After a frustrating day yesterday - feeling like the world was working against me...it all turned around for me today!! (As I had assumed it probably would.) Like I thought, just going to sleep and starting over on a new day really helped turn things around for me. I woke up today and went to school determined to be successful with my leg!! I was feeling a little nervous about the potential that the missing pieces to my foot might not make it in time, but I still set about aligning everything and trying my socket on my patient with confidence. All hail the amazingly speedy and efficient FedEx!! My foot arrived before 9am and did not set my back one minute in trying to get my patient up and walking. I let my other two classmates go and even after the arrival of the package, I was still waiting around most of the morning for my turn with the patient.
Ta da!! A completed leg, fancy foot and all!! The only thing that they have yet to figure out about these amazing motorized feet is what to do about that darn battery pack. There is no way around it, you have to attach it to the socket somehow. If this was a permanent socket, it would have a built in compartment in the back to store it, but the added bulk will definitely still be there. Either way, it is the fanciest and coolest foot in the class and my patient was really excited about getting to try it out. I got a quick lesson in all of the functions this morning (shout out to Chris at Ossur for all of his patience and wisdom) and I had this thing up and ready to go. The amazing news is that my patient said my socket felt amazing. A little side note about my patient, he completed the prosthetics program at my school last semester so he knows what he is talking about and knows exactly what we are going through and what we are supposed to be doing or not doing. He is very good at giving feedback which makes fitting him so much easier. He also is very good at giving tips to accompany the feedback...that also helps :) The downside about him knowing the industry and being capable of making his own sockets is that he is very picky and particular about socket fit and alignment. He should be picky about it...this is his leg, but it definitely feels like a major win when he kept repeating how great the socket fit and what a nice job I did and that he really liked it!! I needed a win today and it was nice to know that all the drama and letdowns from yesterday still resulted in a great prosthesis that my patient was able to comfortably walk in. We got to play around with the fun functions of the foot and he said it was fun to walk in and just felt really nice. I think critique will go pretty smoothly tomorrow if he walks the same way that he did this morning. I remembered to plug the foot into the charger before I left school so barring a power outage...we should be good to go first thing in the morning tomorrow. It is so nuts that this is the final project in transtibial. We are going to be responsible for making WHOLE legs in about a week or two...I mean, top to bottom - knee joint and everything. I think I have a decent foundation for the skills needed, but it is going to be a different world and I am anticipating it being a little tougher. Time will tell.
The other thing we did today was learn how to treat a postoperative amputation. We learned how to cast them and wrap them to prevent them from swelling. There are times where you have to scrub in and go into the operating room as soon as the surgeons are done amputating a limb to put on the postoperative cast. I think this sounds pretty awesome!! I will need to get better at casting before I am ready to even think about trying this (they probably frown upon plaster being tossed about in a sterile environment), but I think it is an exciting thing to look forward to in the future. And I must say, my skills with an Ace bandage are second to none... ;)
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