Face to Face: Ulrike Entwistle, CFm, Juzo-Certified Fitter

A desire to help other breast cancer survivors was the guiding force that led Ulrike Entwistle to find her niche as a certified mastectomy fitter and Juzo fitter, and eventually open Heart Strings Breast Care & Women's Boutique, New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

1. Please tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in the German Rhineland, and I completed my schooling near Stuttgart, where I worked in the banking industry. In 1981, my mother and I joined the rest of the family in South Africa. Whilst working for Nestlé South Africa, I trained as an accountant and consequently worked independently as such for a while. Later I joined a group of engineers in Johannesburg, where I met the love of my life, Harry. We married in 1993 on St. Simons Island, Georgia. I received my green card in 2000, and we settled in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

2. How did you become involved with O&P? When I had my mastectomy in July 2005, I was visited in the hospital by a volunteer—a tall, kind of square woman who was also a breast cancer survivor. I must have asked her about her surgery because she quickly lifted her blouse and showed me her white, maybe 42DD bra, which she had stuffed on her left side with fiberfill and fishhook sinkers to give it enough weight and prevent it from riding up. After seeing this I was in complete shock and could think only one thing: there must be a better solution!

3. What are your professional goals? The goal of Heart Strings is to offer every woman the products, information, and support necessary to enable her to make the choices that will allow her to look and feel her best before and after breast surgery, and to assist her in the manifold ways to cope with a cancer diagnosis and its treatments.

4. What emerging trends or exciting advances do you see for your field? With breast forms the trend seems to be toward lighter and cooler. We also see more and more young women who didn't want to wear their "grandmother's bra" before breast surgery, so the bras are getting trendier and prettier, but they still have a very important support function.

5. Please describe your approach to patient/client care. When fitting a breast prosthesis, one really needs to work with the patient because her remaining breast needs to be matched, and in most cases that is very well achievable. There are just a few patients who have had radical and/or disfiguring surgery that has left them with a very uneven chest wall or severe concavity. But even then, with a little patience, a satisfactory fit can be achieved.

In my business, where the client ultimately will expose herself, it is paramount that she feels comfortable with my presence and my touching her. So I need to know if this is her first or 15th time for a fitting and communicate to her what to expect, what we'll do together, and what the results should be. I will spend all the time needed to "meet" the client in her situation, to find out what she really wants and what she needs, and offer guidance if there is a better solution. Making it personal is very important.

Tell Your Story to The O&P EDGE Would you like to be featured in a future "Face to Face" or recommend a fellow practitioner? Do you have an "unbelievable-but-true" reimbursement story? Do you have a patient whom you would like to nominate for inclusion in "Today's Consumer"? If so, we'd like to hear from you. Send your stories or nominations to linkEmail('press','opedge.com');

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Face to Face: Ulrike Entwistle, CFm, Juzo-Certified Fitter

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Related posts:

Carl Wardell: Living Life in Stride

Setting a New Standard

TMR Technically Feasible for Transfemoral Amputees

O&P JOBS

Certified Prosthetist/Orthotist (CPO)

Now Hiring: Certified Prosthetist Orthotist (CPO)

ABC Certified Orthotic Fitter / Orthotic Assistant

Get unlimited access!

EDGE DIRECT

Welcome Back!

Retrieve your password

Not enough quota to unlock this post