I never had the privilege of meeting Dr. Fulford.\u00a0 He passed away two years before I entered medical school.\u00a0 I have heard many stories from people who studied with him.\u00a0 I have been able to watch a few videos of his work.\u00a0 I have read his book and ones published about him.\u00a0 I wish I could have met the man to partake in some of his great wisdom.<\/p>\n
One of the things Dr. Fulford brought to osteopathy was the use of the Foredom Percussor\u2026the \u201cpercussion hammer\u201d as many people know it.\u00a0 My understanding is that he initially used it to make his workload more bearable during the last World War.\u00a0 It aided him in seeing his patient load.\u00a0 He later found that it had more subtle qualities and used it quite frequently in his later years.\u00a0 Many people studied with Dr. Fulford to learn how to utilize this remarkable tool.<\/p>\n
In attending classes on the percussion hammers use, I noticed that two things appeared to be missing from the curriculum.\u00a0 One was the care and maintenance of the tool.\u00a0 After purchasing my own hammer I completely disassembled it (hey I am male and I wanted to know how it worked).\u00a0 During the disassembly and reassembly process, I took pictures of the steps and the tools involved and put together a PowerPoint presentation on how to lubricate and care for the instrument.\u00a0 The presentation covers lubricating the parts of the tool \u2013 what kinds of lubricants to use and which not to use.\u00a0 It also covers how to check\/replace the bushings in the motor.\u00a0 For any of you that would like a copy please send me an e-mail at the address below.<\/p>\n
The other thing that I noticed when using the hammer was that it lacked \u201cfinesse\u201d when trying to get just the right motor speed.\u00a0 The solution to this was not part of the class.\u00a0 The unit is shipped from Foredom with a \u00be turn speed control\/on\/off switch.\u00a0 That is to say, that \u00be of a turn of a knob takes you from about 2 cycles\/sec to 4000 cycles\/sec of the units head.\u00a0 In my mind that did not allow much precision.\u00a0 Thus, I took apart the motor control and did some modifications. \u00a0(Notice a theme here?)\u00a0 I replaced the original control with a separate on\/off switch and a military spec. 10-turn speed control (potentiometer).\u00a0 Now my unit has 10 full revolutions to get from the slowest to the fastest head speed.\u00a0 This allows for much more precision in finding the right speed for the patient.\u00a0 My experience after the modification is nothing short of amazing.\u00a0 Treatments take less time and are much more specific.<\/p>\n
After talking with a colleague who studied with Dr. Fulford extensively, I discovered that he had performed a similar modification with his percussor.\u00a0 Perhaps Dr. Fulford passed along a little inspiration after all.<\/p>\n