The summer semester just wrapped up and as I sit and sip my chai tea, old blue eyes in the background, I’m thankful. Not necessarily for the finality of the semester, though it does feel so nice to rest. But, for the rewarding feeling as I think about the hard work I was privileged to. I feel like I have a runner’s high. Stimulation to the brim and then rest and relaxation. I’m realizing the importance of this rest for progress, progress for rest cycle as I grow and learn the undulations of life. I crave that stimulation, but I also crave rest. As I rest and reflect, I want to share the works that have made up this summer semester, and hope you too can have either one of these feelings of stimulation or comfort while glancing through them. Here are some snapshots of the nose and orbital prosthesis that I created this summer. We were privileged to work with some pretty cool 3D technology such as the CNC milling machine, 3DMD photogrammetry to get a 3D image of our faces, spectromatch pro system to measure color, as well as some traditional techniques of physical instrumentation creation to insert eyelashes one by one, and hand sculpting anatomy from wax. Enjoy.
I also had the opportunity to complete a really neat project of a 3D character design. I had inspirations from all over, but the primary lightbulb thought came from my future ambitions and time spent at the craniofacial clinic. The assignment was to create a character that related to a medical or scientific field with a story behind it. After talking with my partner in crime and anaplastology classmate, Xochitl, we realized, we had the same idea. Create a kid’s character for young microtia patients to relate to. Microtia is a pathology which simply means “little ear”. The patient will have undeveloped ear anatomy sometimes closing their ear canal and affecting their hearing. We decided to collaborate and take this on together having the young character “play anaplastologist” giving a new ear to his teddy buddy, who is a few steps ahead in the prosthetic process with implants already in place. In our image the child is put in the “power position” giving him control and comfort in this seemingly scary situation. He is comfortable in his pj’s and has his comfort toy teddy, who is also a little anxious and apprehensive with his comfort item, the blankie. The character of the boy is male, because more males are affected than females with this pathology. He has dark features, because Hispanics tend to have a higher percentage chance of being affected with microtia. We see this image being worked up further with items of the clinic added so that a real child could look up at the poster making connections to things they actually see in the operatory. In reality, many times these appointments will last for hours and any sort of relatable item will help the young patient feel more comfortable. We chose to go with a “pixar” feel to the scene to reinforce this “relatable comfortability” idea, and also to show a visual of a child in that style that looks like they do in regards to their ear anatomy. We’ve already seen such a positive response to the scene created and as soon as we finish adding some clinical operatory touches to the scene it will be printed as a poster and hung in UIC Maxillofacial Prosthetic clinic. We are also hoping to complete the series and have a stellar poster series of patient education to help young microtia patients know what to expect.
Lastly, if you missed the interview I completed for our program’s “Faces of BVIS” you can check that out below.
I hope this post finds you doing well, and I’m thankful to share the opportunities I have had recently to work hard knowing the promise of the rewards of satisfaction and rest that comes with completion.
If you get the chance this week, please let my classmate Xochitl and I be in your thoughts and prayers as we work the process of internship placement in finding our perfect match to confirm our current efforts and future ambitions to help others.
LOVE.
wonky dots 