Put Up or Shut Up

Why do people have to be difficult? I was having a relatively nice day. I treated a couple of patients yesterday morning and then was on splints in the afternoon with Dave. They want us to try making a long arm splint so, when the next one came over, it was mine. This isn't a splint we commonly make. I actually make more of them at Scottish Rite with our arthrogryposis patients than I do here. They are also a lot easier on kids. With adults, there is so much material you have to work with, it becomes quite a mess. Well, yesterday afternoon we had a patient who needed a long arm splint, so Dave let me work on this splint. All by myself. In fact, he was halfway across the room when I made it. Scary! It also didn't help that the patient was rather difficult. Not the worst, but she could have been a little more helpful. Her first question to me was "do you need my hand for this?". Um, no ma'am I can just imagine how your arm will fit in this splint and make it. YES, I need you here for this! She then kept asking me when I would be finished. And while I know I am slower than the CHT's, it is a labor intensive splint and takes some time. Well, it was looking good on her arm, except it wasn't long enough on her humerus. But, Dave came in to save the day and we added a piece to the back. Not the prettiest splint, but it got that lady on her way. Hopefully I will get another chance to make one and it won't be a disaster.

I was a little drained after that one. The next splint I made was for a guy who amputated the tip of his finger. It was an easy cap splint made of Aquaplast. Easy peasy! But then the absolute worst. I had to make a thumb spica for a patient that was not going to be happy no matter what. And she wasn't. Luckily Dave was there and could intercede. I was so frustrated with this woman and I was doing exactly what the doctor ordered but she just wasn't having it. I probably spent over and hour trying to make this lady happy. Finally I let Dave finish it. I had had enough!

To top it all off, Wednesdays are our long days. We actually were finished by 8:00 and got to practice the splint we are teaching tomorrow. We had a kid come over who was born with a diagnosis that I commonly see at TSRH. It was fun to work with him. He just needed a thumb spica though. The only difference with here and TSRH is that if he were at TSRH, I would have put him in a neoprene (soft) splint. But it was good practice to make this splint on him.

The splint of the day was the Sugartong. It is quite an ugly spint but one that we will be making a lot of for one specific doctor. This is my rendition. It was made on Dave, but I had to use Jason to model it.







Dave then made this hand based radial gutter on a patient and they were nice enough to get a picture for me. This is a fun one to make, but can be challenging too.





Tomorrow is our thrid class to teach and we are making the hand based thumb spica. Hopefully it won't be too bad and they will do as well as they did last week. We are also going ice skating tomorrow. There is an outdoor skating rink down by the Delaware River. It's going to be so cold, but I can't wait!