This was my view for the last 8 hours...watching this plaster go through various stages - I believe this was around 11am. Because this is our last big project and they have really stressed that we should be doing these things on our own (and because I know that my hand skills are not thought of as being amongst the top in the class), I was determined to get through this modification on my own. I was refusing to ask for help, only asking for guidance confirmation when I was at the endpoint and ready to pull my check socket. I will admit, the first 3 or 4 hours looked pretty dicey. I took my lunch break moreso out of wanting to get away from the mold than hunger. Sitting at lunch I was really questioning if I was going to be able to do this. I kept thinking to myself, I know all of the steps and what is supposed to be done, but getting it all correct on this mold is proving to be really trying. There is no guessing or hoping you are right when making a socket - your measurements have to be on, your reliefs (for tendons and muscles and bones) have to be in the right places...otherwise the work you have done for the past 8 hours will be for nothing. Without getting most of this stuff right, it will take about two minutes for my patient to tell me that this socket is not comfortable and there will be no way he can walk in it.
Ahhhh, progression :) This was about 4pm...finally able to start smoothing the plaster out and feeling pretty good about the result of the long day. I got all of my measurements down to where they should be, I put in plaster reliefs and built shelves and flared out walls. If the picture in the manual is what I am supposed to be going for, I have a winner of a socket for sure! In all reality, this literally did take all day and it was exhausting. My back is hurting from hunching over this...my hands are completely dried out from being in plaster...and my clothes were so filthy that I took a towel from school to cover the seat in the car on the way home. I was not sure how the day was going to go. I can be honest and say I was not really looking forward to it. I brought my headphones and put on music and just really focused on getting the leg finished. We have a few hours tomorrow afternoon to work on our legs, but by the end of the day, it is supposed to be completed - knees and feet attached and ready to go. We are putting these on our patients on Thursday morning. It is shocking to me that I am supposed to be making four or five of these a day when I start working in a clinic! There were people that were done completely - test socket pulled and all components attached before lunch...so I guess the expectation is not too high ;)
Ta da!! Here is my finished leg - ready and waiting to go outside of the plastics room. I could not believe that it was finally done and ready to make the check socket!! And then I got into the plastics room and tried to put my mold on the vacuum, only to discover that my pipe was way too long. Huge bummer. The only upside to this was that I had to put it in this device and use a hack saw to cut a few inches off the pipe. I call this an upside because I have never really used a hack saw before and it was kind of cool! I felt very handy and kind of wanted to go cut more stuff! This being said, because of the cutting of the pipe, I was not able to get my plastic check socket pulled today. I put my leg back in the vacuum jig and set everything up and plan on getting to school half an hour early tomorrow so I can get it pulled before lecture starts in the morning. I want to be able to go into the afternoon with the plastic done so I can start modifying and trimming that down and attaching all of my parts. Waiting in line in the plastics room can take over an hour of your day and I do not want to spend most of my afternoon doing that.
All in all, I felt today was hugely successful. I am beyond proud of myself for getting down to business and pushing myself to really do these modifications all on my own. As I have mentioned numerous times, the thrill of making a leg has yet to wear off for me, but really putting all of the time and sole effort into this leg just makes it that much sweeter. I wanted to run a victory lap around the school building at the end of the day today!! I have yet to keep a socket or take home a leg when I am done with it (mainly because we have to tear it apart to put the components back at school), but I think this socket will be one that adorns my mantle for a while. Such a great reminder for me today...I CAN do this!!
Sidenote, this time change makes spending all day at school feel even longer...it is tough trying to stay motivated to work when it is dark outside!!
No comments:
Post a Comment