Yesterday we drove up to Granville, Ohio to attend a football recruiting event for Denison University. According to US News and World Reports it's ranked 53rd among tier one liberal arts colleges. It's especially known for its biological sciences and pre-med program. This is is probably the kiss of death, but I really like the coach and the school. Founded in 1831, its a remarkably well-maintained and clean school. The alumni seem to be very loyal to this tiny gem of a school. It has only 2,096 students, all of whom live on campus, and extensive resources. I was pleased to listen to Coach Fletcher talk at length about his approach to coaching and the ways he uses those school resources to make his athletes better students. The football team has a higher GPA than the student body average and the graduating quarterback is a Rhodes Scholar contender. We saw the school mid year. It wasn't all dressed up for graduation and still, it was "happily situated" in the side of a hill with amazing views of the valley below. It was designed by the same man who designed Central Park in New York, Wellsley and Stanford Universities. It just feels good when you're there.

Unlike other schools which bring in 80 freshman to their football team each year, expecting drop-outs, Fletcher only recruits roughly 25 students. He carefully picks those who can make a difference in his program and who will likely get accepted to the school. Unlike other schools, he doesn't get any admissions "slots" to fill with the players of his choice. Of the current graduating class, he recruited 23 players and 19 are still playing. That is an unheard of statistic and says a great deal about this particular coach. The two things that impressed me the most were that he gave us as parents access to his players to ask them anything we wanted without his coach staff watching over their answers. Secondly he gave us 45 minutes of access to himself to ask anything we wanted. Like the New Yorker he is, his answers were frank, truthful, and unvarnished.

If Kirk were admitted and accepts a place on the team, he would be the only freshman running back. It's also possible a friend from his current high school team could be his room mate, something that makes going off to college a little less intimidating. He's a good kid and also going pre-med. This mommy's opinion is that it's a good match for Kirk. I guess when the admissions and financial aid letters come, we'll find out if he thinks it's a good match for himself.

Show Me the Money

We received notification today that Kirk has earned the Dean's Merit Scholarship from the University of Dayton to the tune of $44,000 over four years. That $11,000 a year would cover about a third of his costs. I think we'll be taking a closer look at Dayton. Hopefully we'll news as good from other schools.

Acceptance #2

Kirk received notification that he was accepted at the University of Dayton today! He has had conversations with their football coach, but not recently.

They like me...they really really like me...

Kirk received his first college acceptance letter today. He considers Heidelberg a "fall back" school, but the good news is that we now know for sure that he won't be living at home and attending junior college come next fall!

The football coach at Heidelberg realy likes Kirk too. They are a Division III school. I think Kirk is still holding out hope for a IAA school, but time will tell. He has several more applications still to submit.

More Surgery for the Morras

Jake saw his orthopedist today. The good news is that the leg length descrepancy is holding steady. While he's grown a lot in the last year, the difference hasn't changed. Since it's not impacting his mobility in a significant way, he won't have to have leg lengthening or stapling this time around.

He did, however, have some tumors that have grown quite a bit. Those are coming off in late February. He's having golf ball sized tumors removed from his femur and tibia where they meet at the knee and one from his right foot that rubs in his shoe. The doctor will decide when he gets in there if he'll put Jake in a knee immobilizer. We'll know then too how much school he has to miss before he can be up and about on the leg. He was in a full leg cast for two months the last time he had a tumor removed from his other leg two years ago. These tumors are benign, but have a statistical chance of becoming malignant. We're removing these three for Jacob's comfort and to reduce the possibility of malignancy since they are fast growing.
This isn't a picture of Jacob's foot, but lets you get an idea of how Jake's tumors look on x-ray.

Thank You Letter to the Donor Family

Dear Donor Family,

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Our seventeen year old son is a high school senior and third year starter on the varsity football team. He is a running back and had already accumulated over 450 rushing yards when forces combined to put an end to his football career and future dreams, of playing college ball and becoming a surgeon, on game six of a ten game season. While protecting the ball, he was tackled high and both he and the 200+ pound opposing player came down on our son’s right shoulder resulting in a class five separation. There are only six classes of separation and anything over a three is operable. The trainer said that was it. No one can play with that kind of pain…or should.

In an unusual twist, when the shoulder separated, it made a button-hole tear through the trapezius muscle instead of tearing it away from the bone. This allowed the collar bone to slide back into place even though it was now free-floating. The team doctor happened to be a shoulder reconstruction specialist who said our son could continue to play, not expecting him to do so since the pain would be too severe with every hit and tackle that he took. Believing his future football career to be over, he wanted to try and play those last games. The trainer ordered some magic tape and bound the shoulder; we added a compression shirt with extra padding and held our breath as we allowed him back on to the field.

Our son amazingly finished the season, coming in 7th in the division in rushing and 18th overall in the conference, and achieving 2nd Team All-Conference. The team doctor, after watching him play, said he’s never in his entire medical career seen an athlete continue with the kind of injury our son had, not college players, not even professional hockey players.

The one month delay between the initial injury and the end of the season meant our son’s own ligaments were no longer repairable. The common procedure for this kind of surgery is to harvest tissue from the patient’s own hamstring. This wasn’t really an option either because as a running back, his legs are his bread-and-butter. Your tissue donation made it possible for our son to have his shoulder beautifully reconstructed two weeks ago. He’s doing everything the doctor instructed and is healing nicely. Thanks to good test scores and grades, he’s currently in talks with nineteen schools about playing college ball, the dream he thought was gone six weeks ago. Included in those schools are several top tier schools like Princeton, Cornell, University of Chicago, Bucknell, and Case Western. Being able to play football may be the thing that sets him apart from other applicants and secures him an admissions spot. Your donation has given him back his dreams. Thank you just doesn’t seem to be enough.

Surgery Day

Kirk is home and resting comfortably. They did some really cool things with his pain meds that will help him get up on his feet faster and be more comfortable. Right now he has a personal ice machine pump and chocolate protein smoothy while watching Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull on DVD so he's as good as can be expected. He's texting just fine with his left hand.

I have to run down to Goodwill now and pick up some old sweatshirts and t-shirts that we can cut up since he can't put that arm through anything. He'll have about a four-inch scar and since it runs vertically, the doc joked that he'll still be able to model bras with straps. Kirk had the best line of the day...when they shaved his arm pit he asked if they would donate it to Locks of Love. He has a big ol' pillow (larger than a football) that sits under his forearm, keeping the shoulder in the best position. He has to tote it around for a month. I think it needs a name. Any suggestions?

He had it repaired with donor tissue. They asked us to write a letter to the donor family. I guess up until I read the request it was "cadaver" tissue to me, like Dawn of the Dead, not a real person. Obviously it is a real person, but I didn't mentally go there until I was asked. It's certanly something I never thought I'd do. I think it's kinda cool. Return to Me is one of my very favorite movies! If you were receiving such a letter, what details would you want to know???