There Michael and Holly, two volunteering clinicians, proceeded with his first prosthetic fitting ever. The fitting was certainly challenging, as many bilateral fittings are, but the short length of his remaining limbs didn’t give us much surface area to work with. After several adjustments, it was time to walk. He pulled himself up in the parallel bars and away he went. It only took 3 or 4 passes in the bars, and a few alignment tweaks, before he signaled that he wanted to walk outside the bars. For his own safety. we felt it was best to slow him down a bit at that point, but he would be back soon for physical therapy and gait training. Not a bad end to our first day! 
When our technicians returned on Wednesday, it was clean-up time! We all pulled together to straighten up the exam and fabrication areas. This may surprise my wife because she would be the first to tell you that I HATE to clean! But, it was certainly rewarding to get rid of the clutter and have a nice, well-organized shop to work in. Then, back to inventory. Thankfully, it was cut short again by a couple more first-time patients. Holly took charge on the fitting of our first above-knee delivery, and Michael headed towards the first casting. I bounced back and forth between the two to help wherever I could. Since I have been here before, and will be here for 3 months, I wanted Michael and Holly to experience as much as they could, other than inventory.
The casting also provided another welcome experience – cast, modify, fabricate, and fit a patient from start to finish. One of the best memories I have from my rotation last September was being able to fit a patient that I had casted during the first week. You see, the typical routine is that you either fit a prosthesis that a previous rotating practitioner casted, or you cast a patient that the next group will fit for you. So the opportunity to start and finish a patient fitting is an exciting one. But the prospect brought back memories of Kensyon, the only patient I cast and fit, during my first rotation, and I wondered how he is dong. He had an amazing story surrounding his amputation. I learned that he underwent not just one, but two amputations, both of which were caused by Tap-Tap accidents. The result of the first accident was that he lost his leg below-the-knee. The second led to a revision above-the-knee. He did amazingly well and took only one step with a crutch before he handed it back to me and said he wanted to do it by himself. Sorry for the flashback, but it is amazing how vivid the memories of this place are once you leave. I have a picture of Kensyon hanging in my office in the U.S. and I will never forget him. I hope he is doing well.
Thursday and Friday rounded out the week with a few more patients. The cause for a joyous celebration was that the inventory was finally complete! We also got word that there were four new castings scheduled for Saturday. Unfortunately, when Saturday came, the patients didn’t. A car issue prevented them from making the trip, but they are supposed to come sometime next week. We look forward to their arrival. Fingers crossed that next week provides us with the opportunity to help as many people as we can.
