Wednesday, July 6, 2011

días cuatro, cinco y seis

I think the title says days four, five and six, but Google translate hasn't always pulled through for me.

Day five we found a church and had an easy day of resting and relaxing planned. This was lucky for me, and a few others, because we got sick:( We have decided that it was a bacteria or a parasite.

Days five and six I was feeling better and was able to work on the legs. It was a busy two days to get those things finished. The process was simple enough, but we all wanted each prosthetic to be perfect. Each mold was filled with plaster and sanded to the exact dimensions of the patient's stub. Certain areas required building up and reshaping to give more comfort. After this was finished, plastic was heated and basically shrunk over the mold. Next we chipped away the plaster from the inside and cut the plastic to size for the opening. We sanded them and made them as close to perfect as they come. The foot part was a process, because the have very thin PVC pipe in Guatemala. We cut, heated, re-cut, glued, sanded, measured, and painted the PVC. The assembly took place the next day when the patients came back. To be honest, some of the painting didn't happen until the morning of the fittings because we were running so far behind. These were the most stressful days for me. I felt like I had a lot of responsibility to the amputees to do a really good job. I was horrified that I would make a mistake. Many times Lucky, Eddie's sister, asked me, "What did you just do?" and had to fix my work. I was happy that she was there to do that.

I was very glad when day six was over. It felt like the longest day, and it didn't help that many of us were sick. The work, however, really paid off on day seven!



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