Student Blog

Hello everyone!

The Zen 10 is back from a short break, ready to start our third semester!  Crazy how the time has been flying this year.  We are starting semester 3 off with our Orthotic Management of the Lower Limb, part two.  Our first project is a ground reaction AFO, which will involve casting our fellow classmates for the modification, fabrication, and fitting of a custom GRAFO.  Apart from classes, we are anxiously anticipating a busy semester with looking for clinical rotations for semester 4, working on our research projects, and beginning applications soon for residency! Excited for everything this semester will bring! 

Megan Merryman

Hello everyone!

The latest update on the Zen 10 is that we are in the midst of our class on orthotic management of the spine, where we are currently learning how to modify and fabricate custom bivalve TLSOs for the treatment of spinal fractures.  We are super stoked, as this is our first project fabricating an orthotic device! 

Another huge highlight of the last two weeks was having paralympic climber Caleb Cowan come speak to our class and SGA about his experience and challenges as a climber for the Paralympic US National Climbing Team.  Caleb is local to Tampa and also organizes monthly adaptive climbing meetup events for people of all disabilities, and some of us had the chance to participate in one of these events.  It was very cool to learn about the creativity that goes into making this sport adaptable, and we have now been inspired to do some more climbing of our own. 

Hi everyone!

The summer semester has been flying by.  We have completed our class on orthotic management of the lower limb, where we fabricated and fitted a pair of foot orthoses, a UCBL, a solid ankle AFO, and an articulated AFO.  It was very rewarding to be able to build and improve on the fabricating skills we learned throughout the course and then have our fellow classmates actually be able to walk in the devices we created.  We are now already one week into our first class on lower limb prosthetics. 

A huge highlight of the week was our very first interaction with our patient models! We had the chance to cast them for transtibial sockets, and they will return in a few days to walk on the check sockets we will be fabricating this week.  Our patient models are absolutely lovely, encouraging people, and we are so excited to continue working with them throughout the rest of this class! 

Stay tuned for the fitting of our check sockets!

Megan Merryman 

Core 34 is almost through their studies in upper limb orthotics and prosthetics! It’s been a fun mix up from lower limb and comes with its own set of  challenges as the focus is more on precision and dexterity. Over the past few weeks Core 34 has had the privilege to experience Coapt technologies, produce their own functioning body powered devices, and had an amazing patient encounter.  Check it out in the photos above! Core 34 is heading into the homestretch of academics before clinical rounds! Stay tuned.

This past week at the IIOP has been both fun and educational. Some of our students had the incredible opportunity to volunteer at the Warrior Games in Orlando, FL, working alongside our nation’s heroes. It was a truly inspiring experience and helped us gain insight into adaptive sports.

We also had the pleasure of hosting Ossur, who provided an informative session on their advanced prosthetic knees. In our coursework, we wrapped up prosthetic management of the lower limb by fitting our second transfemoral sockets.

Looking ahead, we are excited to dive into upper limb and fabricating our first transradial prosthesis.

-Carly Smith

And that’s a rap! Core 34 just finished up lower limb orthotic management 2! During this course they dove into GRAFOs, KAFOs, and the love-hate relationship with metal bending! It was a lot of hands on work during this course, many skills were acquired and pathologies understood. It won’t be too long until they jump into lower limb prosthetics 2, stay tuned!

-Laurel Harrington

Hi everyone!

Jumping in our third semester with Orthotic Management of the Lower Limb 2. This week we fabricated and fit our first Ground Reaction AFO’s and learned to fit off the shelf devices for both the knee and hip. To end this week we had a competition to modify and customize fracture braces with missing parts. We are already over halfway done with this class and are looking forward to casting and fabricating KAFO’s.

-Carly Smith

Hello again everyone! 

The Zen 10 is now into the second week of our sophomore semester already! There are already many things to be excited about at the start of a new semester.  We completed our white coat ceremony last Friday, and we finally are getting to work with all of the fancy equipment in the lab.  Our first class with Mr. Martin included a number of projects to give us experience working with all of the machinery such as the grinders, band saws, sewing machines, and even the sand blaster.  We are thrilled to be able to do some hands-on work and are looking forward to our upcoming classes in orthotic management of the spine, and orthotic and prosthetic management of the lower limb!   

Until next time!

Megan Merryman

Hi Everyone!

Core 34 has launched into the world of prosthetics with incredible patient models for patellar bearing sockets and ABC prep. Midterms are over and core 34 is moving on to their total surface bearing socket projects. Along with understanding sockets they are gaining knowledge in components, liners, alignment, and patient encounters. Core 34 extends an immense appreciation to the patient models and looks forward to the continuation of the IIOP process.

-Laurel Harrington