:-:- In the shoes of a Podiatry student -:-:: The Special Olympics.

My life is getting even more busier as the time for me to leave Brunei for the UK as a final year Podiatry student is nearer. I am especially busy with placement preparation, and at the same time battling between anxiety and time constraints. The anxiety contitutes with liasing arrangements, placement documents (whether they will arrive on time here in Brunei, cos otherwise, I won't be able to get it as it takes a while for documents to arrive here from the UK and vice versa) and also being away from my comfort zone in Eastbourne. So today alone, I had to do quite a lot. Had my usual medical appointment which I decided to include the placement Occupational health check. With this I can save my time from having to see different doctors. With that, I will need to forward the documents to the UK ASAP!! I also got my white coat ready for the placement. With some time remaining today, I had an impromtu decision to get a haircut and visit to the dentist. I should have gone to the dentist early this month. Too bad, I missed the appointment due to other things that I've had to do. *sracthing... adui ma... bubus baju ku ani*

Back to the Special Olympics story. The Special Olympics was started in the USA for people with special needs. More information can be found at SPECIAL OLYMPICS USA website. Brunei is part of the Special Olympics Asia Pacific, and for this I was involved in the event as a clinical group volunteer, serving the Fit Feet team. There are 4 main teams altogether, although internationally there about 2 more health care teams under the Athletes' screening programme group. They are namely:

Fit Feet - by Podiatrists and Lower limb professionals including Orthotists, Prosthetists, Orthopaedic surgeons, and footcare assistants.
Special Smile - by Dentists and Oral Health Professionals.
Fun Fitness - by Physiotherapists.
Opening Eyes - by Eye / Opthalmology Professionals.
Others that was not part of the screening in Brunei - Nutrition and (I can't remember).

Back of the Polo shirt showing the clinical screening groups invovled - Polo Shirts were sponsored by GTE Yellow pages Brunei and FedEx.

Here's my account of what I had done on those days.

It was a 3-day event, started off a day before the event itself for preparation of venue at the RIPAS Hospital Sports Complex. Many Health and Safety considerations had to be taken into account as there's a big swimming pool nearby, and kids including below 2 years old were involved. That's why the volunteers played a vital role in ensuring top health and safety measures are maintained at all times.

Some of the volunteers at our station - well that's not exactly in their job description. Maybe they're just warming up before tough job comes. The volunteers are mostly students from the UK on their summer holidays, and some are from UBD.

The RIPAS Hospital Sports Complex - Swimming pool view.

Pre-Day 1 - started with preparing the place, such as making foot prints. Such a "tough" job indeed!!

Woops! Not quite the right picture, but again, this took a lot of pain to push!! Violation of equipment alert! Bad health and safety measures. Perhaps, no play makes us all a dull person?

Here's the cut footprints. We got a little excited until we mass-produced over than we needed!

And this is what they're for. It's making a runway well not for models, but for the athlete's gait analysis.

Here's a close up view of an individual footprint on the runway.

And of course, our station's banner!! Fit Feet!! Do you have a fit feet?

Day 2 and 3 - Screening day of all athletes from Brunei, Bangladesh, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Pakistan. Too bad China couldn't make it as their visa arrangements was not granted. I wonder if that was karma?

*Disclaimer - as pictures involved real athletes/patients, no faces of them are shown here to protect that individuals' privacy. Thank you.

Me assessing an athlete's range of motion, skin integrity and overall health of the lower limb.

Then, looking at the foot in Relax calcaneal stance position (RCSP) to determine their foot shape (high arch, flat, pronated, supinated) and in relation to their tibia.

Followed by looking at the athlete's gait.

Giving one to one consultation and whenever possible, some words of motivation before sending them off to the final fit feet consultation. By this time, we will be able to know wthether they're fit for sports or otherwise.

After 3 days, that wrapped up the screening events. Here are some shots of us being random and in a group.

A pose of a proud Fit Feet for Special Olympics Volunteer.