Silicone...Silly Putty for Adults

Not much to report from school today...a short day to end a long week.  We learned more about pathological gait and watch loads of videos on gait deviations to try and learn how to spot them when we see a person walking on a prosthetic leg.  I am finally feeling as though I am getting a decent grasp on these things and am relieved that I am able to notice, detect and diagnose an issue with a person's gait.  Then, of course, you have to list to potential causes for the deviation - those can range from problems with the prosthesis you have made or problems with the amputee and their own style of walking.  All things that can, and must, be changed in order to get someone walking with normal pathological gait.  

Then we watched videos on making liners and other inserts out of silicone.  We also got to spend a good portion of the morning playing with all of the different types of silicone.  This is the stuff that you can paint onto people to make masks of their face, you can put it into different molds and create fun things and you can also use it for actual useful things like making custom liners for a prosthesis.  Apparently we are all going to get a chance throughout the semester to make a little silicone bowl of our very own that we can use in the future for holding or mixing plaster.  I am thinking pink with gold glitter...

All in all, a short and easy day.  A good bit of school work to get done over the weekend, but I am taking the rest of the day off to have fun and I will try and get back to biomechanics and Syme's take-home tests tomorrow or Sunday.