BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer
JEFF GRANIT staff Jeanne Rooney, president of the WISE Center in East Brunswick, moves the Perometer 350S as it uses infrared beams to take measurements of Stacy Siregar’s leg. EAST BRUNSWICK — The township is now home to a support center that caters to women dealing with cancer treatment or recovering from the disease.
The WISE (Women’s International Support Environment) Center recently moved from Old Bridge Turnpike in South River back to where it began 15 years ago, in East Brunswick. The center, now at 620 Cranbury Road, has expanded greatly since its early days, said Jeanne Rooney, president of the organization.
JEFF GRANIT staff A patient’s measurements taken on a perometer are displayed on a computer at the WISE Center. In addition to providing support for cancer patients, the WISE Center also
sells products such as shoes for diabetics, hats for those facing hair loss, incontinence products, and wellness and skin-care products.
Rooney noted that her office is the first in New Jersey to own a perometer, used to measure features of edemic and lymphedemic arms and legs.
Rooney said one thing the center provides, regardless of the client’s issue, is compassion.
“People come in and they’re scared to death,” Rooney said. “They leave and they’re smiling. That’s a great feeling.”
The office, which specializes in helping cancer patients, started off as a mastectomy boutique, she said. It still carries bras for women who have undergone such operations and provides postsurgery services for women who have had breast surgery.
The center also has an expanded and wide scope of products, selling, for example, bras for women who are nursing a baby or are pregnant, or who simply require an oversize, Rooney said. The center also has a wig salon for people who are losing their hair, as well as breast pumps for women who want to nurse their babies. It carries Medela, a popular type of breast pump, Rooney noted.
The WISE Center also offers compression therapy, which could be used to treat issues stemming from an injury or an inborn problem, she said.
The center bills itself as a “friendly, caring oasis for cancer sufferers and survivors,” and most times what clients need is covered by their insurance, Rooney said.
The new location is also accessible to people with handicaps.
“We are getting more and more handicapped people, and we needed to be handicap-accessible,” Rooney said. “The old place was not at all handicap-accessible. This was something I had to do.”
The brand-new building has elevators and ramps to make it easier for people with handicaps to navigate, she said.
“We started out as strictly cancer
support and support for women undergoing breast surgery,” Rooney said, adding that the center has continually grown. Over the years, clients’ needs triggered the organization to upgrade and improve its products and services to meet those needs.
The center has a staff of eight women, she said, who seek to cater to each client.
The center is particularly proud of the perometer, which uses a far-infrared beam to measure lengths and circumferences of edemic and lymphedemic arms and legs. The information is then stored in a computer for future comparison and easy communication with doctors
“The perometer saves time, eliminates human error in fitting for compression garments, and is a wonderful aid for physicians to track any changes and improvement during [patients’] treatment and care,” according to information from the WISE Center.
Rooney, a teacher by trade with a master’s degree in health, said she got the idea to start the business after seeing her best friend, as well as her chiropractor’s wife, battle breast cancer. Both required a mastectomy. It was her chiropractor, she said, who gave her the idea for the WISE Center.
“He said his wife had to go to this horrible place, and anyone with sense would open a nice place for these women to go,” Rooney said.