Today we were back in the treatment room, between the infamous parallel bars, for patient critiques. This is what it looks like when we do these critiques. Two sets of parallel bars in the middle of the room and students sitting on either side of the room to watch the patients walk back and forth. The professors are all sitting at the end of the bars at a table with their critique sheets out, taking notes on the good, the bad, and the ugly. My patient critique went really well today, but I always think that they could go better. Buddy showed up this morning and I am not sure what happened between yesterday and today, but his swollen limb from yesterday was back down to normal size today. So, of course, this meant that my socket fit him a little big. This was slightly frustrating, but to be expected and not something I was going to be docked for in critique. I can only do so much to account for the fluctuation in volume of the residual limb. And it is much easier to add a sock or two to give you back some volume then to have a limb that will not even slide down into the socket. I felt like I did a really nice job presenting and we have already been given our grades and I did well and got some great feedback from my instructors.
One of the things that I think is the most unfulfilling aspects about school is that we put our heart and soul and time and sweat into these sockets and legs and after standing and presenting them to the class for 20 minutes, we are instructed to break them down and toss them out. Here I am with my socket after pulling off the pylon and foot...I mean, I guess I have to start throwing them away at some point - there is only so much room under my desk for stashing sockets :) In the feedback comments I got on my grade sheet today, I was told that I have excellent patient communication and interaction skills and that I portray a lot of confidence when I am in front of a room or with a patient...and that both of these things will go a long way in getting patients and referrals in my future. The negative part of the comments and feedback was that my "hand skills need work." I am actually still digesting how to take this because I know this is true. I am not offended by the mention of needing to work on my hand skills (modification and fabrication), I believe this is only my third or fourth thing to ever make, but it still gets me down a little bit to hear this. I almost feel as though it does not even need to be said. I actually believe that this is a comment that could easily be made to me 10 years from now - these are skills that I am going to constantly be improving throughout the rest of my career in prosthetics and orthotics. Like I said, I am not taking offense to the honest feedback (it is nice to get any feedback), but I have just been feeling like I have been improving vastly in that area and then to have my professors say I still need to really work on that feels like maybe I am the only one thinking I have improved!! It has also been a super long day and a very busy week so I might just be a little over-sensitive at the moment...
Of course it would not be enough to just have us do patient visits and critique for the day at school, we cannot let our brains rest for even a little bit!! So this afternoon we spent the four hours talking about Syme's Amputations. These are amputations that are essentially at ankle level and just involve losing some or all of your foot. Although we do have some Syme's patients among our patient population at the VA, we will not be seeing them or casting them so we watched Scott perform a demonstration on how to do a casting. I was a little disappointed that this was at the end of a long day because it was hard to stay focused and really pay attention and this level of amputation is really common so it is definitely something I am going to be encountering in the future and will need to know how to treat. Because of the shape of the residual limb (with the bulb/ball shape at the end) these can be really tricky in manufacturing a socket and figuring out how to get it securely on the limb. We learned all of the techniques and options today and tomorrow they will be showing us how to modify this cast and to actually make the socket. It is always much tougher to learn from just observing so I am not sure that I will get as much out of it as if I was actually doing it myself, but it is interesting to see and I am sure I am retaining more than I think.
Next week, we finish up transtibial and then quickly begin transfemoral (above the knee amputations). I emailed my professor to further discuss my feedback and to get clarification on a few things and just to ask what I could be doing to further improve my hand skills. I have a feeling this will mean that I am signing myself up to do some "for fun" projects in whatever free time I have at school, but ultimately (and as exhausting as it sounds at the moment), I think that is what I need to do. I know I am getting better with practice so I think I just need the chance to really practice more. They say practice makes perfect...I am not setting unrealistic expectations on myself to be perfect, but I want the next feedback I receive to make note of a noticeable difference in my amazing hand skills!
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