Beginning the 4th and final semester

I have finished week 3 of our final 15-week semester. So far I'm grateful that this this semester has not involved as much work as previous semesters. We are spending more time on campus with two full days (9-5) of class each week. One of my classes involves learning to make orthotics, more commonly known as splints. Over three weeks we will have 21 hours of practice making different kinds of splints for the hand and wrist. We are using different kinds of thermal plastics. These plastics need to be heated in water and can be molded to fit the person while still warm. Some of these have memory which means you can fix all kinds of mistakes by putting it back in the water where it goes back to its original shape. It's a little harder when it sticks to itself before you are ready for it to.

The first orthotic we made was for the wrist and would take a therapist about 15 minutes to make for a client. We were given an hour. You would think that would give a person plenty of time. In reality I had to hustle to finish on time. The process involves making a pattern, transferring it to the thermal plastic, heating it enough to make it easier to cut, heating it the rest of the way and molding it onto the clients wrist and hand while keeping the wrist angle right. Once that is done we get to smooth the edges, make sure there are no pressure points anywhere and then add the Velcro to hold it in place. One of these three strips had to be attached by a rivet. After being warned to double check we have the Velcro on right before pounding in the rivet, I made that mistake and found out how hard it is to get a rivet out. Mine ended up having 2 rivets to make it work. Other than that, it turned out pretty good for my first attempt. I did miss one of the pressure points and could have used more time to work on smoothing edges. Next week I'll get the opportunity to make it again and this time it will be graded.