Detroit Day Three

Today, Wednesday is an off day, so I had a chance to catch up on emails and phone calls. I also visited a couple of the A.W.A.K.E. group coordinators here in the area... call it a Good Will Tour.

Yesterday started, early, 5:45 am to be exact, the concern of the folks with the Living Heart Foundation was that they needed to have their equipment for the health screening at the Detroit Lions Academy set up 7:30 am and there might be heavy traffic heading into the city.

Monday evening brought a new member to the group, though he had participated in an NFL screening last year in Atlanta - Gary Burley, a retired football player.

Gary had not been in on the discussions about the departure time on Tuesday morning and when it came to leave he was not up yet. So in the interest of helping out the cause I offered to stay back and wait for Gary to get dressed and ready to go.

By 6:45 Gary was ready to go, though not entirely happy about having to push off at that hour. Fortunately, the traffic was not too bad and the directions I had were clear. We arrived by 7:45, well in advance of the middle school students from the Academy that were participating in the screening... which compromised, height and weight, cholesterol and glucose, blood pressure and sonocardiogram.

Gary and I had a nice chat. His interest in the Living Heart Foundation has to do with his desire to further cardiovascular health education in the African-American community, especially as it concerns athletes. When he learned who I was, he was very interested in talking further about working together to raise awareness about sleep apnea - Amen to that!

Gary was not the only football player to make the scene at the Lions Academy. Also present was Rich Strenger, who had played for the Detroit Lions. There was also an active player - Cory Schlesinger who plays full back. While was not entirely interested in the educational material I had on display, Rich was and in fact picked up an educational bulletin when I described some symptoms that he is experiencing now that the exercise routine has curtailed.

While the children were interested in the gold colored lapel pins I had for people... members of the school staff were particularly interested what I had to offer and were pleased that I left copies of bulletins, newsletters and brochures for them to distribute at a future educational session for parents.

The highlight of the morning at the Academy was the gift of an Automated External Defribulator (AED) from Phillips to the school... an irony was that in same room, a 13 year old had drop dead the year before from sudden cardic arrest.

Once we finished there we headed back to downtown Detroit... there are certainly many sad looking neighborhoods in Detroit. DC looks like the Ritz by comparison... oh well.

There was a several pause between the morning activity and the evening Continuing Medical Education (CME)program. That gave all a chance to regroup and rest a bit.

We drove to Troy for the CME programand I laid out a number of folds with copies of educational material (bulletins, newsletters and brochure). I was pleased with how many of the physicians attending the event picked up a folder.

The evening included more retired football players, though I was not quick enough to get photgraphs to include here.

The presentations that evening included a talk by David Hudgel, MD from the Henry Ford Hospital on sleep apnea and atheletes. It was an interesting presentation... can't say I learned anything. It was well presented and there much interest.

The day concluded after 10:30 pm... it is about an hour from Troy to Ann Arbor. Gary was my car companion the entire day and the way back to the hotel we had another good talk. I think I made a new friend.

Thursday and Friday promise to be very busy and will be my opportunity to speak with retired players about OSA. I'll be back.

02/04/06 - I had hoped to have images for this entry by now (all the more reason to get my own camera). I will post them when they arrive.

02/19/06 - Images from this event are posted under entry Detroit... final report.