A Day in the life

So, I have been asked what a Doctor does at a major games.......well the answer is hopefully nothing! It is a well known fact that therapists will be flogged, dawn to dusk with tape, coverage, treatment, massage etc. We Docs hopefully do coverage, a bit of diagnosis, a bit of clinic time in which nobody comes, and a lot of "corridor consults" where the second we try to leave the clinic/room/village we get grabbed for an opinion on something, or an assessment of something (would love to find the hidden GPS that the docs seem to have that notifies people when we are in the biggest hurry!). What is not known is that rather than being assigned to one team, and fitting with one team's schedule, at the para games we Docs float and try to get courtside at as many event as we can. Each evening the three docs priorize which sport might be "higher risk" for injury and deploy ourselves accordingly. This leads to a ton of hurry up and then wait/sit and a ton of flitting around to various venues. All goes well for everybody if we are just spectators most of the day. That is why I have so many pictures to post.....we take up other activities. Richard the CMO and I take pictures (often with the best seats in the house). The third doc Linda, just laughs. We have also had the huge advantage in Beijing of most of the venues being on the Olympic Green area very close to the Village. We also have the advantage of a fleet of bikes left behind from the Canadian Olympic Team. So today I woke at 7:30 after a late night meeting, saw some athletes in the clinic until 8:30, whipped on bike to the Birds Nest for the re-re-race of the Womens Wheelchair 5000m at 9, then flipped back and forth between the Water Cube and Birds Nest for the rest of the morning (at one point caught the 9:50 swimming race at the Cube, the 10:00 wheelchair race in the stadium, then was back at the pool in time for the 10:12 swim!). Got very good at dodging the thousands of people in the plaza between venues as I screamed across on a bike with poor brakes. Also got the advantage of being able to ride the bike right into the stadium...not sure how I managed that one but it was a lot of fun!. Was back at the Village for lunch and a clinic until I went to wheelchair rugby for 3pm, then back here for a 7-10pm clinic in which I saw few, and an after clinic hours rush in which I saw more......it does not seem to matter what time we run clinics we always see more out of clinic hours! Have had a great evening watching Canadians succeed in the pool (another sweep by the girls I affectionately call the "cleaning ladies"), and on the Track (way to go Chantal and Dianne!) while chatting and getting comentary by the athletes in the clinic. I now sit at near midnight thinking I better wrap this up as it all starts again in a few hours.