Sisters diagnosed with brain tumors 1 week apart

WOODBRIDGE - Simply bad luck.

That is how Cheryl Black's doctor explained why she and her older sister, Janice Wisinski, were diagnosed with two different brain tumors a week apart in January.

"The doctors don't think it was genetic," said Black.

Other doctors are not sure whether it is coincidence, genetics or their environment.

Wisinski added that the doctors thought it was odd they were diagnosed with primary brain tumors a week apart from each other, and also how close in age they were.

Oligodendroglioma (grade 2) and anaplastic astrocytoma (grade 3) are the most primary tumors of the adult brain.

Cheryl Black, 29, and Janice Wisinski, 33, who grew up in the Colonia section of Woodbridge, said their parents, brother Bob, and sister Lauren have gone through magnetic resonance imagings [MRIs] since they were diagnosed, and the results were clean with no evidence of any tumors. Both sisters said they didn't have any symptoms prior to their first seizures.

"I got migraines, but that's it," Black said.

A fundraiser will be held for the sisters and their family Oct. 27 at the Woodbridge Elks Lodge No. 2116, 665 Rahway Ave., Woodbridge.

"My best friend, Katie, organized the fundraiser," Wisinski said.

The sisters' story started Jan. 18 when Black drove to her mother's house in South Plainfield, which is just a block from where Black lives, to drop off her 9- year-old daughter, Kylie, before she went to her 3-to-11 p.m. shift as a delivery room nurse at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield.

"I had just put my car in park," said Black, who said it was a blessing she had put her car in that gear at that time. "My entire left side went numb and I was seizing. I knew I was seizing and told my daughter, 'Mommy can't get out of the car.' "

Black said her daughter went to get her mother.

"I had waves of seizures every two minutes," she said. "I remember that a call was made to 911 and my daughter called everyone in my cell phone. The cops and paramedics came."

Black was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

"They found a mass that was fairly large on the right side of my brain," she said.

Although Black said she knew something was wrong, she remembers thinking about one thing.

"I remember I was complaining that I wanted to go to my Christmas party, which was going to be the next day [Jan. 19] in Piscataway," she said. "At this time I was fairly drugged, but all I wanted was the sangria. I remember being yelled at and being told that I was staying."

On Jan. 23, Black went into surgery where doctors diagnosed her with a grade 2 oligodendroglioma, which is a cancerous type of glioma that is believed to originate from the oligodendrocytes of the brain, or from a glial precursor cell.

"It looked like a softball and it was a size of a small peach," she said.

The doctors were able to remove 88 percent of the tumor.

Five days into Black's recovery, her sister, Janice, went into a seizure.

"I was sitting on Cheryl's hospital bed," said Wisinski, who was 29 weeks' pregnant at the time. "My younger sister, Lauren, had asked me to hand her a soda, and as I turned to hand it to her, I went into a seizure."

Black said her first thought was not that her sister also had a brain tumor, but since she was 29 weeks' pregnant, she might have pregnancy-induced hypertension [PIH], which is a condition of pregnancy that usually begins in the third trimester or the last three months of pregnancy. [It is characterized by protein in the urine, elevated blood pressure, and, in extreme cases, even seizures.]

"I grabbed her so she wouldn't fall on the floor," said Black. "I was trying to reassure her that she was OK. We were all here and we knew what was happening. She looked so scared. I will never forget her face."

Wisinski said she was holding onto the soda but was scared that her family would think she was just throwing around the soda.

"It was the scariest thing," she said. "I remember people saying, "Jan, Jan, what's the matter?"

Wisinski was rushed to the emergency room where doctors found a large mass on the left side of her brain.

"I was diagnosed with a grade 3 anaplastic astrocytoma [which is a highgrade, or malignant, glioma, a tumor of the glial [supportive] tissue of the brain]," she said. "I was having seizures all on my right side, but they didn't pass my hip area."

Janice and Jason, her husband, said they were blown away by the diagnosis.

"My life totally changed," said Janice. "I was working full time, entertaining guests, cooking and working out every day."

Jason added that Janice had run two half marathons the summer before.

Unlike her sister's tumor, Wisinski's tumor was found to be inoperable, but she needed a biopsy done. The question was, when should she get the biopsy?

At the time, Wisinski and her husband had to weigh an even more difficult decision.

"We had to decide whether it was the right time to have the baby or wait," she said. "By the first week of February, I had one seizure, and that's when we decided not to wait any longer. It was 32 weeks."

On Feb. 15, the Wisinski's had a healthy baby girl, Haylee, by Caesarian section, and on Feb. 22, Wisinski had the biopsy.

"We are so blessed that Haylee is healthy," she said.

After the biopsy, Wisinski lost complete control of her right hand, entire right arm and right leg.

"I even lost speech for 48 hours," she said.

After seeing her newborn baby for about 20 minutes, Wisinski did not get to see Haylee for five weeks because she was recovering from her biopsy and a common, but highly contagious bacterial infection.

"Robert Wood Johnson set up a Web cam for Janice to talk to Haylee on the phone and see her visually," said Jason.

In March, Wisinski started a combination of radiation and chemotherapy and Black started her radiation.

The sisters said in spite of their situation, they enjoyed the times they spent together during their sessions of radiation.

"We are always stupid together," said Black. "We would show up wearing the same scarves. It always made us crack up. We would come a little early and stay a little later and just hang out. That part was nice. It made it easier."

Wisinski added that the staff at the hospital lifted their spirits.

"It was comforting," she said.

After six and a half weeks of treatment, Wisinski found herself getting really weak and losing her speech again.

"I didn't know why I was so tired," she said.

After an MRI, doctors found a 6-centimeter cyst on the tumor. Wisinski said so much pressure was pressing against the right side of her brain because of her cyst that she couldn't remember anything.

"I would ask the same questions over and over again," she said. "After four times of draining the cyst, we decided to place a shunt in so the cyst would drain into my stomach."

After the shunt was put in, Wisinski said she felt like a new person, and also a new brace around her right leg has helped her move around more independently.

"I felt like I just woke up," she said. "I felt like I was on pause for four and a half months."

The new mom said she tries to feed her baby and play with her as much as possible.

"I need someone to pick Haylee up for me and put her in my arms and also I need someone to [help get me] in and out of the shower, but that's it," she said.

As trips to the hospital continue for Wisinski, her sister, Cheryl, has gone back to work as a delivery room nurse. Her first day back was July 17.

"So far so good," she said. As for Wisinski, things are still on hold at her job in the advertising sales office at American Greetings in New York City.

"I'm hoping to go back," she said.