I’ve been mulling over ways I might try to model and shape something to help with my chronic thoracic issues. It’s been over 10 years and I’ve not been able to get effective help. I don’t want to talk about that mess and the truly massive scope of what I’ve done and been through.
I’m not in super lean shape, but I’m not obese by any measure. I’m thinking about trying different ways to stiffen the area around rib 5-6. I’m mostly concerned with how to conform to the shape, skin, muscle, and fat as comfortably as possible while applying pressure. I just don’t have a well grounded idea for a starting point.
The best I have felt in the last ten years was after I fell and fractured rib 5 and/or 6 at the beginning of May in 2020. I know it was a fracture from the ~3 weeks of feeling needles when I breathed in, like with prior rib fractures. With Covid at the time, there was no chance I was going for a rib xray just to tell me what I already knew. There is nothing to be done for a rib anyways. The swelling from that injury relieved all of the pain I experience in my back. It was the best two weeks I’ve had. I even had 4 epidural injections before. That was an almost equivalent level of relief, but it lasted less than 3 days.
If I can recreate a similar pressure as from that break, it is a long shot, but it might make me functional. My physicality is quite limited, but I have lots of fabrication and CAD skills. I think I’m in a place where I want to try and make a solution. Major spending is a no go, but I may try modeling a 3d print first as it is the least labor intensive. Otherwise, I might try leather, or worst case I’ll use a clay mold and fiberglass or carbon fiber composite to create a form. Advice, experience, approachable reading materials, or examples of what others have created are welcome and what I’m asking for.
I struggle to stay positive and motivated in this kind of project. I have little interest in medical or anatomy, and really struggle with large unknown projects like this, especially anything that could create hope and large disappointments from inevitable iterative failures. I am both extremely close to being healthy and functional, but it is absolutely empirically out of reach even if it is close enough to touch.
Well, the problem is that the kind of brace you’d want has to be shaped by hand right now.
3d printing will likely get there eventually, but turning out a chest/back brace that’s not only effective but wearable is as much an art as anything else.
I’m not sure where someone without training would get started. Orthotists and prosthetists are specialists; orthotics is a master’s program, and that’s the kind of endeavor your desired brace is.
It’s doable for sure; though whether it’s practical to recreate the decades of research and experimentation that led to where orthotics is today is a different issue.
Iirc, you’d start with thermoplastics, I can’t recall the ones that are used. But they’re shaped by mold, taken from the patient directly, then adjusted during fittings so that there’s no/less issues with long term use. And you can’t just skip the kind of shaping needed. Afaik, nobody is printing orthotics yet. Casts, yes, though that’s fairly new; but those are short term use, so don’t require the same kind of fitting.
I’ve seen, and been present during fittings for, braces for scoliosis, which is going to be similar to the kind of orthotic you’d need.
If you decide to go the home brew route, you’d want to start with a plaster cast of your torso. Best way to go, so you can have a solid form to shape whatever material you go with.
TPU was a common material back when I was still a caregiver, though that has been over a decade ago now, so it may have been supplanted by other thermoplastics.
Carbon fiber was starting to be used back then, but it tends to be too rigid for applications like a torso piece. Maybe with enough foam in between you and the rigid parts, but at that point, why not just go with something less expensive, and more flexible? Iirc, CF was being used for things like leg and ankle orthotics where they’d be bearing weight and need the extra rigidity.
I know that there was CAD based modelling and fast prototyping being done for orthotics, but it was mainly useful in prosthetics, where they could make reproducible units that would then be customized.
Tbh, I would try finding an orthotist irl to meet with and brainstorm. Even if they can’t/won’t help you make your own gear, they’ll likely still warn you off of really bad ideas.
That’s at least in part because you say you have little interest in medical or anatomical study, and that’s what you need if you want your end device to do the job you want. You just can’t fine tune a torso brace without understanding the musculoskeletal system in that area, and what you’ll need to avoid doing.
Like, the curvature of the spine. It may seem like you could just mold your body and make the brace conform to that. But, if the goal is to give support to part of your body, the brace has to apply pressure to your body applying it at the wrong place, or in the wrong way could make things worse. So if you don’t have the time/interest/willingness to gain the level of understanding of anatomy to achieve that, you’ll be better off consulting with someone that already has that knowledge. It’s kinda like self surgery, there’s only so much you can do blind without causing problems worse than what you’re trying to fix.
I can’t get a legitimate fix without a legitimate diagnosis. While I have absolute physical limitations, I can’t get anyone to figure out what is wrong with me. It all comes down to 5 minutes and a radiologist’s report that does not show a neurosurgeon a thing they want to operate on. Out of 13, not a single one has said “well you have this physical limitation, so let’s figure it out.” I have a tremendous pain tolerance and a full day of testing with a psychologist due to a personal injury case and a major head injury. I am well above average in cognitive function and I pushed myself so hard to recover that I broke bones in physical therapy. The broken ribs mentioned in 2020, I was 13 miles from home on a bike, and just rode home with the broken rib(s). Breathing sucked, but I was actually feeling better other than the cuts and bruises. All that paled in comparison to the previous back pain. Here in the USA, I am basically out of options. One guy wanted to operate and lost his license shortly thereafter for malpractice. That is when I stopped looking, lucky 13.
I appreciate the information. It sounds like my clay mold ideas might be the better route.
My main dislike of learning are all of the arbitrary and unnecessary aspects academia uses that have little to no use in the practical world of application. It’s like a massive codebase without an entry point when the relevant information needed is quite limited and relatively simple.
Any effort is a better than the ten years I’ve waited and prodded the primitive state of medicine that failed to help me at all and placed me on a path to homelessness.