Charlotte Wesoloskie was 21 days old when her mother picked her up and felt an odd bump between her ribs. The next day, the bump was as big as a golf ball.
Tara Wesoloskie, who has been a nurse at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford for 24 years, brought her youngest daughter to the hospital, where it was discovered that Charlotte had a tumor the size of a potato in her chest wall. She only weighed eight pounds when she was born.
She was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare but aggressive type of cancer that forms in soft tissue. Tara had had an ultrasound 10 days before Charlotte, her third child, was born and said nothing was detected.
Today, Charlotte is a two-sport athlete and a junior at Coventry High. She plays outfield for the softball team that won the school’s first state title in the sport and was a starter on the volleyball team which won the Class S state championship last fall. Coventry softball (19-1) is one of the favorites to win another state title.
She’s come a long way since her first year which was filled with hospital visits and chemotherapy. When she was 4 months old, Charlotte had surgery which included removing four ribs, leaving a soft spot on her right side. Because of this, her mother said the family was told Charlotte’s activities would be limited when she was younger.
“Having seen everything I’ve seen over the years medically, which is a lot — I worked in an ICU for over a decade — it was really hard to imagine how she would be OK without a lot of her side, a lot of that muscle, part of her chest wall, part of her diaphragm,” Tara said. “I had concerns about how she would breathe.
“To go from that to she plays softball and volleyball at a high level, academically doing fabulous — she’s exceeded anything that was ever imagined for her.
“We were expected to have a lot of limitations for her physically. She’s defied everything. She has no long-term problems. We were just dismissed from orthopedics and the doctor said to her, ‘Go from here and know that you’re unlimited, Charlotte. There’s nothing holding you back.’ ”
Going through chemo as a baby
For the first 14 months of her life, Charlotte had an IV line connected to her chest for chemotherapy. She had multiple surgeries. She had to have CAT scans every few months for five years that involved being anaesthetized.
When she was in kindergarten, she wanted to do what her brother Nick and sister Caroline were doing, which was playing baseball and softball.
“I saw my sister playing,” she said. “I always thought it looked fun.”
But it wasn’t easy to get her out onto the field. Her doctors had warned the family that she shouldn’t play contact sports. Ballet was suggested; that didn’t go over well with Charlotte.
“Of course, we handed her over (to the medical professionals) and said, ‘Do what you have to do, I don’t care if she can’t play sports,’” Tara said. “And then we got to know her. I was like, ‘Oh God.’
“She had nothing basically over her liver, her lung or her kidney. There were concerns of getting hit with a ball. We went to the hospital, and they made a brace for her, but she was very limited. She couldn’t play.
“I think the things that make her a survivor and make her play at this level are she’s very competitive, very determined. She’s that third child.”
Eventually, they were able to convert a protective plate that pitchers wear in the event that the ball gets hit back at them and the plate was molded to her side. It was not ideal; it was hot and sweaty, and Charlotte balked at wearing it some days when she was younger.
“There were a lot of days we cried getting that brace on,” Tara said. “She would say, ‘It’s not fair, why do I have to do this?’ ”
But as she got older, she dealt with the discomfort better. She wore the brace until last year. This year, her doctor said she didn’t have to wear it anymore.
“Her surgeon said she’s so muscular, he really doesn’t have concerns about it,” Tara said.
Charlotte began to play volleyball when she was a freshman. Last season, she played libero, a defensive specialist, and said she had no qualms about diving on the floor to keep play alive. She had 25 digs in the state championship game, a 3-0 win over Haddam-Killingworth .
Softball season has likewise gone well after Coventry won its first title last year, 3-2, over Cromwell. The Patriots have lost only once, to Haddam-Killingworth, 7-1 on May 13. Coventry, the No. 2 seed in the Class S state tournament, will play the winner of Coginchaug-Housatonic Regional on Wednesday in a second-round tournament game at home.
“It’s been really good,” said Charlotte, who plays right field. “The team’s been working really hard. We’ve been doing really well. Hopefully we’ll have another chance at the championship this year.”
Charlotte and Caroline, a senior who is 13 months older than Charlotte, are starters on both the volleyball and softball teams.
“Those two are always together,” Coventry softball coach Jeff LaHouse said. “You would think it would be a chance for them to be apart but it’s not. They hit together; they throw together. I’ve probably never seen two sisters that close. There’s a good bond there.
“Because (Charlotte) is quiet, she’s kind of in the background but if you look at our success, she’s a quiet part of it. She’s a very good baserunner. Excellent outfielder. Everything that gets hit to her, she makes all the outs.”
PJ Day
Charlotte’s brother Nick was 2 ½ years old when his baby sister was diagnosed with cancer. She spent a lot of time at the Children’s Medical Center when he was younger.
One day when he was in second grade, Nick asked his mother if they could do something for the hospital which had helped his sister. She suggested maybe a road race or something to raise money; Nick had other ideas. He had seen how much time his sister and the other kids at the hospital spent in their pajamas. Maybe people could wear pajamas to school, to work, and donate money.
Tara said OK, thinking it was likely just his class would do it.
“The principal said, ‘No, no, this is great, let’s have the whole school do it,’” Tara said. “The following year it was the whole town, then the year after that, Charlotte has a lot of friends we know from treatment who started doing it in Tolland and Mansfield. It grew from there.
“Then we were like, ‘Wait, we can ask people to do this.’ It grew to about 25 towns then our state representative, Tim Ackert, reached out to Nick and said, ‘This is great, but I can help.’ They went to the capitol, and he did testimony and they made it an official day of awareness in Connecticut.”
The first year was in 2011 and they raised $500. In 2017, the legislature named the second Friday in December “PJ Day for Kids.” Last year, 650 schools in every town in the state, 200 businesses and over 100 Dunkin’ Donuts participated in the fundraising initiative and PJ Day has raised over $3 million for the Children’s Hospital since its inception.
“It’s amazing how the state has come together for this cause,” Nick said.
His visit to the state capitol sparked an interest in politics; Nick just finished his sophomore year at UConn, where he spent the last semester at an internship in Washington, D.C.
“She’s our little miracle,” Nick said of his sister. “It’s so amazing to me to see she’s so happy and healthy today and that’s because of the work of CCMC, amazing doctors and workers there. I wanted to be able to give back and help the hospital that saved my little sister.”
Caroline plans to pursue a physician’s assistant major at Quinnipiac . Charlotte will likely follow her older sister’s path and pursue a medical career in college.
“We meet kids who have cancer who are in awe of her,” Tara said. “Years ago, we went to a fundraiser with another little girl who had the same kind of cancer, which is exceedingly rare, like 250 kids in the country get it. The family said, ‘Look at her. Our child could look like this, our child could be a survivor and be strong like her.’ She was hope to them.”
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