White Water Rafting, New River WV

This past weekend, I went on a trip with my girlfriend and some family members to the New River Gorge in West Virginia, home to some of the best white water rafting in the WORLD! There are 3 different sections of the river: the upper gauley, the lower gauley, and the new river. We did the lower gauley. In the fall, the water levels are fairly high and controlled by a damn at the top of the mountain. Every morning the water is released which creates wicked rapids down the entire river. We spent 6 hours paddling down stream with Adventures on the Gorge guide Doug Flint, who is a master of the river. He was born and raised on that river and knows it better than anyone out there. Needless to say, he provided us with an afternoon full of adrenaline and entertainment. The lower Gauley is the intermediate level of the river, so next year we will have to go back and try the more extreme upper gauley. What an epic weekend, but time to get back into the lab and get some work done.

-Alex Miller 10/5/2020

Camping at Red River Gorge

After a long work week, I was able to travel to Red River Gorge in Kentucky and meet us with some of my best friends from college for our annual camping trip. We had SO much fun! We went on a long hike on the rock bridge loop, where we saw some great views and got some awesome pictures. The trip was such a good time, and it was great to see some old friends. The fall up here in the midwest is much different than Tampa, and the weather has been perfect for camping. I am actually going white water rafting next weekend, so let the adventures of the fall begin!

-Alex Miller 9/28/2020

3D Printing

This week has been just as busy as always, but in the free time I can find, I have been working with 3D printing programs like meshmixer and cura. One of my interests in 3D printing is to design and create foot orthotics by 3D printing. If I can perfect this process, it will cut down on fabrication time because the modification can become almost automated. I have so far learned how to print the orthotics, but there is much more to learn in this field. The material is very important because it has to be similar to the material we are using now, but also the modifications have to be similar to the modifications we are doing with plaster. This will take practice, but I have a good start. My goal is to be able to 3D print foot orthotics for patients by the time I am finished with my clinical rotation this fall.

-Alex Miller 9/23/2020

Busy, Busy, Busy

Work has been very busy lately, which is great! A busy day makes me stay focused in the lab or with my patients, and the day goes by so quickly. We have been piled up with foot orthotics, ankle-foot orthotics, and replacement sockets. I am able work with the patients and am doing a great deal of fabricating. One of the interesting sockets we finished last week was an adjustable boa, transfemoral socket. Designed as a flexible socket, rigid frame of carbon fiber. The socket is light and strong and allows the patient to tighten down three windows to decrease the size circumferentially simply by twisting the boa dial.

-Alex Miller 9/16/2020

Back Home

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For my Clinical Rotation, I have moved back to my hometown of Belpre, Ohio to work with my parents at their clinic, Miller Prosthetics & Orthotics. Here we have a great team that has fun and works very hard, and we even get to bring the dogs! Before I left for school, I was working here as a certified prosthetic and orthotic assistant. Now I am back to my previous duties, but with a little more shadowing of Mark Miller CPO and Sean Greer CO. I am also able to use some new techniques I have learned at school to help improve my fabrication and organization in the lab. Another noticeable improvement is the verbiage I have learned to use when speaking to patients, it only took two days of seeing patients for one of them to write a review saying the following…

Not only does it feel good to hear that one of my patients was this pleased with their experience, but it is reassuring that I am learning great patient satisfaction from IIOP.

Work is getting very busy now that I am back, so there will be plenty of learning opportunities and difficult tasks to overcome along the way, but I could not be more ready for it!

-Alex Miller 9/9/2020

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