Student Blog

Second Semester – Summer 2021

June 30^th, 2021

What a month.

I know I have said it before, but wow it is flying by. Last time I did this blog was roughly a month ago and I wrapped it up with talking about receiving our white coats. Thinking about that today, it feels like it happened a year ago. We learn so much and do so much hands-on work within these classes that it has all just kind of become one large moment in my head with absolutely no timeline.

This week though, we finished our third class: Orthotic Management of Lower Limb 1. Throughout these four weeks, my classmates and I made accommodative FOs, UCBLs, AFOs, Articulating AFOs, and even got a sweet little Zoom call with Becker. The best part about having the opportunity to makes these devices for one another is that we actually get the opportunity to understand how these devices feel. This gives us the ability to relate just a bit to our future patients and understand different pressure points, etc., that they may be feeling. Also, huge shout out to all those technicians out there. I am not sure I will ever be able to wrap my mind around how quickly you guys turn over devices. Granted, this was the first time I have ever made any type of Ox, but it took us close to 2-3 days each!! I can only hope one day I look back and have a good laugh at how rough my first AFO came out. But on the bright side, I can only go up from here.

We now have begun our Spinal management class that will continue on for the next three weeks. While we have had some pretty hefty lecture material, we did start fitting one another with COs, CTOs, TLSOs, and LSOs. After trying them on and fitting my classmates in them, I have an even greater understanding of how well those suckers work when patients use them correctly. Being so restricted with some devices was tough! I can only imagine having to wear those devices 6 plus weeks. With this class being only about three weeks though, we already have our midterm creeping up around the corner. As always, keep us in your thoughts as we take our tests!!

Talk again in a month!

Savanna Stumpf

Helloooooooo! I hope everyone is enjoying their life so far, especially during this lovely summer. I hope those who graduated are enjoying their residencies, I hope everyone in my cohort are enjoying their rotations and I also hope the class after us are enjoying their hands-on work! I apologize for not being consistent with my blog posting this summer. Y’all know I was SUPER EXCITED to start my clinical rotations!! Speaking of rotations, let me get into what I have been doing so far and what I have seen.

               So, I started my clinical rotations this summer at two places, one being the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (which has always been my dream to work there so y’all know I am pumped) and another O&P office called ProCare which is also in Atlanta. One thing about my places of choice, I feel like I am seeing a balance of children, orthotics, adults, and prosthetics. At CHOA, I am usually seeing children and orthotics (which is much more common) and at the ProCare office, I am observing adults and prosthetics. I am loving both so far and with this in mind, I think I have decided to do separate residencies for both orthotics and prosthetics, not combined.

               I love that all of the practitioners I am working with, are taking the time to teach and explain to me the concepts that I may not be familiar with. So far at CHOA, I have observed a lot of patients with cerebral palsy, spastic, diplegic, with ataxia, lot of muscle weakness, scoliosis patients, clubfoot, patients with brachycephaly and plagiocephaly. Meaning, that there were lots of AFOs, SAFOs, DAFOs, cranial remodeling helmets delivered. The thing about me is that even if I see it a million times, there is always something new to learn about it. The more I see it, the more I know about it, and the more I feel comfortable working with patients who have some of the abnormalities. I love observing and working with the children there. Sometimes, it is hard to control the crying babies and children with involuntary movements, but it is so rewarding. Every infant that I have seen always stares at me, so sometimes I have to become a distraction when they are scanning the children with the StarBand lol. The scoliosis patients usually have the Boston brace and the providence nighttime brace, but it was so interesting to see how they measure for a providence nighttime brace. For the Boston brace, you take your regular measurements, and they use the structure scanner. For the providence brace, measurements, scanning and a providence board is used. One unique patient had pectus carinatum which was interesting to see.

               At the ProCare office, I have seen a lot of transfemoral and transtibial patients. I love that at that clinic, I get a chance to talk with the practitioners and discuss the different ways to align a patient’s leg in order for their gait to mimic a normal gait and in order for the patient to feel comfortable ambulating without balance issues. They are so passionate about teaching me materials. The practitioners in this office are young. I would say around 3-5 years older than me. It was really inspiring to see that soon I will be as good as them at aligning and finding the right parts for a patient. Most of the patients I have seen are patients who are middle aged and up. There was one patient who almost made me cry (I’m emotional lol) because he loved his leg so much during delivery. He thanked me (I didn’t really do anything, but I did point out an alignment issue which was fixed) , told me good luck and that I would be successful. Those are the patient interactions that make me want to work for free.

               As you can tell, I am enjoying my clinical rotations. Unfortunately, my last day is June 30^th. However, I am still looking for more places to shadow and help out with like camps for children with disabilities and also more shadowing opportunities. I used to say, “ I can’t wait to start my clinical rotations!” Now that I have started, I cannot wait to graduate and start my residency program.  

-Onny

Hi there!

It’s been a while since we have last chatted. Between April and May, a lot has happened. The biggest feat is that we have moved on from the first semester and already finished a month of the second semester! I would say my classmates and I are all very excited to have moved into this semester. We are now all in on the action, really getting busy with the hands-on classes. In just a month, we have familiarized ourselves with how to use all the machinery (and yes this includes sewing machines), worked through Range of Motion within the major joints in the body, took plaster and fiberglass casts, practiced talking through patient history, and much more. It is actually hard to believe we are already a month through because it has flown by.

Going into our second month, we are getting started with our first lower limb orthoses: foot orthotics. Each of us classmates got partnered up as we took on the “patient-practitioner” roles. I am currently making shoe inserts for Ian, so I took his patient history and took impressions with a smash box. From there, we have poured plaster molds, modified them, and started to pull different materials over them to begin the shoe insert process. Ian, if you’re reading this, I hope I do your inserts justice. For me personally, this has been my first time working with shoe inserts and creating them from scratch. So, fingers crossed they both come out well!

Tomorrow, June 4^th is a special day within this second semester because we have our white coat ceremony. I will make sure to have all the details in next month’s blog! But for now, we will just take in the moment of feeling officially official in our fancy new white coats.

Talk again soon!

Savanna Stumpf

Namaste. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend.

Disclaimer: In these pictures, it may look like I am struggling, but I am not. This orthosis actually gives great support, hence why I have my thumbs up lol. 

This week we started a new class, Orthotic Management of the Spine. So far, we have learned about the different types of spinal orthoses and which kinds are used for which pathologies. There are so many variations characterized by design, organization, where the pathology or fracture is located (ex. Lumbar fractures, cervical, etc.) and so much more. Surprisingly, it is easy to grasp the concepts about how the material can help prevent any further damages to the spine, or which orthoses will be for the lower spine versus the ones that are for the cervical area or thoracic spine, just by looking at the orthotic device when it is placed on a patient. We got to try on some of the orthoses on our peers and move with them to see what types of orthoses will prevent those movements. I’m not going to lie, I think I need a spinal orthosis for myself. I kind of like the LSO because it’s comfortable. It’s the support for me lol.

I can’t wait to dig deeper! Peace and love.

-Onny

What’s up peoples! I hope you had a wonderful week. T’was fun for me.

On Monday we started our Total Surface Bearing socket casting, which is supposed to be a much easier socket than the one we did last week. This time, we met with a new patient model who had three amputations (one on his left arm, two lower limb) and I found him truly inspiring. Me and my group members were more interested in his story and started our casting late lol. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we did the cast pouring and alignment for the cast. This time I did not make a chisel mark on the side of my socket, so it was a success.  On Thursday, Blatchford Orthotist and Prosthetist came in and talked about the different types of hydraulic feet and how they work. In the afternoon, our patient models came back for the fitting, while we used Blatchford’s Hydraulic ankles for the foot component. The ankle adjustment was most definitely more challenging than using a regular SACH foot, but it was very rewarding to see the outcome. It feels like everything I am learning here is starting to come together.

Ok, I have a final next Tuesday, goodbye… for now.

Adaeze O. Mbagwu