Gone are the days where one would need a million dollar gait lab to digitally analyze the ambulation patterns of someone with limb loss. Enter, the iphone and all of it's glorious aps. I use Coach's Eye on my phone, but I can also recommend Hudl, Dartfish, PhysioU, etc. Take a peek at all of these aps to determine the one which you can navigate the easiest, and USE IT! All of these aps offer side by side video analysis, slow motion, frame by frame analysis with drawing to

Blisters!! No one has time for those! Blisters occur on the residual limb for a multitude of reasons. They can occur from a poorly fitting socket, not managing sweat well, increased time in the socket and/or abrasions of the residual limb when not wearing the socket. Regardless, they require a patient to slow down and address the problem. For a physical therapist, it can limit the progress of your therapeutic sessions with the patient. If you have been following the blo

Finally!!! I was lucky enough to have crossed paths with the primary investigator in the article listed below. Angie Diebal is an amazing physical therapist that has focused the majority of her career on teaching proper running form to prevent injury/injury. To say this girl is passionate is an understatement. She has an impressive Army physical therapy career and I was fortunate enough to chat with her about prosthetic running when I worked at the CFI and she was working

Great news!  Thanks to the diligent work of the brilliant Jess Wise, we are finally published!  The most recent issue of Advances in Wound Care has published the article, in which I had a small part, which is titled "A Unique Application of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Used to Facilitate Patient Engagement in the Amputation Recovery Process." I'll include the link for you to read the entire article, but as a form of brief summary, this article describes a technique for wou

Simply put, today was amazing!  The hard working clinicians and patients gathered at the track to share one lap together to celebrate the success of the week. Finish line smiles are my favorite!  They are the reason I do what I do!  I was blessed to meet some outstanding clinicians and watch extremely motivated patients this week.  A day we all won't soon forget! When running a few days ago, Vlad told me, in broken English, that he needed "stimulation" to keep running. I aske

The treads have been glued to the bottom of the running blades, stand up volleyball was attempted, alignments were corrected, cardiovascular systems were tested. A busy day for all with finishing touches before tomorrow's "victory lap" at the stadium!  One patient told me he needed "stimulation" to run. Stay tuned for tomorrow's "victory lap" and learn about stimulation to run!  So exciting!!!

We started our morning at the track today! Almost everyone was smiling! :-) While we wait for the finalized legs, it is GREAT to train with their everyday legs! The patients then headed to the store to select shirts to use as designs on their prosthetic limbs. Dry fit shirts make great designs to cover the carbon fiber sockets. We should see the finished products tomorrow! While they were shopping, the therapists met to discuss more prosthetic rehabilitation ideas. It was g

The test sockets are all complete and headed to the prosthetics department to make them definitive sockets!  Lesson of the day today, spend some time in your sockets before modifying for small aches and pains. Running is definitely different from walking so the running socket can feel MUCH different when you are walking as compared to when you are running. Also, remember that limbs change shape FAST when they start to sweat and running for the first time in years will certain