Speak LORD, for your servant is listening

Theme for CollUni 06-07

New Addition! - Most Gruesome Sports Injuries

Scrotum injury ends Chinese teenager's season

BEIJING, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Shenyang Ginde player Liu Jianye will miss the rest of the domestic Chinese Super League season after suffering a split scrotum during a club match, local media reported on Monday.

The 19-year-old midfielder's injury, sustained after Xiamen Lanshi defender Meng Yao kicked him after 15 minutes of Sunday's game, was the latest in a series to plague the northeastern China club, the Beijing News said.

Liu's injury would require an operation and at least 10 stitches, the newspaper said.

Last month, Ginde paid 1.3 million yuan ($164,000) in compensation to former player and Guinea international, Ousmane Bangoura, who lost the sight of his right eye after his eyeball was ruptured by an opponent's studs in a club match against Qingdao Luneng in July.

Ginde, lying third from bottom of the Chinese Super League with three games left in the 2006 season, also lost defenders Wang Jiaduo to a broken nose and Wang Qiang to a broken cheekbone earlier in the year.

"Ginde has had four serious injuries this season and countless light injuries," Ginde's Dutch coach, Martin Koopman, told a news conference after the game.

"The whole club is like a hospital. Our players have suffered too much."

still SICKED

stuffy nose, cough, aching mouth, headache....still SICKED

Faithful One

such a simple song...but it means a ton...I know I've gone up and down, but You are always faithful because of Your love


Faithful One so unchanging
Ageless One You're my rock of peace
Lord of all I depend on You
I call out to You, again and again
I call out to You, again and again

You are my rock in times of trouble
You lift me up when I fall down
All through the storm
Your love is the anchor
My hope is in You alone

9-8 is dirty

yea....today i had my first ever full day on campus downtown......left home at 7:30am.....was at campus from 9am-8pm.......it was disgustingly dirty...and then i got home at 9:30pm.....14 hrs away from home...thats a long day! hahhaah but sociology lecture was pretty cool =)

Signs of the Apocalypse

An Argentinian cemetery has plans to designate a section of plots for fans of the Boca Juniors football club.

HAHAHHAHAAHHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'86 METS ("The wild bunch returns," Aug. 18, 2006)

I know this is TMI, but I was 16 and at my girlfriend's house during Game 6 and was, uh, unavailable for the end of the game. What an awful, awful feeling I had the next day.

Walter Rudisill
Philadelphia

All these years Boston Red Sox fans were saying they got screwed during Game 6, and you actually meant it.

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

2nd Year EngSci

Sooooooooooo finished the first two days of 2nd Year EngSci!!!! BOY this will be a fun year ;)

An Open Letter to Jon Lester - by Arash Markazi

I beat non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma -- twice. So can you.
Posted: Wednesday September 6, 2006 2:05PM; Updated: Wednesday September 6, 2006 3:34PM



Dear Jon,
I know you don't know me -- and to be honest, I didn't know much about you until last week -- but we share something in common. We were both diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I know; I wish we shared something else in common too. Although I bet as a couple of twentysomething guys from the West Coast we probably do.

I know you must have a million thoughts racing through your mind right now. I know I did. I've been there -- twice. Last year around this time I was just being released from the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center after I had relapsed. It was my second battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after initially beating it four years earlier. I had to spend the entire month of August in a small hospital room while I underwent intensive chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant. Yeah, heavy stuff for anyone to deal with, especially a 25-year-old trying to enjoy his summer.

Much like you, I was back east when I was diagnosed. I had everything I had ever wanted in life: the dream job in the dream city. Things couldn't have been better. But cancer has never been known for its impeccable timing. It doesn't care whether you're a rookie writer at Sports Illustrated or a rookie pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. So there I was, much like you are now, trying to deal with the news. Why me? Why now? Why couldn't I be like everyone else my age and be in the hospital for a broken bone or a bad cold?

The questions cluttered my mind for days. I would go for long walks to no place in particular trying to sort things out. I would walk so far, for so long, without thinking that I would get lost. As if somehow the farther I walked, the farther I would get from reality. Yet when I returned home, things were the same. Not the same old, same old I was yearning for, but the same new reality of the nightmare I couldn't wake up from.

Reality suddenly takes on a whole new meaning now, doesn't it? I bet the biggest worry you had a couple of weeks ago was how you were going to help get the Sox get back in the playoff hunt, and now here you are getting ready to embark on the fight of your life. I remember being paranoid about meeting deadline on some story when I was diagnosed last year. Needless to say, the story got in a little late.

I'm not sure what type of treatment you will be getting, but chances are it will be similar to the one I had when I was first diagnosed. I went through six cycles of chemotherapy, which was a combination of CHOP, an acronym for the names of each chemical that went into my body, and Rituxan, one of the newest drugs available for treating non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

After each cycle I had a three-week break, during which I would go into the hospital for blood tests and an injection of Neupogen, which would increase my blood counts and help prevent my immune system from being susceptible to catching a cold or the flu. Interestingly enough, prednisone, which was a pill I took for five days as a part of CHOP, increases your appetite. After my first experience with the drug, I went on a binge that would make a pregnant woman proud. I had three foot-long sandwiches from Subway, followed by a banana split from Baskin-Robbins. After six months I gained about 20 pounds, which stayed nicely in my belly since I had absolutely no energy to work it off by the end of the treatments.

For each of my treatments, I sat in a La-Z-Boy-type chair at the hospital as a nurse hooked me up to an IV and began injecting me with each drug. I tried everything to take my mind off the fact that a needle was inserted into the top of my hand as chemicals were flowing through my veins, but it wasn't easy. I would often just sit there for the full six hours fiddling with my computer and watching the tiny television they had in the room, waiting to hear the soothing sound of the beeping IV machine, which meant I was done for the day.

My parents would come with me to the hospital and I would often have visitors come by to check on me throughout the day. As strange as this may sound, those moments are actually some of the best times I've ever had in my life. I would talk to my friends and family about anything and everything. It's amazing how open and insightful people can be when they're talking to someone at a hospital. I almost felt like a psychiatrist at times. We'd get so wrapped up in conversation that I actually forgot that I was attached to a machine.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about cancer treatment is that it hurts. Nothing about the treatment actually hurts. At least it shouldn't. I mean, I would get fatigued and at times nauseated by the chemotherapy, but they have medicine for that and any discomfort I had was brief and quickly treated. In fact, if you're like me, the pain you were having before being diagnosed -- chest pains, night sweats and sudden weight loss -- will hopefully disappear soon after your treatments begin. The worst part about the chemotherapy is the boredom of sitting in a chair for six hours.

After about your third treatment, you'll probably start shedding like a dog. I remember waking up in the morning with hair all over my bed before finally deciding it would be best to go Vin Diesel and give my head a nice clean shave. It was a big moment for me, since my friends have always given me grief for taking such good care of my hair. In grade school my classmates called me "Uncle Jesse" in honor of John Stamos' character on Full House, who was notorious for taking care of his jet-black hair.

Surprisingly and thankfully, however, I didn't look so bad with my head shaven. There were no big bumps or Mikhail Gorbachev-type birthmarks to surprise me. It was nice and smooth and most people even said I looked better with no hair. Although I hope they were just being nice, as I've let my hair grow back. By the way, if you're like me, your hair will grow back a little differently. For some reason my hair is a lot curlier now than it was before my treatments.

Anyway, the whole process should take about five months. You may have to undergo radiation treatment afterward as I did, which will be easy in comparison to the chemotherapy in terms of side effects and time, although the daily hassle of going in to get radiation, which only takes a few minutes, for an entire month can get tedious. Again, boredom will likely be the biggest hurdle you'll have to overcome on most days.

In the end, Jon, you'll be fine. It's important that you know that. You're going to beat this and you're going to come back even better than you did before. I have no doubt about it. Start writing goals for yourself while you're in the hospital -- when you plan on throwing again, where you plan on being when spring training begins, who you plan on striking out when you get back on the mound. Write them all out, pin them up and plan on them coming to fruition. Because I plan on us having something else in common six months from now: being cancer survivors.

Sincerely,

Arash

Most Gruesome Sports Injuries

To end off the summer, here are some of sport's most gruesome injuries (some of these made my fingers weak...), courtesy of Sports Illustrated's 10 Spot

(New Addition, #2, #3, #5, and #7 are the really freaky ones....You can check out the videos for #2 and #5 on YouTube)

NEW ADDITION: Cubs catcher Michael Barrett will be out at least two to three weeks after he was hit in the groin with a foul tip Saturday and underwent surgery. (Warning: The faint of heart might want to turn away before the next sentence.) An ultrasound taken at the emergency room Saturday showed bleeding inside Barrett's scrotum. Barrett actually batted in the half-inning after sustaining the injury, which is remarkable because I can barely type through the pain caused by merely reading about bleeding inside the ... ahhhhh! Oh, the humanity!

1. Carlos Beltran-Mike Cameron collision, 2005: The Padres' David Ross hit a sinking liner to medium right-center on Aug. 11 to set off this violent smash-up. Center fielder Beltran and Cameron, a former center fielder playing right, both dove after the ball and crashed face-to-face at full speed. Cameron fared the worst of the two, necessitating surgery to repair multiple facial fractures. He has yet to return but is expected back in 2006. Beltran suffered a hairline facial fracture and missed a week of action.

2. Joe Theismann's broken leg, 1985: The fact that Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor fell on Theismann's leg on the primetime stage of Monday Night Football has made this the most indelible of injuries. Theismann dropped back on a flea-flicker that did not fool the Giants defense and was swarmed by three defenders. Fans could sense that something was very wrong when L.T. immediately and furiously called for medical help. A reverse angle clearly showed why; Theismann's right leg had snapped clean in two. The compound fracture ended Theismann's playing career but launched one in broadcasting.

3. Clint Malarchuk's sliced jugular, 1989: The Sabres goalie had his neck slashed in a freak incident when Blues forward Steve Tuttle slid into him skates-first. Malarchuk's blood gushed in an arc and created a pool on the ice, causing nine fans to faint and two to suffer heart attacks. Sabres trainer Jim Pizzutelli, however, was able to stanch the bleeding by applying pressure to the six-inch wound and doctors sewed the vein back together. Amazingly, Malarchuk was back on the ice a few weeks later.

4. Dave Dravecky's broken arm, 1989: Giants pitcher Dravecky won his first start in an inspiring return from cancer in his left (pitching) arm. In his second start, though, Dravecky's arm shattered while throwing a pitch against the Expos. Later that season, Dravecky broke the arm again after getting caught in a celebratory dogpile when the Giants clinched the pennant. Cancer later returned to the arm, leading doctors to amputate in 1991. Today, the very religious Dravecky says he considers the cancer a blessing since it's enabled him to meet and counsel others facing such obstacles.

5. Tim Krumrie's broken leg, 1989: The Bengals' All-Pro nose guard was trying to tackle 49ers running back Roger Craig in Super Bowl XXIII when his left ankle caught in the turf and twisted nearly 180 degrees. The result was two broken bones and gasps in living rooms throughout America. Krumrie had a 15-inch rod inserted in the leg and returned the next season, but was never the same player.

6. Jason Kendall's shattered ankle, 1999: Kendall, then the Pirates' catcher, was trying to beat out a bunt when his right foot landed awkwardly on the first-base bag. All four ligaments in the ankle snapped, leaving his foot dangling hideously from his leg. The sight was so gruesome that a Pirates trainer draped Kendall's leg with a towel as the player went into shock. Kendall made a terrific return the next season, however, batting .320 with 22 steals and making his second All-Star team.

7. Mark Howe crashing into the net, 1980: Playing for the Whalers against the Islanders, the defenseman lost his balance and slid feet-first into the Hartford net. The force of his skates hitting the back netting tipped up the goalposts and the sharply pointed metal centerpiece that was then used to hold together the goal frame. That point ripped through his hockey pants and impaled several inches into his right buttock, scraping the rectum and narrowly missing his testicles, sphincter, and spine. Remarkably, Howe returned to the ice six weeks later and played on for more than a decade. His injury also helped convince the NHL to use nets that would dislodge more easily and safely if struck with such force.

8. Bryce Florie getting hit in the eye, 2000: Pitching in relief for the Red Sox in Fenway Park, Florie was struck square in the right eye by a line drive hit by the Yankees' Ryan Thompson. The ball fractured several bones in Florie's face and left him with lingering vision problems. Florie did return to pitch seven games for the Red Sox in 2001 but has generally struggled, sitting out the entire 2003 season with blurred vision and headaches. He appeared close to a promotion early last season after pitching well for the Marlins' Class AAA team before suffering a season-ending elbow injury. Florie continues to struggle with that injury.

9. Willis McGahee's blown-out knee, 2003: Late in the fourth quarter of the national championship game at the Fiesta Bowl, then University of Miami back McGahee's left knee wrenched at an angle not intended by nature during a tackle. McGahee tore both the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in the knee while his Hurricanes were upset in overtime by Ohio State. Despite the injury, McGahee still entered the NFL Draft where, in a surprise move, he was selected by the Bills late in the first round. He has since taken over Buffalo's starting tailback position.

10. Rudy Tomjanovich's shattered face, 1977: In what has become known as The Punch, the Rockets forward was hustling toward an on-court fracas between teammate Kevin Kunnert and Lakers forward Kermit Washington to break it up. Sensing someone approaching from behind, Washington wheeled and nailed Tomjanovich flush in the face with a straight right hand. Tomjanovich nearly died from the blow and later needed five surgeries to repair the damage. Washington, meanwhile, was suspended for a then record 60 days. The two players have since reconciled and Washington served as an assistant coach in the NBDL this past season.