Cosi Talks with Special Guest Sydney marshburn & Bill Allen, CP – Learn how a strong amputee-practitioner relationship empowers resilience and well-being

live I’ve got some special guests in the studio with me tonight I have above me Bill Allen and over on other side is

Sydney marshburn this show tonight is sponsored by click medical so I want to say it first of all big thank you to

click medical for their continued support last year and this year and hopefully some more in the future as

well for those of you watching the replay I love how you guys ask your

questions leave me your comments and even if you just put replay in the comments section I do go back after the

show is over to check to see if there’s any questions that I can pick up for you guys or any comments that you guys want to make so we’re going to give you guys

a couple minutes to jump on board we have a really wonderful show tonight and I’ve already had just a really great

response from many of you from just some of the social media postings that I’ve had leading up to this show so uh Sydney have you been you you had a

busy you’ve had a busy couple of weeks I have yeah so I actually got back from

Orlando I met you and it was super fun yeah the amputee Coalition Conference

and yeah that was so great Coalition so really cool to not only be

there as an exhibitor and as a speaker so as just an attendee who was

experiencing it all for the first time and I got bad and I was diagnosed with covid

and this morning was the first day I tested negative so

fingers crossed we’re on the right path well I I really really really appreciate

you and I know Bill you were feeling under the weather as well so I appreciate both of you coming to the show tonight because I know right about

this time because I know it’s my bedtime normally so I appreciate you all being here um despite not feeling well so thank you

thank you again um folks we got some folks popping on board we’ve got Emily from Central PA we’ve got Mike from New York we’ve got

Scott there from West Virginia Scott just to let you know I’m still doing some research on the prosthetic foot

question that you asked me I have not forgotten about you uh we’ve got Jesse from Wisconsin we got Jamie from click

Medical in the house right there we got Richard from Arkansas we got a nice little crew here tonight we got Tom there’s my Canuck right there uh bill

can you see the little ticker tape on the right side of your screen with all the comments yeah I can’t I’m fixated on it right now okay yeah I was gonna say I

have a wonderfully interactive an engaging audience so we’re gonna call it the New York Times you know Stock

Exchange ticker tape that goes down there with all the questions we’ve got Tammy from Virginia Louise Lulu from

Boston Massachusetts and your first time come on coming on board well I appreciate you coming on board uh so and

guys just so you remind her I am broadcasting from both my YouTube and to my Facebook channels because I know some

folks sometimes have a hard time finding me on Facebook all right we’ve got oh so Emily has got

her VB strawberry kiwi sparkling energy drink tonight guys cheers to everybody

I hope you guys brought something to drink I’ve got my click medical Yeti mug Bill we got to get you one of those man

so you can be one of the cool kids this is going to be our giveaway tonight and you know I love my Yeti mugs with my

decaf coffee Sydney what are you drinking

you’ve been under the weather so you’re allowed to bring water onto the show tonight hey Jim all right guys we have

got a really nice crew on board so we’re going to go ahead and get started for those of you joining us the first time welcome my name ISO I’m a physical

therapist amputee specialist here in Tampa Florida with me tonight I have the

amazing Sydney marshburn who is no stranger this is now her second time on the show and I have her prosthetist bill

Allen from agile Orthopedics over in Colorado yes I got it right yes

wonderful so guys tonight uh we have a really special show you know one of the

big soap boxes that I have on this show the past five years I’ve been broadcasting uh I talk about the

relationship between practitioner and patient whether it’s your prosthetist or your physical therapist and how

important it is to have a good relationship with your clinician and I know many times over the years many of

you have emailed me um problems that you were having either with communication or you felt like your your care was not

going in the direction they needed to go go to um and you weren’t sure how to handle it

um and interestingly on on social media this this was it yesterday yesterday I think I posted how many of you like your

clinician whether it’s your prosthetist or your physical therapist and out of all the different polls that I took

about 75 of you are very happy with your clinicians which made me very happy too right but 25 of you said yeah things are

not going great and we just aren’t sure what to do so tonight we’re going to be talking a lot about that yes Yes sounds

good okay we’ve got a lot of people coming on board here I love this hey there Clarence and we’ve got Kays so

guys before we get started we have had giveaways because you know I love my giveaways So Jamie is going to post a

link to the click medical quiz right so as you guys know click medical are the

makers of the revofit adjustable system this is one of my favorite adjustable socket Technologies out there on the

market right so when Jamie posts that link if you can do a right click take

that quiz before the end of the show you can get a raffle entry into the giveaway and even if you’ve already taken the

quiz go ahead and take it again because they changed a few things on there yes all right let’s get started on the good

stuff so Bill I’ve done a lot of talking I want you to do some talking and tell us a little bit about yourself

um well I’ve actually worked in I had my first Healthcare job in 1989 so

it’s it’s been a long time working in healthcare I started as a physical therapist assistant working for NovaCare

working in skilled nursing facilities and uh so that was an associate’s degree

that I had and a few years later I finished my my bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology

and did a few things in in that field um I’ve worked in corporate Wellness

personal training uh just teaching health and fitness classes

and then I ended up getting back into the the PT Arena

yeah did that for a few years and um then just I decided I wanted to go

back to school and I was planning on getting my my doctorate in physical therapy

and then I discovered Prosthetics um there was a physician a physiatrist

actually a rehab doctor that had moved his practice into our building he was a amputee

um specialist his his practice was focused on it was actually amputee Services of America

and so he started doing in-services with us just to teach us about amputee rehab

and then he started sending us his patients and I I just really enjoyed working with

the amputees and after I started doing that I didn’t really want to do anything else

so you’re a royal underachiever there you know first a physical therapist and then eventually

yeah so yeah um so I yeah did that for a little bit

and you know started looking into volunteering looking into schools started applying to schools and

um I got into Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2004 and

20 years later almost here I am as a prosthetist yeah so I I gotta ask because you know I

think to myself I’m like well if I knew then what I know now right would have been able to do study both both

professions um how do you feel that your background as a physical therapist has helped you

now as a prosthetist um you know I I know that I have a

little different approach then then my peers and a lot of it speak from you

know when I was working with the amputees in the PT setting sometimes the prosthetist was there with

me to make you know when you’re progress progressing patients you need adjustments you know as somebody gets

used to a prosthesis they get more confident start walking a little bit more aggressively shifting

in their weight a little bit more usually you have to accommodate that with adjustments and a lot of times the prosthetist

wasn’t there and so we had to kind of work things out you know by you know

engaging different muscles a little bit more disengaging other muscles and just just trying to to problem solve

work work through things without adjustments and and so now is a a prosthetist

when I’m encountering the same things rather than being quick to make adjustments I usually try to get

patients to kind of work things out first um you know if if they’re

walking and they’re little unstable moving a little too far side to side rather than outsetting their knee or their foot I

would rather see if they can engage their hip abductors a little bit more so I don’t I guess I I always tell patients

I don’t really like to accommodate weaknesses there’s really no benefit to that to doing that long term they’re

just gonna continue to be weak so so I like to push that as far as I

can and I’m a little stubborn that way um and you know eventually I’ll compromise

um but yeah I just don’t in general don’t like to accommodate weaknesses I like to do other things first so I think

that’s that’s a little different approach than than most people I think no and that’s absolutely a wonderful

approach I actually love that about which um I’ve also talked on the show how sometimes a physical therapist will look

at a patient one way and the prosthetist will look at the patient the other way and one of the biggest challenges is

figuring out what’s coming from where is the gay deviation coming from a weakness

a lack of range of motion a lack of balance bad habits or is there actually a true alignment issue or issue coming

from the prosthesis right um and yeah sometimes I’ve been uh especially when I work with some of the younger

prosthetists I’m usually the one kind of holding their hand just a moment saying wait let me just see if I can work it out let me see if I can work it out

before cranking on them let’s see if we can work it out and see if it’s coming from them and something that we can correct that’s right so you know props

to you I absolutely love that approach we have got a lot of comments coming in here so let me just see if I can pick up

a few of the hellos that we’re getting in here good to see you man uh Emily says that

her podiatrist is also an amputee specialist um Let’s see we got commodity here as well

Tammy says oh the video cut off hopefully it’s back Tammy uh let’s see Emily says there were some transparency

issues with my first process and my new one has more experience in the lab for the prosthesis is on scene it wasn’t at the other location hey Jamie glad you

could join us uh Elaine says I can certainly see how those two professions can complement each other yes Elaine

when it comes to uh the recovery from amputation limb loss um process and PTs go together like

peanut butter and jelly uh prosperous build the car PT’s teach us teach them how to drive the car so that’s kind of

one of my favorite analogies um so Sydney it’s your turn now we want to hear about you so you told us your

beautiful and amazing story a couple of months ago but a lot of folks new folks here this evening and the folks who have already heard it might need a refresher

so tell us a little bit about yourself yeah so like because he said my name is

Sydney and I’m a left above knee amputee and on the 25th it will be two years

post-op so wow demonstrate that yeah very fun

um so I grew up as an athlete

I was gonna go to college for swims a butterfly right well a lot of my eggs

and and then I got sick and I was diagnosed with ehlers and low syndrome

which do disorder and you know it was something that I was diagnosed with my senior year in high

school but I had probable life my dad’s in the Navy so we move around every two

years and we were never in a place long enough to say well this is all connected

somehow um and all of your issues are have an underlying theme right it was just they

would treat the specific symptom but no one would put the puzzle pieces together so when a senior in high school I was

diagnosed with ehlers-danlos syndrome and spondylolisthesis because the

spondylolisthesis would go from a grade 2 to a grade four

so so I’m going to pause for a moment so need to apologize for interrupting but there’s some folks who may not know what Eller downloads is can you give an

explanation to that please so um ehlers-danlos syndrome is a connective tissue disorder that’s caused

by a defect in collagen so how I like to explain it to people is

people with ehlers danlos are held together by Cheap uh chewing gum

essentially where everyone else is held together by Gorilla Glue right

so all if they dislocate they sublux like

it’s not fun but if you think about it College pretty much body system that you have so anywhere

there’s collagen you can have things affected so for me that was my organs

were having issues um my skull started detaching and I had

severe brain stem compression so 11 months before I lost my leg I actually had double fuse down to my C3

and that’s um that saved my life and then the amputation saved my life again

um and like in between that it was just inpatient surgery after inpatient surgery and I will always laugh because

the only surgery I’ve ever had on my left leg on my knee

um was the amputation that was it like I didn’t have any meniscus tears I didn’t have any anything like that it was just

that was the amputation but I had my spinal fusion after my senior year of

high school before I was going to college and this was a lumbar spinal fusion and you know the surgery did

whatever it was supposed to do um so nothing went wrong it was just how

my body reacted and it caused a rare complication in my left leg where it

would burn from the inside out and it would cause these infections that would last seven months at a time

so it was it was a really hard hard few years I had I was fused when I was 18

and I lost my leg when I was 22. the last set of infections started going septic and it became life-threatening so

it had to my leg had to go right then and there was excuse me for interrupting again was it CRPS the complex Regional

syndrome and and I mentioned that because I have ironically enough even though it’s not very common I have many

viewers um that have CRPS so I if they’re watching tonight I want them to know

that yes definitely

um so you had the amputation I did and again two years ago holy cow less than

two years ago actually and then what and then well okay so I like to be

independent and so I decided the next day I was gonna hop up and do things that I was supposed to you know I was

just gonna get back on my my foot and um it I ended up falling in the hospital

and had to have another emergency surgery so my residual limb was not

happy with me we did not have the best introduction um but you know ever since then I’ve

really I’ve relied on prosthetic care I’ve worked on

the the adaptations you have to make in order to live the life you wish

I recently moved to Denver Colorado for my job with the range of motion

project shout out to Outreach and

um yeah and that’s actually where I got um became my practitioner so this is all

still really new I’m here over Memorial Day weekend yes you you you haven’t stopped I mean

I’m listening to this and I’m just sitting there going You’re So Young you’ve already not only been so much accomplished so much and you keep going

going going so it’s true truly amazing um so how long have you been now with

Bill uh since uh early June probably okay

okay oh yeah so I I missed

um five weeks now yeah so it started off a little rough I had an injury

a bad injury and Then followed by a complex surgery so I was out for a bit

so she was very patient Excellence so here’s one of the

questions that I have so City your first prosthetist I understand you had a pretty good relationship with that prosthetist

um so moving how did you look for the new process especially when you had a good relationship with the previous one

and you’re sitting there probably going I don’t want to leave my old prosthetist how do I find that new one

right yeah and it was the first time I actually ever had to choose a prosthetist

so old prosthetic team bulo worked with my surgeon so I met them the day after

my my surgery they fitted right and I think at that time it took

so much stress off of you know now how do I do this you know I had so many

other things on my mind that I had to worry about that you know have had Choice almost made for me just for

sure they work with my surgeon was um

it came time for me to move from Tennessee to Colorado I started

Panic right like I never had to make this big of a decision before and there

were many sleepless nights I was anxious about it and I actually ending

Eric neufeld who is the head of advocate

um I met him in Nashville at the Academy meeting and

he told me hey this is where you’ll be working here you know prosthetists in

the area this is if you want to be an agile patient it

would make the most sense because we share an office space and you know it’s

a shop if I need adjustments I just go to work um which is pretty cool but I

yeah and then I actually into some uh some of some other patients that

oh definitely go to Bill like above me amputees are his art form right so

that’s I’ve heard that is Bill’s specialty and they’re like if we can wait to to see Bill like it will be

worth it it’s worth the wait oh definitely definitely

so I just want to answer this question uh Louise as asking what is r-a-k-a mean that stands for right above

knee amputee so Louise I know you’re kind of a first Lulu you’re a first Comer to the show so that we have a few

abbreviations that we’ll be using but don’t be shy about asking um so folks let’s do a quick cozy poll

how many of you okay with your first was your first prosthetist chosen for you by

your surgeon the way that Sydney’s was so I want to hear yes no me no not me

yes no just put it in the comment section how many of you had your course processes chosen for you by your surgeon

okay and then the follow-up question to that is how many of you knew that that wasn’t necessarily what you had to do

in Sydney’s case it came out

oh wow that got a lot of response real quick so what Wayne says me Racine says

me Drew says Nope Gene says me Megan says yes Starla no Louis Lulu says no

okay so for those of you who are kind of new to to being an amputee or maybe some

of you who are even uh approaching your first amputation just so you’re aware in

in Sydney’s case it worked out well that the the prosthetist that was recommended to her by her surgeon was a good

relationship from the first start um but just so you know you’re not required to take the prosthetist that

you are presented with at the hospital okay and this is sometimes where a lot of folks are confused and like Sydney said you’re just post-op you are just

trying to get your head on straight right after having this major surgery and trying to figure out what your life is okay so someone puts a clinician in

front of you and you want to be able to trust that first person okay but just so you know that’s not necessarily what has

to happen and oftentimes I recommend to folks especially if you know you’re going in for your amputation it’s okay

to interview your prosthetist before your amputation I’ve had some of you who did that right

so Bill have you had anybody before their amputation come and interview you as a prosthetist with all the other

amputation done I have yeah see a lot is that something that’s

common for you you know I when I when I own my own practice I

shared I actually shared an office with you know as I mentioned earlier the the physiatrist that had moved into our

building eventually I teamed up with him again we shared a space for a long time

and so when a patient would come in to see him they would eventually come to see me and

and interview me so that was pretty common in in that situation

um not so much anymore though just different different circumstances

and then how as a prosthetist from the prosthetist standpoint how do you feel about patients coming to interview you

from prior to their amputation um

I I mean I think it’s a good idea I think it’s great that they that they exercise that right to do that because

um as you were saying some people there they have somebody kind of

assigned to them in the hospital post amputation and they don’t know that they have a choice

and that’s something that I often remind people that especially when they’re not

um happy with what’s going on they they can do whatever they want to do they’re controlling

the situation and a lot of times they just don’t know that

and blessing City so guys this is what I want you to hear you know so from the clinician I know I say it all the time

that for me I’m not offended at all if someone comes to interview me just to see if they want to be my patient or not

right this is an investment uh in their time and sometimes in their finances and in their health right so you want to

make sure you have the right practitioner especially since the prosthetists and the physical therapist are theoretically going to be with you

the rest of your life right this is these are services that you’re going to need for the rest of your life okay uh

for let’s see uh Denise says my prosthetist was chosen by the surgeon was a great fit very fortunate Jim says

somewhat as they put a shrinker on me in the hospital and I stuck I didn’t know I had a choice right uh Denise also said

she had no idea Linda says yes and I’m still with mine um and Richard says Nope I pick my own

specialist and Drew says I’m on my fourth prosthetist right Jesse says that

yes but she didn’t know she had a choice okay so folks for those of you who have already been amputees for a little while

and you have this experience under your belt you know hopefully this is one of those Pearls of Wisdom that you impart

to people that you might be mentoring you know somewhat down the line in terms of the relationship with their

prosthetists and their physical therapist okay so guys we’re going to do another giveaway

okay so Jamie my girl Jamie is gonna post the Instagram handle

and also the Facebook page because I know some of you go you folks do not do

Instagram so we want to make sure we include everybody but we’re going to do the Instagram handle for click medical

and then the Facebook post okay when she posts those links right

click on the link and go to the Cozy post there’s a cozy post that they put out about me and I want you to say in

that post what is the most important thing to you when it comes to Partnerships with your provider whether

it’s your physical therapist your doctor or your prosthetist all right so I’m going to repeat that one more time right Sydney uh Jamie’s gonna post the links

healthy and she’s already posted the Facebook link and what I want you guys to do is go to

that post the Cozy talks post that they did there and tell me what’s the most important part

for you as far as your relationship with your practitioner so Lulu says I am stuck with mine and

now left I’m trying out a new one and she seems nice from Sydney when it comes to giving advice to amputees right and

even though you’re only two years out I know you’ve got a lot of experience under your belt right now what would you

tell folks that are not really happy with their practitioner right and are looking for a new prosthetist or

physical therapist what would you tell them to how to start looking

um like Facebook groups and support groups and reaching out actually who were like

what’s what’s the point right because obviously

practitioner is going to be the same um every person right everyone

experience

interview

and I think all right thank you [Music]

okay

is it working for you guys okay cool sorry uh but I would say using social media

utilizing the resources the tools getting out there and figuring out okay

well maybe this this process enough people have good good things to say to

them especially for myself and you know sometimes hopefully that’ll be the best

situation for you and you’ll be you know link up with that prosthetist and they will be your practitioner but you know

sometimes it’s not and I think signs you need to watch out for

um you need someone who listens to you right obviously

there’s gonna be some things that your prosthetist knows better than you because you know General

in the fields wanted it from a prosthetic kind of way but there are

times where you know they can make that experience like you know if you want to

say I want a click system on my real heard from people well my prosthetist is

super old he doesn’t want to put one on there or you know and it’s just the

lack of wanting to explain themselves explain their their way of thinking a

lot of people can come on my way or the highway and that can be both for patients and prosthetists right

like you know you’re one who can meet you at the middle even if there’s something

that you guys don’t agree on and you guys will want to to talk about that and for me that’s been

um something that I actively look forward to like in these kind of relationships

and I think the other thing would be um are they willing to accept feedback

right like for me I am a chronic people pleaser I am working on that like that

is something that’s really hard for me so of course I’m not gonna say anything when issues

like it has to be really bad before I say anything right and a couple weeks

ago I was in the office and he was saying is this action really how you use

this just what you think I want to hear and like that kind of that kind of stopped me in my tracks because I

just I have and then I realized well okay this this is a problem and

this needs to be fixed and that kind of thing and so if you have a prosthetist

who is more about you know either being their own ego or just you know saying

that they’re right all the time and you don’t know what you’re talking about that would be something I would actually

start looking for a different practitioner with so Bill on that note what are some red

flags that you’ve recognized among College I know I have red flags among my own colleagues um that you’ve recognize

that you’re just like yeah that’s that’s not good not a good fit and things that people should be on the lookout for

um um oh there’s an echo

um so I I actually met two new prospective patients yesterday that were

very good examples um of this um

and not being heard one of them uh had been complaining he had had a

prosthesis for about four years and for four years he’s been complaining about the height feeling like it like it was

off and causing back problems hip problems knee problems

and every time he would see his process no he would say no it’s fine it’s fine

and so for four years he’s had pain and four years in pain is an eternity

you know it’s and so I I literally

fixed you know assessed the situation determined that he was a half an inch

Too Short on his prosthesis and fix something in 10 minutes

for four years four years and

that’s not listening

and uh am I still echoing or am I okay oh good

um and then I saw another patient same day a little bit later um a guy who he was a new amputee and

just didn’t really know what’s normal what’s not normal and got his prosthesis and by the time

he got home he already had blisters from it and uh when I saw him yesterday he had

wounds all over his leg he had his lower leg was covered in Band-Aids

and his prosthetist told him that’s something he has to get used to is is

blood and and sores and to not go see him until

he’s up to 12 sock play so oh my word yeah it’s it’s pretty

disturbing that he just he doesn’t know any better but now he does you know I I

told him you need to go back it’s only been three weeks you need to go back and insist that he make adjustments and

yeah it’s and I don’t know that that’s that’s a case

where I would say well you maybe you not it has to come from the patient themselves but you need to find yourself

a new prosthetist honestly yeah you know and that’s not that’s not the first time I’ve heard that from a patient that that

they’ve been told that blood is normal um I’ve seen some gory gory things

in the last 15 years so yeah and guys for the record for the record getting blisters and getting open skin and

getting wounds and walking in those wounds and using your socket when you have big gaping wounds not normal not

normal and then like Bill I’ve had some folks who thought that that was okay and that that was to be expected

and it’s not so yeah which by the way guys if any of you

right now want to ask in the comments section hey is this normal hey is this normal Now’s the Time to ask these

questions and we’re happy to answer them um so how many of you here’s another cozy poll

um how many prosthetists have you all or physical therapists

because I got I gotta put my my PT colleagues there we got to throw those under the bus too it how many of you had

in your lifetime as an amputee go ahead and put that into the comments section I want to see some numbers there

uh Jesse says I want them to listen to me not put me down I always feel so abused when I leave a prosthetist office

guys that that’s not the feeling that you should have that’s not the thing I speak both from a practitioner standpoint and also from a personal

standpoint those of you some of you might know I have a history with cancer and as hard as that was whenever I left

my oncologist office I always felt encouraged I always felt uplifted and I

always felt supported and that was even in the thick of cancer when I might have been getting some really bad news or

really bad things going on that’s what you should be feeling from your clinicians even if you’re having a tough

time and guys even with the best of prosthetists you’re gonna have setbacks you’re gonna have obstacles people are

gonna be scratching their heads going all right what do we do now how do we fix this but you should never feel never

leave the office feeling abused or feeling dejected or somehow you know spoken down to doctor prosthetist

physical therapist uh let’s see we’ve got Louise saying starting on myself Lulu saying starting on my second

Rudy says I’ve had four prosthetists and one physical therapist okay

and guys from the physical therapy standpoint same thing if your physical therapist is putting you on a hot pack

and then on a bicycle for 10 minutes and calling that treatment that’s not treatment okay so if you feel like with

your physical therapist things are not progressing your needs are not being met maybe the physical therapist is not

doing their homework and learning what they need to learn about your prosthesis so they can help you

it all applies to them as well we’ve got a lot of comments here okay Lulu says I

can’t count how many pts okay so Bill let’s talk about that first

visit with patients what information do you like patients to bring to you in

their first visit with you yeah I think you know it depends on if they’re a long-standing patient or a new

patient okay and you know if it’s if it’s somebody who’s been an amputee for a long time I

really want to know their history what I don’t want to go through this process of

um of uh making mistakes that they’ve you know

the patient’s already been through if they’ve already tried something and it didn’t work I want to know their history

what they’ve had good experiences with what they’ve had bad experiences with and um not not repeat mistakes just because

I think I know better um so I value just you know a really

good historical account of what they’ve experienced good and good and bad

um a new patient um I don’t know that they really need anything

other than you know what what’s what their life was like prior to

amputation what their lives now and where they want to where they’re heading where that what their their goals are ambitions

um yeah and I’m gonna I’m gonna go back to a statement and Sydney I’m gonna botch up how you worded this because but you said

it so beautifully that after amputation you were ready to get back to living and just the way you your approach on how to

get back to life and I thought you worded that just so beautifully and and folks that’s what you need to bring also

to your prosthetists and to your physical therapist um I know that I like to know what it is that my patients want to be able to do

with their prosthesis like what it is that they want to get back to what do their lives look like what did it like

they’ll said what did their lives look like before amputation and what do they hope that they will look like after

amputation um Sydney what are the things can you think about that folks should be

communicating um to their prosthetist or physical therapist yeah

um I would say definitely if you have any kind of issue

whatsoever document take bleed take pictures you know write

it down go through this is what is what I felt this is what

was happening and you know if you want to shower them with some good news like don’t just

you know to take note of the negative well this is working this could be better this is what’s going on today

it’s all about like your prosthetist is not the one who’s going to be wearing your leg

so at the end of the day you need to be really honest with yourself and with

your prosthetists on hey I like this this maybe needs an adjustment

nothing that’s what my my two senses

no and the two cents it’s actually worth a little more but we’re gonna bump it up to five cents with that one and so I

just wanted to announce our one of our giveaway winners this evening so Scott congratulations you’re the winner for

the Instagram and Facebook giveaway um but I do want to read out one of the comments that one of you posted because

it was just such a lovely comment sorry I’m pulling it up right now uh Denise answered that the most important thing

about the relationship with the prosthetist is their ability to listen to my concerns but also I must be able

to tell them the truth if something is not working if it’s echoing what Sydney just said so guys thank you for posting

that um we’re gonna put up our last giveaway for this evening so I just want to make sure we get all these giveaways in

because these Yeti mugs are really really nice um so Jamie is going to put up

the link for the click medical Mentor page okay so these are mentors chosen by

click medical two amazing amazing people um that basically if you have any

questions about click medical about the revo fit about the revo lock about their new click reel

um these are folks that can kind of help you through the process because they’ve been there tested that and they got the T-shirt so Jamie’s gonna put that link

up for us and I want you guys to tell me the name of one of those mentors there’s

two of them all right she’s gonna put it up there all right so

this is we we’ve given you some some tips and pointers on how to approach things when things are not growing great

with your prosthetist but now we need to hear it from the process standpoint so Bill when things are not going the

way they that you had hoped for um during a patient’s plan of care I know I’ve had lots of those moments with

my own patience how do you approach that with your patient how do you approach it when you see that your patient is getting

frustrated um you know I think the important thing is is that they know that I care first of

all um and and you know there’s there’s been a few times where I’ve had to assure them that I’m committed to their success

you know I’m invested in their the process to get them to where they’re successful

um and you know if I don’t know the answer I’ll find the answer I don’t claim to know everything but you

know I will do my best to to figure figure out what’s going on um if if I get to a point where I I just

can’t figure it out and I think maybe there’s something going on intrinsically there you know maybe they

have bone spurs and Aromas something that I can’t work around you know I know a lot of good doctors plastic surgeons

so I I don’t ever I don’t ever I’ve never had experience where I’ve said sorry you know I just I don’t know

what to do I can’t do anything for you but there’s always some place that we go with it so I I never leave anybody hanging

okay and guys I’ve echoed that sentiment several times several times on the show many of you

have have stumped me with an answer with know the answer to and that’s happened to me several times and also with patients as well or sometimes I will see

a patient walking down the bars and I go I don’t know what I’m looking at okay

um we’re not Gods we’re clinicians right so what Bill said I definitely Echo that

sentiment and saying you know we’re we’re always learning we never stop learning as clinicians and never stop

looking for answers um I know that in my case I still call upon some of my mentors

um they’ve long since retired from the profession but I always like to say they’re going to forget more than what I ever know so whenever I run into that

occasional case where I’m just truly puzzled with what to do I will consult

with some of my mentors or some of my other colleagues in the field um to see what they have to say to try

to find that solution and try to find if I’m not the one who’s able to help them try to find someone who can help who

can’t help all right so a lot of comments are coming in and unfortunately my chat box is frozen guys so I do

apologize if I’m not not reading all of your comments right now I will go back and check that in a moment

all right so let’s see we are waiting for that last quiz winner so

City what would be the advice you would give a brand new amputee

in terms of how to find that prosthetist just to do a little bit of a recap

um I think maybe keep your site split on maybe more

than one at a time always have a backup and I would say that

um honestly will know and right

I actually have been assaulted by a um

before we lost my leg when I was in high school so I don’t trust doctors

that easily right they were invulnerable positions you are

you know you’re essentially it’s it’s a very intimate and vulnerable

experience right and so me knowing that you know I trust Phil completely and

like would follow him into the battle Yeah you know the world of a difference

if you can’t trust the provider you’re working with or you can’t trust the provider to have your best interest in

their mind that would be something that you’ve got feeling like oh maybe this

isn’t this isn’t right for me don’t stick it out you know your gut feeling will tell you

hey I need to check my backup or look for more on the vision

that would be my advice to to new amputees also and be willing to listen what your process is because you don’t

want to like oh well I’m the one wearing the limb so I know what’s best

you also need to be able to listen to their years of experience because you know this is not new for them this is

something they have gone to school for this is something’s been in this industry probably a lot longer than

you’ve known about the industry so don’t take their don’t with you know a grain of salt you

guys gotta come together and okay here’s my experience but here’s your experience

make this work and the compromise no meeting in the middle like you

mentioned before um so Jesse’s Jesse’s saying I’ve wasted eight months I hope the new prosthetist will help me and here’s how I see it

Jesse you can’t take back those eight months um but use it as a learning experience if anything now you really know how

hopefully the new process should look like and certainly you know about those red flags and you’ll know hopefully to identify them if they happen with this

new partic with this new um prosthetist um so Bill let’s talk a little bit about

the click medical side of things right how did you when did you start using um revofits with your patients

um you know I think when I started working with agile

they uh they it’s just something that they do a lot and you know I jumped on

board with that it’s it’s nice for the patient to have a little bit of control over their over their socket fit

um and I think It ultimately keeps them in their socket longer because there’s a lot more adjustability to accommodate

volume loss and um I and I suspect that other companies would

prefer that they don’t stay in their sockets very long because they can make new ones and make some more money but

and I get that but it’s I would say a couple years that

I’ve been using them um a lot more frequently and then if you

about the revo fit adjustable socket on the show and unfortunately some of them have come and said you know my prosthetist doesn’t want to talk to me

about adjustable socket um what would be your recommendation to those folks

how how maybe they can open up that communication with their reluctant prosthetist

I I guess find some leverage somewhere you know get a second opinion talk talk

to somebody else yeah if they’re not listening if they’re not open to doing that then you should

go to someone who will listen to you yep yeah it’s it’s just a little

narrow-minded and suspicious I think yeah and then folks

I’ve said it on the show you know click my uncle’s not the only adjustable socket technology out there it’s the one that I prefer I happen to really really

like their design um but if you feel like adjustable socket is something that would help you

you know your prosthetist should be able to explain the why behind it so if

they’re reluctant to have you try adjustable socket technology they should have a good reason behind it and they

should be able to explain that to you if they don’t have a good reason or they can’t seem to want to explain things to

you like Bill said it’s kind of a red flag right there um so whether it’s because they have

just their horse blinders on and they just like one particular thing or perhaps they don’t know enough about the

product itself and they need a little encouragement to maybe go visit a quick medical website where they have a lot of

information there for clinicians to look at all right I think we’ve got

our quiz winner so guys our quiz winner for this evening is Chuck and then our

other winner is Drew McCormack so guys we have Chuck Scott and Drew are the

three big winners for this evening for the yeti mugs so guys I’m gonna go ahead and type in my email

for those of you who are our winners please send me an email with your address so that we click medical can

send you your Yeti mug and for those of you who are newcomers to the show uh the show is for you right I bring on special

guests but it’s also for you asking your questions um so folks like Lulu if you have any other questions and actually Lulu if you

could send me that question to my email I do answer my emails within two days

and guys I will go back as I know I’ve missed some of the comments my computer decided to slow down on me there so if I

missed your question please feel free to send it to me at this email if you have any questions about click medical if you

have any questions for Sydney or for Bill uh go ahead and email them to me there and I’ll make sure that they get

those questions for this evening um so guys just want to say a huge thank

you first of all to click medical for sponsoring me not only for this evening for the past almost two years now very

big thank you to Sydney for once again sharing your time and sharing your story even though you’re not feeling great

this past week um and Bill thank you for coming to the hot seat hopefully this won’t be your

your one and only time on the show we’d love to have you here and thank you for your thank you for all the experience

that you gave us this evening and shared with us thanks so guys with that we are going to go

ahead and sign off next week is going to be a general q a so there’s my email guys start sending me those questions

um and as always guys thank you for letting us be a part of your lives this evening I will see you next week same

bat Time same bat Channel bye guys