A Quick Fix

Okay, I have a confession to make - the hours of the Orthotics program at school are much less than they were in Prosthetics...logically, you would think that this means I would have much more time to blog - except I seem to just get wrapped up in doing more of nothing when I have nothing to do.  So, I am obviously behind and we have moved on past the upper limb orthotics, but I am going to continue to update in the order of our projects thus far in the semester.

Last post was working on my specific diagnosis of making a brace for a classmate who had "severed his tendon of the flexor digitorum superficialis."  I got pretty far in making the brace the first day so all I had to do was smooth up the trimlines and attach the straps.  I am happy (and very proud) to report that I sewed my straps with very little stress.  They do not look perfect, but they are much improved!!  The projects we are doing right now are basically for knowledge of how to do something, not necessarily to create a perfect final project.  We are riveting a lot of things on just for quickness of completion - not the way it would be done in practice.

After sewing the straps and riveting them on the brace, the project was complete!  I fit it on my patient and it kept his hand and wrist in a neutral position, doing its job in keeping the tendon from being able to move, therefore giving it time to heal.

Not much to look at, but it was a pretty simple diagnosis and that makes for a pretty simple and straightforward brace.  We had a couple of hours to finish up our projects in the morning and then went straight into critique in the afternoon.  My critique went well and I was happy and relieved to know that I had created an appropriate brace for the diagnosis I was given.  I love the "real life" aspect of being given a diagnosis and no solution and no direction for a brace and being able to use what I have learned and research in order to create what I think is the right thing.  It is a great learning experience and makes school feel so much more applicable.

Here I am modeling the brace that was made for me by a classmate.  The diagnosis going with my brace was ulnar nerve palsy - meaning the nerve that runs down the side where the pinky finger is affected in some way.  This causes the hand to form a "claw" and affects your ability to perform small hand motor function movements.  The brace that my partner made for me kept the hand in the claw position in order to accommodate for the ulnar nerve being affected and potentially painful, but left the thumb and ring finger and pinky finger free in order to allow some movement and some function of the hand.

We have one more upper extremity project and apparently it is the worst one ever!  We are going to be making a wrist driven device - it is a big metal contraption that apparently is never used anymore in practice.  My professor who is in his 60s said that during his 30 year career he only made one.  We were told we will be making them as sort of a 'rite of passage' into the world of orthotics.  I, personally, would not be offended to not make that journey, but it looks like my grade depends on it.  Next up, more metal bending and and ancient wrist hand orthoses :)