Putting up a fight

Pink flags flew from houses lining Daniel Island Drive last fall honoring Chelsea Oswald’s return home from the hospital. In September 2020, she was 38 years old and nursing her third daughter when she found a lump in her breast.

 

“I was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer without any prior history of cancer, so it was just out of the blue,” Oswald said. “I was the healthiest I’d ever been and my whole world came crashing down.” 

 

Oswald said she wants to do everything she can to spread awareness of the disease, which affects one out of eight women in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, regular screening tests and early detection are the best ways to fight breast cancer. 

 

The guidelines for women at average risk and no cancer history are to begin annual mammograms, which take X-ray pictures of the breasts, starting at age 40.

 

“A mammogram is the workhorse of screening for breast cancer,” said Dr. Autumn Shobe, a breast surgeon with Trident Health Breast Surgery Specialists, “We also use breast ultrasound, and in certain indications, breast MRI and 3D mammography is very helpful, especially for women with dense breasts.” 

 

But Oswald wasn’t old enough to begin regular mammogram screenings and testing showed no genetic cause for the cancer. “It’s an unknown variant,” she said. 

 

According to Shobe, about 80% of breast cancer cases are sporadic, meaning there is no known cause. The rest are either hereditary or familial, showing clusters in families. Lifestyle factors that help reduce risk include not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and exercising regularly.

 

Treatment of the disease varies with the patient and stage of cancer, and can include surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy.

 

“One of the biggest things I tell patients with a new breast cancer diagnosis is that treatment is extremely variable depending on the type of breast cancer,” Shobe said. “If you know a few people with breast cancer, their treatments might look different; it’s very individualized these days and that’s a good thing.”

 

Oswald initially started treatment with three rounds of chemotherapy in Charleston before traveling to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston last November, where they recommended she stop chemotherapy and begin hormone therapy. 

 

“It was kind of terrifying because chemo sucks, but you know it works,” she said. “Now I’m on hormonal-based treatments and it’s much more tolerable and I’m feeling well and so fortunate to be chasing my kiddos around and doing stuff this fall that I wasn’t doing last year.” 

 

Oswald said she is touched by the outpouring of support she and her family received from the Daniel Island community. Friends and neighbors, along with people she never met, came together to provide meals, childcare and “Cheering on Chelsea’’ fundraisers. Her friends at Charleston-based Brackish, who design bow ties and

accessories made of feathers, created Chelsea earrings with a portion of sales going to the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

 

“It brings me to tears to think about how amazing people on this island have been over the past year,” Oswald said. “They have supported my family, they have fed us and kept us going.”

 

‘My world was completely rocked’

 

Last December, Laura Laire realized her dream of moving to Daniel Island with her husband and two children, where she could run along the paths and shores and her kids could bike to school. 

 

She describes it like living in a Norman Rockwell painting. But in June, everything changed when she was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, an early form of breast cancer. 

 

“My world was completely rocked,” said Laire, who is 46. “I’ve always been into health and nutrition and wellbeing and spiritual and personal growth.”  

 

She immediately began researching and networking to learn more about her diagnosis and after meeting with a local breast surgeon and discovering her options for traditional treatment, Laire decided to take an alternative route. 

 

“I was taking charge of my body because I know my body better than anyone else. I decided I’m going to Mexico because that is where you can get more holistic whole-body treatment where they treat the human, not the disease,” she said. “That was my plan; let’s treat Laura, not this tumor.”

 

In July, Laire flew to Hope4Cancer treatment center in Cancun, where she said she learned how to detox her body. Hope4Cancer uses a variety of non-toxic techniques to treat cancer such as sono-photodynamic therapy, which uses light and sound to target cancer cells. Most of the modalities used at the clinic are not performed in

the United States because they are not approved by the FDA. 

 

“It’s a very different approach to go holistically and a different philosophy on wellness,” she said. “I had to stand my ground and say, look; just because I’m not doing what the doctor here says, does not mean that it’s not going to work.”

 

After three weeks of treatment in Mexico, Laire returned home to continue self care under the supervision of her doctors at Hope4Cancer, and incorporating therapies from Koniver Wellness in Charleston, and Merge Medical Center in Mount Pleasant.

 

Her protocol includes immunotherapy and vitamin C injections, colonics, LED light therapy, blood ozone treatments, a variety of herbs and a clean ketogenic diet. Although most doctors warn against non-FDA approved and regulated therapies, Laire said she’s doing what is right for her.

 

“I have to prioritize my own health and well-being,”  Laire said. “I think a lot of times women try to do everything themselves and this is the first time in my life I needed help. The first month was really hard; I couldn’t cook, I couldn’t eat. I told my family; I need to save my life right now.”

 

Shobe said it’s important that women keep their own health in mind. “So many times it seems like women are caring for everyone else … and sometimes they forget to take care of themselves,” she said. 

 

And keeping a positive attitude like Oswald and Laire have maintained can help in healing. “I do think there is a very big mind-body connection,” said Shobe, “because for people who attack their diagnosis with a positive mindset, overall they seem to have better outcomes.”