fear. I had Logan in my class, and he helped me explain to his classmates that cancer jokes were fine. My senior students really stepped up and helped me through. They were such troopers, even when I had days after treatment and later after surgery when I wasn’t physically my best. Those were the days they behaved the best.” Stephanie says.
Stephanie learned two important life lessons during this time as she says, “I learned that being bald is not the end of the world. I also learned that there are so many people who care about me and wanted to do something to help. I had so many people offering to help.” She adds a note for those fighting cancer today, saying, “If you are going to have to fight cancer, be grateful that you are living in the present time. So many people have gone before you, and their fight has given the cancer community so much more knowledge. Doctors and researchers have the treatments to save many, many more cancer patients than ever before.”
Stephanie is happy to report that she has been cancer-free since her treatments.