MALLERY NAGLE

EDMOND — Tina Page could open a lemonade stand this summer. The recently retired Edmond Public School teacher was handed a load of lemons in late 2003 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

In the nearly three years since her diagnosis, Page, 52, has made gallons of the tasty sweet beverage.

There only two problems with the lemonade stand idea. One: She does not really see her cancer as a “lemon” and two: She is too busy to start another project.

This cancer survivor does not see her lemonade glass as half full; she sees it as full. Period.

Page had noticed a change in eating habits and some abdominal bloating for several months. She dismissed the symptoms as those of menopause.

Following a vacation to London to celebrate her 50th birthday, Page had her annual physical. Blood work and X-rays were all what her physician called “good.” Her Pap test, however, revealed cancer cells.

Following the diagnosis of ovarian cancer, a hysterectomy was performed and her first round of chemotherapy began.

Page started her third round of chemo on Wednesday. So far, she has already beaten the odds. She said only 25 percent of women with her type of cancer survive for two to five years. Her outlook on life, however, is one in 1 million.

“My philosophy is good, better, best,” she said. “It’s finding fun, humor and faith every day. If you find the best in a good day, it just gets better.”

Page said when she goes to receive her chemo therapy at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City, there is never an empty chair in the treatment room. The women there become sisters for the day. They do, after all, have much in common.

“No matter how bad it looks, there is always laughter and fun. You know it’s going to be a good day,” she said.

Cancer has given rise to Page’s creative muses. She is writing a book she will call “Relativity Scaling.”

“I give cancer about a 3,” she said. “You have to think about the worst possible thing for you. For me, a 10 would be if people thought I was in a coma and was left on a ventilator, only I could hear and think.

“But for some people cancer is their 10,” she said. “I respect that; it can be devastating. Life is perception.”

Page also has decided nothing in life is random. “I think about the people who have come into my life since cancer,” she said. “I have met some wonderful people and would not have met them otherwise. You live more deeply. You’re more involved and you make better connections with people.”

She said her illness has given her the incentive to renew old friendships and to shed negatives ones.

The metamorphosis of her outlook on life, however, came more than 10 years prior to her diagnosis. As a hospice volunteer, she worked with a patient whose goal was to live long enough to attend her son’s wedding.

Page and another volunteer took the patient to the wedding. “She was the last one to leave the reception,” Page recalled. “She died the next morning, but she was going to be there for that wedding.”

Page continued to teach at Boulevard Academy as her health would allow. She said sick-leave sharing with fellow teachers made it possible for her keep her job teaching social studies and English to troubled teens. She retired on March 1 after 28 years with the district.

Her teaching career is not over, though. She is an independent contractor with All Kinds of Minds, a company that produces strategies for reaching children with learning differences. She travels the country training teachers to work with these students. Page describes the program as profiling students’ strengths and weaknesses and then leveraging the strengths to improve the weaknesses. She said she “loves” working with these special young people.

Other forays into writing include a science fiction novel and writing bedtime stories for her first grandchild, who will be born in September.

She also e-mails Oprah Winfrey every month to encourage her to do a show focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of gynecological cancers. Much to Page’s surprise, the talk show has never covered the topic.

Her advice to everyone is to listen to their body. “If you think something is wrong, even if it takes six doctors, find one who will listen to you and one you feel comfortable with,” she said.