Out-of-Door Academy teacher fights cancer with heart, art
MANATEE -- If you happen to see Out-of-Door Academy art teacher Paula Kozak walking around with odd-looking drawings on her hairless head, feel free to ask her if you can take a look.
"Kids will look and stare at me because they want to see my head, and I want them to know that they can come up and ask me to look," Kozak says.
Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2010, Kozak has been fighting the disease and enduring what she calls "healing" treatments since.
As a project for her "Art Expanded" class, she allowed sophomores Maria Ivanushkina and Kolbie Ward and senior Gary Yeng to imprint henna tattoos of traditional healing symbols on her head.
"The energy from it and the feeling ... the love from it ... is the best thing," Kozak said. "And you never know how (projects like this) are going to be until they happen. (Students) were excited about it but kind of like 'eh, whatever.' And then once they got started, they enjoyed it. I was getting kind of back and forth from people, 'I can't believe you're shaving your head when you actually have hair.' I said: 'Well. my hair is really kind of dead,' which it was. It was just fuzz."
Henna tattoos are temporary and last for only about one month. The ink is not as dark as used in ordinary tattoos.
The designs on Kozak's head are representations of healing and good energy, which she said she believes will help her through this process of overcoming the illness.
Kozak joined a cancer treatment
drug trial last summer that initially seemed hopeful but eventually stopped working. While on the experimental drug treatment, she endured many physical hardships. She could not eat, which caused much weight loss.
"It's been a long process," she said. "I've had so many problems and now I can't feel my fingers and my toes and my tongue. I can't taste anything. They're all side effects."
Despite the effects of chemotherapy, lately she says her counts, her cancer markers, have been going down.
"I've been on (the treatment) since September, and my numbers have been going down. My hope is that we can lessen how much chemo I do. ... I'm hoping that as we get the results on this scan, that I can get a little bit of a break, because I'd like to travel. I've been pretty much straight treatments."
Through the draining process, Kozak said being at school really helped her through such difficult times.
"You just kind of go with it, you know, and energy-wise, I feel pretty good. And it is the same thing you know, you guys do it. That's why I come to work everyday. (Being at school) is just so awesome.
"Being here is a huge contribution (to her good attitude). People ask me all the time: 'Are you still working?' and I'm like (confidently) 'Yeah.'
"You guys keep me going. I told (ODA headmaster) Mr. David Mahler he'll have to wheel me out of here."
This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Out-of-Door Academy teacher fights cancer with heart, art."