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Francesca Cicchetti – IIOP Student Blog – December 2, 2020

Francesca Cicchetti – IIOP Student Blog – December 2, 2020

Good afternoon everyone!

Happy HUMP DAY! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are not still in food comas….

We are (sadly) finishing up our semester and time here at IIOP, but these past few weeks have been great! The week before Thanksgiving, we hosted a White Coat Ceremony for the newest cohort followed by a nice Thanksgiving lunch! It was an honor to be able to donn their white coats and welcome them into the O&P Field J They have been killing it at school this semester and we are all so proud of them! Later on, that day, Jorge and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Great American Teach-In and share with the 6th graders at the LLT Academy a little about what we, as Orthotists and Prosthetists, do! It was so much fun and all the students had really great questions for us…my favorite was “Do you make bionic skin?” So there’s an idea for us to get crackin’ on!

The following week we started our upper extremity prosthetics class. Our first project was a mock prosthesis that we actually casted ourselves for! It was a really involved project, but we had a great time doing it. The toughest part was assembling the cable system but with some teamwork, persistence, and a few sweat droplets, we got it DONE!

Today, our patient model, Richard, came in for a casting for our second project of the self-suspending transradial prosthesis! He was so patient with us…since all 8 of us (Ms. Crawford too with her demo) casted him. We will be modifying and fabricating a check socket for him to fit tomorrow and then we will do one last lamination for practice (cue the TEARS).

That is all the news from wonderful Tampa, Florida for now! Enjoy any cooler weather coming your way, stay warm and we will chat next week!!

Only 23 more days until…….SANTAAAAAA!!!!!! I KNOW HIM!!

 

Warmest regards,

Gingerbreadfran (my seasonal name)