By Karla Wall
Julie Lewis, owner of Wonderfully Made Intimate Apparel and Mastectomy Care, located at 617 W. Prien Lake Rd. in Lake Charles, wasn’t trained in breast cancer care — she hadn’t even held a position in healthcare at all when she opened her shop in the summer of 2022 in Moss Bluff.
But she did have an unfortunately thorough knowledge of what cancer patients endure during diagnosis and treatment, as well as after treatment. She’s had three parents diagnosed with cancer (two of which have passed away). She had multiple friends battle cancer. In late 2021, Dylan, whom she and her husband, Roger, call their “bonus son” (he was an “adopted” son), was diagnosed with leukemia.
A Way To Make A Difference
It was during this period that the idea that would become Wonderfully Made came to Lewis via a comment from her mother.
“I was driving my mother, who’s a breast cancer survivor, to Crowley and Lafayette to obtain new mastectomy products,” she recalls. “Donna’s Lingerie in Lake Charles had been closed since the storms of 2020. That trip to Crowley was the second unsuccessful trip, and (my mother) still didn’t have new products that fit. On our way home, she said ‘Someone in Lake Charles needs to open a store for this again.’”
Dylan’s passing during the summer of 2022 understandably left Lewis and her family devastated, and she knew she needed a purpose — a way to make a difference, and “a way to heal emotionally.” She revisited the idea of a mastectomy care boutique.
“I was reminded of that conversation in the car on the way home from Crowley,” she says. “So I began doing a lot of research.”
julie lewis lana Tyler Photography
She trained in Alabama at an established boutique to get the required clinical that, there was the daunting task of becoming accredited to accept Medicare and other major insurance.
Finally, in November, 2022, Wonderfully Made opened in Moss Bluff. Initially, the business was a mastectomy boutique only, but by the summer of 2023, Lewis had noticed that “there was a need for all women to have correctly fitting bras; specifically larger-busted ladies.”
The regular lingerie boutique was moved to the Prien Lake Rd. location early this year, and Lewis moved the mastectomy boutique to that location in early September of this year.
“We’re a one-stop shop now,” Lewis says. “Having the mastectomy boutique in Lake Charles has seemed to be more convenient for most patients. I just felt it was the right decision and move for Wonderfully Made.”
“I was driving my mother, who’s a breast cancer survivor, to Crowley and Lafayette to obtain new mastectomy products,”she recalls. “Donna’s Lingerie in Lake Charles had been closed since the storms of 2020. That trip to Crowley was the second unsuccessful trip, and (my mother) still didn’t have new products that fit. On our way home, she said ‘Someone in Lake Charles needs to open a store for this again.’”
Everything Needed To Make You Feel Normal
The mastectomy products, particularly the prostheses, the boutique carries are designed, Lewis says, “to keep women feeling and looking ‘normal’”throughout their cancer treatment and thereafter.
“Everyone wants to appear normal in their clothing, regardless of if they’re in a t-shirt or their Sunday best,” she says. If they can maintain the same look in their clothes throughout their treatment, even during the transitional phase into reconstructive surgery, if that’s what they choose, it can keep their confidence up and give them a positive outlook during treatment and recovery. And women are more willing to acclimate to prostheses as long as they ‘look good’ in clothing.”
Wonderfully Made’s products are designed for women who’ve had any type of breast surgery: reduction, lift, augmentation or full mastectomy.
“Many women sometimes elect, if the surgery fails for any reason, simply to weara prosthesis rather than go through another surgery,” Lewis says.
Aside from prostheses, the boutique offers under arm pillows that recovering surgical patients place under their arm while they sleep so that the arm doesn’t press into the side and “the end of the surgical site where drains are coming out and they’ve had lymph nodes removed.”
There are also shower lanyards that hold dangling drain bulbs used in many surgeries; soft chemo caps; “nicer” hospital gowns that are more feminine and “pretty” to wear at home or in the hospital.
“We carry and fit compression garments and pumps for patients who may experience lymphedema (a buildup of fluid in the arm and hand, or the leg, as a result of lymph node removal),” says Lewis, adding that these are “needed almost as much as the mastectomy products.”
And Lewis says she also relies on a network of local professionals and business owners she can put clients in touch with for massage therapy, tattooing, skin care for those undergoing radiation, “high-end” wigs and even exercise instructors.
More Than Physical Support
For cancer patients, perhaps especially for women undergoing treatment for breast cancer, there’s as much of — maybe more of — a need for knowledge, moral support, maybe even a shoulder to cry on occasionally, than there is for physical support.
“It’s not vanity,” Lewis says. “Cancer patients can’t prepare themselves mentally for their post-surgical bodies despite all the preparation in the world.”
But they need knowledge of what’s to come, says Lewis, and part of her work is guiding them through the journey and showing them what the future looks like.
“Patients appreciate the time we take to educate them on the options they have and what each of those options and phases of treatment looks like months, even years, into the future, she says. “That allows them to make the best decisions for their lifestyle and their desired outcome. The cancer diagnosis is enough to shock them initially, but at some point, they need to know what their progressive journey looks like and entails.”
More than knowledge, Lewis says, the supportive atmosphere clients encounter at Wonderfully Made is important.
“It’s typically a girls’ party every day at our boutique, though we do have a few male lymphedema patients. We cry happy tears a lot, and we laugh a lot.”
More Than Mastectomy Products
The boutique, as stated, also offers lingerie and products for non-patients.
“We have a little bit of everything,” Lewis says. “Everything you’d expect in a lingerie boutique. We fit sizes A-O cups, nursing bras and tank tops, shapewear, bodysuit lingerie, bra sized swimwear that fits properly in the chest, chemise gowns, soft PJ sets, a bridal lingerie line and more.”
Walk-Ins Welcome
There’s no need for physician referral for cancer-related products, says Lewis. And most insurance will cover the cost of products.
“Many ladies don’t realize they always have insurance coverage for these products when they are diagnosed with breast cancer — even during and after lumpectomies or reconstruction. And we file many insurance claims in-house. It’s my hope that at some point Medicare will cover and pay for prostheses.”
Though the journey has been long and not always pleasant (it did, after all, originate with the cancer diagnoses and deaths of loved ones), Lewis says it has been worth it.
“Working with this population of ladies has been so rewarding and fulfilling for our family,” she says.
And the name of the business? It’s from a Bible verse, Psalms 139:14
“I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.”
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