Catching up

****Disregard the date...I started this blog weeks ago and never posted until now 7-15-08****

This is the part where I usually start stammering out apologies for not blogging for a few weeks...but this time no apology. Since I last took the time to write and post some pics Emily and Himaya took a vacation. They went to Wyoming and Utah to visit both our families, and they had a fantastic time. Though I wish I could have gone, it actually worked out really well for me. When they left, I was about a week away from taking my finals for the summer term. Them not being here allowed me to study guilt-free. I didn't have to balance family time with studying, and I didn't have to feel bad for wanting to study (well... not wanting so much as needing). I feel like I did ok on my tests, and Em was able to see a lot of family and have a lot of fun.
Coming up to the end of the semester, we had the opportunity to take the socket from our prosthesis we had made for one of our patient's (see picture from last post), and use it to build a myoelectric prosthesis. To explain how it works (in case you are interested), there are electrodes in the socket that pick up action potential as it moves through the patient's muscles. Remember, they are below elbow amputees, so the muscle they are using no longer connects to their wrist or hand. The signal is picked up, and opens/closes the prosthetic hand. I was really happy with my end result, since it worked really well with my patient. So this is a short video of my patient opening and closing the hand as I ask her to. Sorry, but it was shot on my cell phone and it's not a great camera.
Finishing up upper extremity prosthetics, we had the opportunity to go to a facility in Fort Worth for 2 days to learn from upper extremity specialists. They were really knowledgeable, and gave me a lot to think about when it comes to deciding just what I want to do in the long run.
In the 2 1/2 weeks that Himaya was away, she changed a lot.... more than I would have thought possible. First off, she is bigger. We had an appointment Monday where we found out she is 13 lbs 3 oz. Second off, she now seems to want to play a lot. She used to hate laying on her stomach, but now she likes it. She will hold her self up with one hand and reach for/play with toys while on her tummy. She is REALLY vocal, and doesn't seem to cry as much as she did before. And another good thing is she stopped sticking her tongue out all the time. Yesterday she started to make this cute face (we call is her monkey-face) where she sucks in her bottom lip and opens her eyes really wide. I can't help but laugh every time she does it. It is really great having her and Emily home...I missed them a lot. Tomorrow we are going to the zoo, so hopefully we will have some good pics to post in a few days. Thanks for stopping by to see how things are with us.

Branch