Week 1:
A Week of New Adventures

June 12, 2020

Welcome aboard on my Fellowship journey! This was my first week interning at Maughan Prosthetics & Orthotics (MPO), a local business here in Washington state that is dedicated to building better lives for their patients. I found MPO last summer while on vacation in Washington with my family. It stood out to me above other prosthetic and orthotic offices because it is not a big chain company, it has on site fabrication, and the website mentioned the business was built from passionate practitioners who are deeply dedicated to their work.

A year later, here I am in Washington interning full time at MPO under Justin Maughan himself. I work mainly out of the Silverdale office, only a 30 minute commute from the tiny house I am renting on the property of a very kind and welcoming family in Gig Harbor. Only a week in and I have been fully immersed in a new town, a new climate, a new landscape and my new internship; I have completely altered my lifestyle. Coming from Colorado I cannot believe how green the landscape is here and I love seeing the harbor and being near the coast.

So far, each day at my internship has been completely different from the previous days. I am able to see various types of prosthetic and orthotic devices, meet patients, and develop my technical skills in the fabrication lab. There was little to no time introducing me to the field on the first day, I was thrown straight into the deep end. On my first day I was able to go in on patient appointments alongside the practitioners and get my hands dirty in the lab.

I now see that this is the type of career best learned by doing. There are two residents at MPO that explained to me that what they learned is graduate school is important and helpful but as soon as they were out working they saw that there are a thousand different ways practitioners in this field like to do things and there a very few consistent guidelines across companies and offices.

Over the weekend I was able to explore Gig Harbor and check out a few places that my mentors recommended. Everywhere I look is beautiful. I am excited to spend some of my free time pursuing my passion of photography during my time here. I have found many peaceful locations outside where I can go to work and relax and I look forward to a summer full of nature. As a member of the volleyball team at Cornell it is important to get my workouts in this summer and there is no better place to do them than in the forest overlooking the harbor. There are many more local places to adventure to, I will be sure to share what I find in the coming weeks.

I know that I am at an incredible site for my internship because patients come a long way specifically to see Justin. This week we had a patient drive three hours and take a ferry to come to Silverdale and get his prosthetic leg made by Justin. He made this journey on Tuesday and Friday and we stayed long hours on Friday to finish his leg. I am beyond thankful that I was able to meet this patient and be part of his journey.

When the patient put on his new socket he was overcome with joy and relief. He had been walking for weeks on a socket that was too big and had caused a painful wound on his residual limb, now all of that was over. The patient cried as he explained how comfortable his new prosthetic leg is. He was thankful that he found Justin and that we all were dedicated to making sure the socket was perfect for him.

This was one of the most powerful moments I have experienced, and I will never forget it. I can recognize that this is a defining moment in my academic and professional journey. Any doubt I had about wanting to pursue a career in prosthetics and orthotics instantly melted away. This was only the  first week of new adventures in Washington and I am really looking forward to what the next seven weeks have to offer.