Lamination Station

Today I got called up from the minor leagues to the majors.  Whoa.  I mean, today they expected me to actually start making a leg...like one I would really make in real life in the future.  Third week of school and look at me go!!  It was a super long day and my entire body is exhausted and sore from standing in strange positions and leaning over equipment, but I cannot even explain the sense of satisfaction and pride that I have sitting here in my apartment right now.  This job is so gratifying!  And I have not even gotten to the part where I get to put this on my patient and give him the ability to walk!  You are in for a long post so I won't be offended if you just scroll down and look at the pictures without wanting to read in great detail the different steps in getting from point A to point B.

8am, get out your safety goggles and let's go!  The first part of the day was lamination, but lamination involves about 8 pre-lamination steps to even get your socket ready to go.  Most of the process is about pulling tight clear plastic bags down around your mold.  We all know that I have a history of ripping things when I pull them down over my mold so I was very much dreading the fact that I had to do this, not one or two, but three times today.  I will go ahead and encourage you to begin your applause because I managed to successfully get that darn PVA bag onto my mold every single time on the first try.  This is putting the first bag on to cover the end of the mold.  I held it there much longer than needed to, but I was not risking it moving or breaking on me.  Have I mentioned that we use A LOT of electrical tape in the O&P industry?  That and baby powder.  I encourage you to buy stock in both.  I got this cap on, gently used a razor blade (something which I have become surprisingly adept at) to cut off the tape and leave a perfect little plastic cap on my mold.  Step one...crushed.

Step two was to pull yet another plastic bag down the entire mold.  Done and done.  Step three was to apply felt around the entire mold.  This is just like wrapping up a burrito - and then using a lighter to make it stick together.  The heat/flame melts the felt just enough to create a little seam and the ends stay together this way.  This is the way you do it if you don't have the sewing skills to make a little slip cover - I do not yet have the sewing skills.  The fourth step was to apply strips of fiberglass to reinforce certain parts of the socket and add some extra strength.  This is what I am so focused on doing in the picture above.  Then there is the unsure/so tired/hopeful smile when I have it secured onto my mold.  Do you see that I am just powering through these steps!?  Let me be honest, as quick as this is going in two paragraphs, this was a process that took me two hours.

Alright, alright, I know that you were just waiting to see me in a respirator.  Hot right?  Between the safety goggles and the respirator, it is a wonder to me why more people do not meet and fall in love while they are working together making prosthetics.  I think I can really pull this off - I wonder if I have the right shoes to make this work on the weekend?  The respirator has to be worn because it is time to get serious and pour the resin in and laminate my socket!!  The fumes can harm me and any potential future children I might decide to have so it is worth risking sexy for safety.  Step 5 was to...wait for it...pull another plastic bag over the socket!  Step 6 was to measure out the epoxy acrylic resin (450 grams if you are super curious) and then Step 7 was to add a little bit of pigment to the resin to make the socket close to the skin color of my patient (again, if you are a details person, this is 2% of the amount of resin you put in).  Step 8, add the hardner (3%) and it is game time.  All of the steps are done, it is finally time to take the step (for me it was a literal step, up on a stool, as I am not tall enough to reach the funnel to pour the resin in) and make this socket lamination become a reality.  As awesome as these sockets turn out and as tough and amazing they look, it is pretty amusing to look at the tools that go into getting that finished product.  I cut a plastic bottle in half and it is rigged up to hang the plastic bag over my socket...then it just funnels down (with a little squeezing and stringing) and covers the socket.  All of which is hooked up to the vacuum to create a smooth seal around the socket.

This is me pouring the resin into the bag to get ready to have it cover my socket.  After squeezing the majority of the resin mixture to cover the socket, I took a string (as in a little rope) and went around the socket to get rid of any excess resin and to keep the entire thing smooth.  You have to spread it evenly, make sure it does not go down too far (this apparently clogs up the vacuum and is frowned upon at school), and then get the extra resin back up to the top (which is technically the bottom) of the mold to be cut off and discarded later.  Phew...exhausting and complicated huh??  I have seen this done and never actually done it myself so I was so nervous, but oh my gosh, it was so exciting.  I was so freaking proud of myself when I was done.  So of course I took a picture....

There ya have it...a few hours later, I have what is starting to resemble something that someone might actually want to wear as their leg.  This is a big deal!!

Did I mention that when I don't wear my respirator, I have to wear a cool mask?  Take your pick, I personally prefer the respirator because it comes with pink accessories ;)  After stripping the bags and using the cast saw (a little less scared of it today) to cut the shape of my socket out of the resin, I freed my liner that has been tucked away underneath all of that for the past few days.  You will never believe what I had to do after pulling my liner out of the socket...grind it down!!  Did you see that one coming??  Unfortunately, I did, but that means I was mentally prepared for it today.  I took that liner and made the edges smooth and pretty and it is going to feel so squishy and comfortable against Mr. R's skin that he is probably going to only come to me for his future liner needs.  I thought I had really begun to master the grinding - this liner only took me about 15 minutes and I definitely had a little strut going on headed back to my workbench afterwards.  Why would I do that?  I clearly had forgotten that my freshly cut out socket was waiting on my desk to be trimmed as well.  This, my friends, was not a 15 minute job.  This involved some serious dust, a terrible smell and me closing down the school with only one instructor left till 6:00pm.  That is what I get for thinking I was the queen of this socket today.  A little knock back down to reality.  Which is fine, keeps me humble and honestly made finishing feel SO much better.  Talk about a strut!!  You should have seen me sashaying out of the building today!

This grinding is a messy, messy business.  My professor came and was like, oh my gosh, you look like you have walked through a snowstorm.  The little amount of dust on my face and shirt is what I looked like after I took the blower and tried to get most of it off.  A little dust is way more than worth it for the feeling of triumph that I felt when holding a completely ground socket with a lovely ground liner tucked nicely inside of it!  This job is going to be so ridiculously gratifying and satisfying - I cannot wait to continue making more legs and learning more things.  After today, I know I am going to be one of those people who truly looks forward to going to work every day and comes home and wants to talk about it with anyone who will listen.  I am currently paying for the privilege now (and it ain't cheap) and I still come out with a positive attitude and continually looking forward to the challenges that come with each day.  It was a long journey to get to where I am, and it has certainly not been easy, but I cannot imagine being anywhere else and I know that I am very, very lucky.  Tomorrow, this socket becomes an entire leg...that is right, I am going to attach a pylon and a foot to this bad boy.  Tomorrow, I can officially say I make legs...well, technically, I make leg.  Legs will come :)