Today was another wonderful day in Carbondale. Alright, you caught me. Like Friday’s post, I’m really not blogging this in real-time. So I should really say that yesterday was great. The day was full of meetings and events.
We started by watching a normal practice. And it was pretty normal. Women were running. Women were setting picks. Women were shooting. Women werre sweating. I’ve seen this drill for eight years. Fortunately, I don’t think D will have any problem with the intensity level. These women are working quite hard – and D will be able to keep up. She’ll be challenged, but she won’t fall behind.
After morning practice, we got to tour the new athletic complex. And it is fabulous. They call SIUC a “mid major” but you wouldn’t know it based upon the facilities and the staff. This program is top notch. And they are very interested in D’s total well-being – even before she starts next June.
After a brief tour, we went to visit the staff doctors. Last weekend, Dana injured her left thumb. The doctor took X-rays and didn’t see any skeletal problems. But he doesn’t have a sports medicine specialty. So we asked if we could take the X-rays with us. We wanted to make sure that the coach and the staff would have all the information they needed. After all, they are making a huge financial and personal commitment to our daughter. So I wannted them to have full inforamation – and I wanted a sports medicine specialist to tell us if there were any problems. So our family doctor gave me a CD with the X-ray on it.
The CD is pretty cool. It has an autostart program that launches a viewer program. The viewer then decodes and displays the X-ray. There is nothing inventive about this process. But it is hellaciously innovative. I could bring the X-rays with me and show them to the staff trainers and doctors. And they were able to confirm that there were no broken bones. And she does have all the bones she’s supposed to have. So the doctors poked and prodded a bit and told us that her thumb was “tight” (and that’s a good thing). In fact, he has given D the confidence to start working on strengthening the thumb. So she may be a bit off during tryouts, but I’m confident that she’ll be fine before games start this season.
And now that I’ve yammered on about D, I am thoroughly impressed with X-rays on CD. Of course, the next step is X-rays on static memory sticks. I can see that very soon, we will be able to carry X-rays and medical information along with us wherever we go. And we may even get to the place where such information will be kept on a universal identity card. The technology is both wonderful and frightening. But as of now, this technology preview has allowed the SIUC doctor’s to be happy. And it’s made my daughter more confident. These are good things.
Finally, the Saluki men’s football team won a great game. I may blog on it a bit tomorrow. But they came from behind and powered through the second half to win a share of the Gateway conference title. They may win that title outright next week. I sure hope they do. SIUC has over 21,000 students. But it has such a midwestern, small-town feel to it. I could love coming to this school!
-CyclingRoo-