Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Sports Day Winner
Sports Day Winner
Matthew won his race at Sports Day again yesterday for the second year in a row. Unlike last year, he only took part in one race this time which was to pick up a bean bag and put it in a bucket and then run to the finish. He was competing against three others, two girls and his friend Jimi.
Unfortunately his excitement was short-lived, because he didnt get anything for winning aside from points, and the points were all added together at the end to determine the winning team. Matthews blue team didnt win - instead the red team won and had a trophy, and Matthew came home very upset because he wanted the trophy. We pointed out that he couldnt have done any better himself, but that didnt seem to help.
We managed to keep Daniel in his pushchair throughout the event, and he behaved better than expected. I was worried that he would scream to come out and then try and run onto the track, but that didnt happen. He did stand up a few times in his pushchair and attempt to come out, but he didnt cry much.
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Monday, December 12, 2016
Boston Sports Require Eye Protection
Boston Sports Require Eye Protection
“Adults and children in Boston are ready up for all kinds of outdoor sports this time of year-they need to consider the need for proper eye protection,” commented Massachusetts Ophthalmologist Francis DAmbrosio, Jr. M.D. of DAmbrosio Eye Care. Protecting your eyes playing sports is an important way to help preserve your eye health and vision sometimes gets overlooked. Tens of thousands of sports and recreation-related eye injuries occur each year. The good news is that 90 percent of serious eye injuries are preventable through use of appropriate protective eyewear. The risk of eye injury can vary depending on the activity. Make sure the level of eye protection you or others in your family use is appropriate for the type of activity. Regular eyeglasses do not offer proper eye protection.
Across all age groups, sports-related eye injuries occur most frequently in baseball, basketball and racquet sports. Further, boxing and full-contact martial arts pose an extremely high risk of serious and even blinding eye injuries and there is really no satisfactory eye protection for boxing, although thumbless gloves may reduce the number of boxing eye injuries. When playing baseball, ice hockey and men’s lacrosse, a helmet with a polycarbonate lightweight shatterproof face mask or wire shield should be worn at all times. In general, hockey face masks be approved by the Hockey Equipment Certification Council or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). Last protective eyewear with polycarbonate lenses should be worn for sports such as basketball, racquet sports, soccer and field hockey.
If you need additional information, or help regarding how to select the best eyewear to protect you while playing sports, please feel free to phone DAmbrosio Eye Care at 800-325-3937. You may also request an appointment at facebook.com/dambrosioeyecare.
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Sunday, December 11, 2016
Doing Dog Sports with an Alert Service Dog can be Exciting and Challenging!
Doing Dog Sports with an Alert Service Dog can be Exciting and Challenging!
I know this is my blog about raising service dog candidates from the time they are puppies until they are working service dogs (and can successfully pass a public access test). Im using my experiences raising my young chocolate Lab, Hardy, to show the different things that you will need to do, the problems that will occur, the different experiences you will share as well as the tremendous bond that forms between you and your canine partner.
At the same time, I also have Laurel, my soon-to-be five year old working service dog. And having her while raising and training my next service dog has had a huge impact on that experience. Laurel has been a wonderful teacher for Hardy - she was an amazing puppy trainer, taught him two of her natural alerts, helps with teaching him tasks and generally continues to keep his behavior in check. I learned so much from working with her and I have consciously attempted to improve things for him by using what I have learned. I asked my service dog trainer, Sue Alexander, to come down and temperament test litters of puppies so that I could get a puppy better suited to the job because I see how hard it is for Laurel. But maybe the most important impact having a working service dog has had on my experience raising Hardy is that I have been able to enjoy Hardys puppy-hood with much less stress and temptations to rush him to grow up and begin working. For me, thats particularly important because I am very competitive and dont need much encouragement to act like an idiot!
Having expressed all of the above yet again, Im also going to share an experience I had with Laurel at agility trials over the weekend. As Ive shared before, Laurel does 3 different medical alerts for me - all of which began naturally (Laurel taught them to me instead of the other way around). She taught Hardy two of the alerts when he was still a puppy and she has alerted to other people. Shes alerted to our daughters anxiety and her severe muscle spasms; shes also alerted to several friends anxiety and she alerted to a friends pain disorder. But these were all people she knows and has spent time with.
Normally, at any type of trials, Laurel relaxes or sleeps when shes in her crate. Yesterday, when I came to get her for one of our agility runs, my husband mentioned that she had barked at a stranger who had walked past her. It caused me to pause for a moment because she has never ever done anything like that before ... she was socialized to everything and more as a puppy and shes been successfully working as a service dog for about 3 1/2 years now. But we had to run (literally) so I didnt have time to think much more about it - we went and warmed up and did our run. I noticed that Laurel was much more distracted than she had been but didnt think much about it. When I came back to our crating area, I put Laurel away and then observed her very intently and deliberately watching the same stranger. If someone got in her way, she would move in her crate so that she could see him again and occasionally, she would look at me and "woof" once. I quickly began thinking that there was something going on and that maybe Laurel was alerting. I took her out of her crate to see what would happen and she continued to very deliberately get me to look at the man and then "woofed" at me to let me know that something was going on with him. I had no idea what "protocol" was in this situation - do I go up to him and say that I have an alerting dog who seems to think something is going on with him? I saw that he was with someone I know casually from the trials so I approached her. I asked if she knew him and when she said yes, I told her about Laurel and that she was alerting to him. The woman looked startled and then said that the man had just had surgery and had a tube draining blood from an incision and that he had diabetes and with the surgery (which hadnt gone well), his blood sugar was very high and out of control. Im not sure which Laurel was alerting to but I was sure that she was alerting to something. I went back to Laurel in her crate, thanked her for alerting, gave her a jackpot of treats, told her that her job was done and five minutes later, looked over and saw that she was sound asleep once again. After that, our weekend went on as usual - Laurel had done her job as she believes it to be and then went on taking care of me and playing agility together! I have to admit that I was amazed by my awesome girl and the gift she shares with the people she comes in contact with!
Hardy had a wonderful time at the trials - he didnt alert to any strangers but he visited and watched teams compete and we worked on some obedience things together!
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| Laurel coming out of a tunnel at an agility trial |
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| Laurel & I playing at agility together |
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| Hitting that contact on the teeter totter |
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| What Laurel does at agility trials when shes not alerting |
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Saturday, December 10, 2016
Winning and losing Matthews first Sports Day
Winning and losing Matthews first Sports Day
Matthew finally had a chance to experience his first Sports Day at school yesterday after it was cancelled due to rain a couple of weeks ago. This time around we had no problems with the weather aside from it being exceptionally warm which must have made it uncomfortable for the participants!
The event was actually held in the evening, which I thought was a good idea to allow working parents a chance to attend. Unfortunately, as is often the case on big occasions, I wasnt very well and struggled with a fever of 39C and a sore throat but wanted to make sure I didnt miss Matthew competing. I was relieved when the headmistress announced that it would only take 40 minutes, although slightly less relieved when the racing hadnt finished after an hour and a half!
Matthew took part in two events: a race in which he had to pick up a variety of objects and place them in a bucket, which was at the very start, and a race where he had to pick up coloured sacks and return them to a hoop at the start, which was at the end. In his first race, he did very well and actually won - he was thrilled with this as hes always come second in practice! In his second race, however, he picked up too many sacks and so came last as he did more than everyone else. Unfortunately the sacks werent laid out very well and the colours didnt match either his team colour (blue) or the colour of the hoops and so it wasnt obvious which sacks he should choose. He ended up picking up four sacks while everyone else collected only three, and was in second place until he went back for the extra sack.
At the end, there was an egg and spoon race for mums and dads, which neither Louise nor I took part in! Louise actually said that she would have participated if she had been wearing more appropriate footwear - athletics has never been my strong point so despite Matthew seeming keen for me to race I cant see myself ever taking part!
Maybe the Sports Day in my primary school was super-organised but it all seemed a little chaotic - there were no announcements about what the races were and who was taking part, no programme (Im sure we had one when I was in school) and no medals (maybe thanks to all of David Camerons cuts: but I wont get all political!).
Other news: Matthew fell out of bed last night! We were woken in the night by a large thud and then some crying, which didnt seem to be coming from Daniels baby monitor and so Louise went to investigate. She found Matthew standing up in the centre of his room, looking a bit shaken, and it turns out that he fell out of bed. We recently removed the protective foam bumper which he had been using since he moved into his full size bed when he swapped rooms with Daniel in May.
Gramps has bought Matthew a Spiderman watch and wallet! He was wearing the watch this evening, and hopefully will take to using it as he can now tell the time.
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Friday, October 7, 2016
Eye Protection for Sports Athletes in Massachusetts
Eye Protection for Sports Athletes in Massachusetts
Massachusetts Ophthalmologist Francis D’Ambrosio, Jr., M.D. shared information about sports eye protection and the risk of eye injuries for athletes. “April is Sports Eye Safety Awareness Month and the American Academy of Ophthalmology asks eye doctors to remind our community that 40,000 people suffer from eye injuries related to sports every year. These eye injuries from sports can be devastating, and the only way to prevent them is by wearing protective eyewear,” said Dr. D’Ambrosio, Jr., M.D. of D’Ambrosio Eye Care with offices in Athol, Lancaster, Acton & Gardner.
Many sports create risk for eye injuries which can include abrasions of the cornea and bruises of the lids, retinal detachments and internal bleeding. The most serious risks involve permanent vision loss along with infection. In addition, patients who have sustained eye injuries are at greater risk for developing glaucoma.
Athletes need to use the eye protection that is available for most sports, including basketball, baseball, hockey, football, lacrosse, fencing, paintball, water polo, golf and others. “I counsel and reassure my patients that wearing properly fitted protective eyewear will not harm your performance, and it may well save your eye health and vision,” said Dr. D’Ambrosio, Jr. Something to be aware of is that most sporting leagues don’t require children to wear eye protection, so parents should take special care to ensure their children wear eye protection.”
Tens of thousands of sports and recreation-related eye injuries occur each year. The good news is that 90 percent of serious eye injuries are preventable through use of appropriate protective eyewear. The risk of eye injury can vary depending on the activity. Make sure the level of eye protection you or others in your family use is appropriate for the type of activity. Regular eyeglasses do not offer proper eye protection. Athletes need to wear appropriate, sport-specific protective eyewear properly fitted by an eye care professional. Lenses made from polycarbonate materials provide the highest level of impact protection as they can withstand a ball or other projectile traveling at 90 miles per hour.
If you or someone you know has questions or would like help in selecting, fitting or choosing sports protective eyeglasses, please feel free to schedule an eye examination at D’Ambrosio Eye Care by calling us at 800-325-3937, visiting D’Ambrosio Eye Care or facebook.com/dambrosioeyecare so that we can help recommend appropriate protective eyewear.
Staffed by a team of Ophthalmologists, Optometrists, Opticians, technical and administrative staff who provide eye examinations for adults and children, cataract surgery and intraocular lens implants (IOL), laser vision correction such as LASIK, diagnosis and treatment of cornea disease including cornea transplants, care for diseases of the retina including diabetes and age related macular degeneration (AMD) and diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma as well as contact lenses, eyeglasses, eyewear and optical services.
DAmbrosio Eye Care is a leading eye and LASIK care practice in Athol, Lancaster, Gardner and Acton that serves the greater Boston and central Massachusetts area including Acton, Athol, Berlin, Bolton, Boylston, Boxborough, Chelmsford, Clinton, Concord, Fitchburg, Gardner, Greenfield, Groton, Harvard, Hudson, Lancaster, Leominster, Lexington, Littleton, Lowell, Lunenburg, Marlborough, Milford, Shelburne Falls, Shirley, Sterling, Stow, Sudbury, Templeton, Westminster, Westborough, Winchendon and Worcester, Massachusetts.
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Sunday, August 7, 2016
Vision and Sports An Interesting Case
Vision and Sports An Interesting Case
I had a patient referred to me. He had an eye injury a couple of years ago and is noticing that his vision is changing. The patient still sees 20/20 in both eyes. I did note that there was a small piece of peripheral vision missing out of his left eye probably due to the injury. The patient feels that his performance in football isn’t as good as it was. He saw clearly enough but he was unable to take in all the visual information he felt he needed to.
There is more to good vision than 20/20. Having good ability to team the eyes (binocular vision) is paramount. This helps lead to good depth perception and being able to be aware of what’s on the football field (or any sports field or arena).
The first thing I’m requesting from the patient is a follow-up with his specialist to rule out any pathological (disease) problem associated with the original injury that is getting worse. After that, I am hoping we can get the patient started in vision training to help improve his performance on the field. We’ll let you know what happens. This to me is a very interesting case.
-Dr. Robert Rothbard
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