Summertime and the Weather is Fine

Hello everyone,

Summer employment has started for almost all of us, with classmates scattered from Vancouver to Winnipeg and even Thailand. Myself, I am at Award Prosthetics in Burnaby. Over the past two weeks I have seen some interesting patients that aren't exactly textbook, including one quad amputee. I thought I had learned so much over the past school year, but seeing some of the challenging cases that can walk through the door, I know so little in all reality.

And you know summer is here when the Stanley Cup Playoffs end, unfortunately the wrong "ucks" team won the cup! Enjoy the rest of the summer while you can, it seems to be flying by.

Thailand 1st post

Our first full day was great! It sure is stinking hot here though! No complaining…reminds me of the mugginess and humidity of Toronto’s summers.
We enjoyed the colours, sights, foods, entertainment and shopping of Bangkok on our first full day.
We visited their ‘bling-bling’ malls but also some of their ‘back alleys’ where we found authentic, cheap, and delicious Thai food. No regrets, we rode the bus, we walked, we took a tuk-tuk, watched the scooters, and stared at the Lamborghini and Ferraris.
Our two meals perhaps cost us a total of $4 CAD. Not back eh? And we’re not even sick!
For some reason Pirates of the Caribbean 3 was better here than at home…maybe that’s because we had full-on recliners and AC blasting us. We also fulfilled out civic/tourist duty of the day by standing for the Thai anthem before the movie and respectfully acknowledging the King.
Duane and Jessica basically planned our day and Reg lead us around. I sat back and took photos, ate and bought expensive electronics. So we did a lot of walking, saw many things including disabled beggars. I believe I saw one bk and two above elbow amputees as well as a boy with spina bifida.
Okay, more to come soon. If anyone knows how to post video do you wanna help me out. The blog instructions are all in Thai… cheers, Jody and Duane

A year past..

Its amazing to think that 9 months ago we not only had never heard of subtalar neutral but we had also never met the twelve people who we have now become so close. Packing up my first year notes reminded me of all we've learnt...transtibial sockets, sach feet, empathy, what not to wear in the emergency room, forces at the hip and so much more (literally a stack close to a meter tall). We are officially done our first year, our work terms have now finished and we're all about to start summer work. Our work terms proved to be an awesome experience that allowed us to finally put all that final exam knowledge to use. Almost everyone have set up jobs in the field for the summer all across the country (Vancouver, Red Deer, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg) and even elsewhere in the world (we'll hopefully hear more of this in future posts). Now that our small group of twelve is spread across the world for the summer we won't be reuniting until ISPO in Vancouver (July 29th to August 3rd). Almost all of us will be volunteering and attending the conference which we all look forward to, especially after all we learnt in San Fran at the American academy meeting. So until then...

Practicum Project

I'm at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton for my Practicum. Our class is in the Third week of Practicum #1, we somehow managed to have 6 doing Prosthetics and 6 doing Orthotics. Good Balance in the Class. Everyone sounds like they are having great experiences and can't wait to show off all we've done!

Cheap Swim Fins! If you can't buy an Activity Leg it is Important to work with your Prosthetist to Figure out how to make things happen. Prosthetists at the Glenrose helped me figure out this Swim Fin.

1 down, 1 to go

We made it! Exams are now finished, and we've now moved onto our 3 week practicum. After putting in many hours, late nights and early mornings we completed our 7 exams, 6 of which were within 3 days. The hardest part was not being able to watch the playoffs, however it seems the Canucks played better when we weren't watching. It was a very strange feeling saying goodbye to the class. You don't realize how close you become until you start saying goodbye to everyone. Most of us will be returning for ISPO in August and will have a chance to reunite and hear about all we've learned over the summer, and have some fun on the side. So far the work term has been very interesting, and have even had the opportunity to see the makings of a wooden transfemoral socket.

All in all, it's been a great year and it's nice to be able to enjoy the nice weather and fresh air once again

Playoff Tension

With the Oilers out of it this year there's not much of a reason to follow hockey anymore (there's a slight chance I'm the only one with this opinion)... so our attention was turned to the Intramural Volleyball Playoffs on Thursday. After a great start in the first set we battled through another two but weren't able to pull out the win. On the upside, if there was an award for the tallest and shortest player on a team we'd easily win both!

We've finally made it to the end of the year and seem to have gotten through the last of the big assignments, but there's still a few grueling days of "P&O Playoffs" to get through with 7 exams in 4 days....the playoff beards are already making an appearance! The final few days of class will be spent on the last of the patient castings and fittings for foot orthoses, and a whole lot of studying. So far the foot orthoses fittings have been going great and we've been tying in lots of new knowledge about the foot with our regional anatomy course. Next week should be interesting with our first fitting of a UCBL foot orthosis and a few other unique designs.

There may not be a good team to cheer for in the hockey playoffs this year, but there's still some bragging rights up for grabs as we head off to our placements and the start of summer. Two games into the P&O sportsnet hockey pool and there's already a 13pt gap between first and last (this is where you end up when you pick Flames players). Well, time to get back to the books. Keep an eye out for the 2007/2008 P&O Volleyball team, we're making a big comeback....Petra has promised a 4ft vertical by September!

severe cerebral stress

Well, we knew it was coming, but perhaps we didn't know it would be this intense. I'm talking about the onslaught of assignments and tests that we have been bombarded with since spring break and the AAOP conference week in San Francisco. We have truly been testing the limits of what our minds can absorb in the way of new knowledge. Since returning from San Francisco we have done pathology presentations, wrote yet another eye popping anatomy exam (nervous system - some of us more nervous than others), began fabricating our first ever Foot Orthoses for each other, and -everybody's favorite- caught up on some missed Materials classtime! Needless to say, we are being stretched. Yet, if we dare to acknowledge the fact, it is a good thing. As usual we are learning tons of new things.

Though we have only been back in class for two weeks since our big break, believe me, we are desperate for a break. So thank God for Easter!! After the long weekend we'll be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel..... and hopefully avoid this....