Daily Medical
Note 09/28/2005:
Today's winner is …..friction. The feet on these runners are truly something to behold. The friction between their feet and their shoes has caused blisters on every possible surface of their feet. Some have actually had to stop running because of the raw gaping open sores. Surprisingly our oldest competitor, age 73, has pretty good feet and hasn't yet pulled out of the race despite the heat, the wind, the water, or the friction. He is such a trooper. He's even volunteered to be a part of a medical research study. In the study he wears (in addition to his regular clothing and gear) a Vivometrics life shirt system which is a lightweight shirt with cardiac and respiratory sensors embedded in the material. It reads and records his cardiac and respiratory information and we download it to a computer each night.
There is another athlete who has pushed through every station despite the friction between his ureter and a very problematic kidney stone. We just keep giving him water for hydration and pain medication and he continues on course. The remaining friction exists in the air between some of the competitors who are tired after the sleepless night of the sand storm and running about a million miles through the oven of the Sahara. Luckily we all got surprise birthday cake tonight to celebrate all the birthdays during the week, and this goes a long way towards keeping spirits light.
In the medical tent we have our own way of releasing tensions… we call it the joke tent and it's a hold over from the Gobi. We've even had jokes sent in from the US and Canada. We'll need them tomorrow for the 80 kilometer,2-day stage.
Dr. Brandee signing off…
|
