Teacher-athlete leans on exercise, limits 'pity days' as she recovers from breast cancer

Diagnosed at age 32 with breast cancer, Larissa Shannon had to make decisions quickly, and they were big ones, too: Treatment plan? Lumpectomy? Mastectomy? Fertility preservation?

One decision that was clear to her: The Ashley Ridge High School teacher and coach was going to tell as few people as possible.

“I told maybe 10 people, and half of them were my bosses because I was missing so many days. My best friends also teach there, so they knew,” she said.

“I didn't tell my softball team. And it's not that I didn't want them to know,” she explained. “I didn't want the puppy dog eyes. I don't want people to treat me any different.”

A passion for softball

Shannon never intended to become a teacher. After playing softball at Erskine College, she enrolled at The Citadel in Charleston to pursue a graduate degree in sports management.

Her college coach’s daughter was coaching at Ashley Ridge in neighboring Dorchester County and invited her to help out. Shannon wasn’t quite ready to leave the game, so she agreed.

Ten years later, she’s a full-time teacher, teaching business and PE, and serves as the head softball coach. Along the way, Erskine College retired her jersey and named her to its Hall of Fame.

But the rhythm of school life was suddenly disrupted last September when she felt a small lump in her breast during a shower. Within a week she was in her doctor’s office. Her doctor thought it was most likely a fibroadenoma – a non-cancerous breast lump that is most often found in women in their 20s or 30s – but sent her for both an ultrasound and a mammogram.

After the procedures, Shannon waited in the exam room for her results.

“When they walked in, it was the ultrasound tech, a guy in a suit and another doctor – and then I just knew that it wasn't anything good,” she said.

At that point, doctors suspected cancer but needed to perform a biopsy for a definitive answer. Within a few days, she had the answer.

HER2-positive breast cancer

Family history is a risk factor for breast cancer, and breast cancer runs on her mother’s side of the family, Shannon said, citing four aunts and two cousins with the disease.

Luckily, her cancer was caught early. Doctors at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center determined it was Stage I HER2-positive breast cancer. HER2-positive cancer is fast-growing – but it also responds well to treatments that have been developed specifically for this subtype of breast cancer.

Shannon had to make a lot of decisions quickly, though. First up – did she want to freeze her eggs? She doesn’t have children yet, and chemotherapy can destroy the ovaries’ functioning.

This can be a tough decision for women who are anxious to begin treatment, especially because the procedure can cost thousands of dollars and insurance often doesn’t cover it. Ultimately, Shannon decided to go for it.

The process of egg freezing takes about two weeks from the start of a woman’s cycle. By one month after diagnosis, Shannon was starting chemo.

"Mentally, it was not going to be good for me to sit there and wallow in, ‘Oh, I’ve got cancer.' Because it does suck. It's terrible. But I think moving my body helped so much.”

Larissa Shannon

She had six rounds of chemo from November through February. It worked so well that doctors could no longer feel the lump, which gave Shannon hope that she could have a lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy. But her surgeon, Andrea Abbott, M.D., explained that in her case, a mastectomy was more appropriate.

“I had my mind set on the lumpectomy, because the chemo worked so well. Then she said, ‘Well, that's not your best option. We can do it, but it's not your best option,’” Shannon said. “I cried so hard because I wasn't prepared for it.

“I cried real hard. Then I got it out and I'm like, ‘You know what? If they think it's best, let's do it,'” she said.

By this time, Shannon had finally given in and told her softball team that she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She told the rest of her students right before she went on leave for surgery.

Staying active throughout treatment

Two weeks after surgery, Shannon was back with her softball team.

Throughout her treatment, Shannon stayed as active as possible. She continued teaching and coaching and worked out as much as her body would allow, even if only for a 30-minute session.

“Mentally, it was not going to be good for me to sit there and wallow in, ‘Oh, I’ve got cancer,’” she said. “Because it does suck. It's terrible. But I think moving my body helped so much.”

“Working out helps me so much. I'm like, ‘I need to move. I need to get some of this anger out. Let me throw some weights around to get this anger out.'”

Research backs her up. The American College of Sports Medicine combed through studies in 2019 and found that, together, they pointed to exercise as an important part of cancer treatment. Aerobic exercise can help to improve anxiety, depression, fatigue, quality of life and physical function. Exercise is also associated with longer survival for those who’ve had breast cancer.

 

At the same time, there were days Shannon needed a break, and she credits her colleagues for being there for her.

“My PE department – they were amazing. If I had to miss for an appointment, they covered my classes without question. They were great,” she said. “My friends all teach there, and they were a great support system.”

In fact, the faculty had a “pink and black” day in support of Shannon when she returned from surgery.

Now considered cancer-free, Shannon is on maintenance chemo for a year, which she said is a breeze compared to the chemotherapy before surgery.

Thinking about the past year, she advises other cancer patients to accept that there will be bad days but not to give in to them.

“There were some really bad days in there. Survive the bad days and enjoy the good ones,” she said. “I told myself, ‘You can have a bad day. You can have two bad days. But it can't turn into a week, to two weeks, to three weeks, to a month, because then it’s so hard to get out of that hole.’”

“So have your day – call it ‘pity days’ – and then get back up and keep going because that's your only option.”

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