Serenity

It's been a funny couple of weeks with uni starting back up, suddenly my socket not fitting again, a clamp cracking on my activity blade and the last couple of days back training on my walking foot that I started on.

The first week at uni was very short and a little annoying as it was really just an introduction to the course which if like myself and allot of the other students who did foundation we went over it all lastyear. The second week was the start of the actual lessons but I missed two due to one scheduled appointment and one for the cracked clamp in my blade which is now in the workshop waiting for the new part to come in. Hopefully will get it back Monday, please!!!! The lessons I did do though I found very interesting and more motivating than the ones I had in foundation.

Training on the walking leg again has highlighted just how amazing the elite blade is at taking the vibration out of the impact in both walking and running. I have only done a gentle 4 mile run at just over 8 min miles which felt okay but a little jarring. After my swim this morning I decided to do a short session on the treadmill to try and soften the impact, it didn't really help that much.

The two prosthesis I have is an esprit walking foot and an endolite elite blade.

Going back to the esprit has highlighted the big differences for me and might help other people. The only flex in the esprit is in the foot unit where as with the elite blade has the flex from the foot and also flex from the blade, it is only slight but makes a huge difference in cadence and on how hard and fast you can strike the ground with the forefoot. That is another big difference, the esprit is designed to take impact through the heal as you walk and with running you shouldn't strike through the heal, apart from going down hill! You can run on a walking foot but very carefully, if you are running allot push for an activity leg or a blade it will I think save wear on the joints in the long term.

My first appointment this week was to take another socket casting as my stump has shrunk again and is not fitting properly causing more cuts behind the knee. I go back Monday to try on the first fit socket then the following week will have the new socket hopefully:) I have also had some good news, Christina my prosthesitist and also Alan the tech guy from Blatchfords said they have the new trial endolite C running blade being made for me. I should get it in about a month so that should be quit interesting and am very excited about it as will be able to get used to it over the winter and give them feedback on what I think of it!

Serenity - I'm not very patient any more but try to go with things, pick your battles and be content with your efforts if you have done all you can, that is all you can ask of yourself. Don't wind yourself up with things you can't change and try and learn and adapt along the way. To me serenity is just being content, sometimes things go well sometimes not so much but just accept and move on:)