First Day at NMCSD

My first day went fine - I jumped through all the hoops to get on base, cleared through security, briefed on regulations, and photo-badged, all on time.

In Casualty Care PT, I saw several young men with unilateral and bilateral amputations.  In most cases, there is major involvement of both limbs due to the mechanism of injury.  The first person I saw was injured at the end of April in Afghanistan by an IED, resulting in bilateral trans-tibial amputations - unfortunately, a seemingly classic scenario.  He was a very nice guy.  I started by asking him about his workout (he was doing mat exercises on his own) and he just started talking - he has 3 sons, he can't wait to see them, as he hasn't since he deployed in February, and the military is working on getting his family transferred out here.  He was at Walter Reed earlier and was treated like royalty - lots of celebrity visits (military bigwigs, including General McChrystal, visited him).  His wife is with him, and he's pretty independent with a wheelchair, but is just getting started with his prostheses.  I hope to see him each day.

There's lots of new, computerized equipment that I've never seen before, and I got to observe a gait evaluation in the Gait Lab.  There are 12 cameras mounted around the ceiling perimeter of a large room, in which the volume has been calibrated.  Small reflective balls are placed over all the significant joints of the person, just like the motion capture technique you've probably seen on TV.  There are force plates in the floor that capture step forces.  The images are converted to a complex stick figure and graphs to analyze different motions.  Very cool.  Plus, this particular individual, a young woman who is a dependent of a military member (hence able to be seen at this facility) with a congenital deformity and a new prosthesis, had her 8-month-old baby girl with her who needed feeding, and guess who had open arms?  Yay, baby fix!

I'm pretty independent - there is no hand-holding or leading me around, but they welcome me to observe and ask questions.  It will be up to me to seek out opportunities, so I have to be bold and speak up!