Math is Real Life! Elapsed Time

It’s the first Wednesday of November which means it’s time for our monthly linky – Math IS Real Life!! If you want to see how the linky works, or just want other real world math ideas, check out our Pinterest Board of all the posts so that you can look back and find some great ideas and REAL pictures to use in your classroom!
If you are linking up, please include the below picture AND a link back to all four of our blogs – feel free to use the 2nd image and the links listed below!
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#MiRL

A monthly REAL WORLD math blog link-up hosted by
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For those of you who might know…and for those of you who don’t, my son is an AVID sports fan.  He watches sports.  He plays sports.  He studies statistics on sports.  He is passionate about sports.

So how does this lend itself to an elapsed time MIRL?

Let me tell you.

My very coordinated sports kid has had THREE–that’s right THREE–major injuries in the last 16 months.  We were sitting around after surgery #2 last week talking about HOW MUCH time he has spent “rehab-ing” versus actually playing.

Let’s trace things back a bit.  Last July he was playing baseball when he felt a pop and his arm went numb.  Diagnosis?  He literally pulled the growth plate off the bone.  Surgery.  Big screw.

Surgery time:  90 minutes
Total Recovery:  8 months
Therapy:  3 sessions per week at 30 minutes per session for 6 weeks, then 1 session per week for 6 more weeks
Home therapy:  10 minutes daily (done maybe 25% of the time)

So the math question of the day?  How much time did he spend in therapy?
His answer?  TOO MUCH!

But wait…June 2014.  “Mom, my foot has been hurting but I didn’t want to tell you because I am NOT missing baseball.’

X-ray.  Fracture.  Boot.
Surgery time:  NONE!
Total Recovery:  6 weeks
Therapy:  2 sessions of 45 minutes
Time in boot:  Recommended–4 weeks.  Actual:  10 days
Number of hours of football missed?
3 days of camp at 8 hours per day
3 weeks of practice at 3 hours per day, 5 days per week
Number of games missed:  1

But WAIT!  October 24, 2014…the first football playoff game.  The team is up by 42 so my third string son gets to play.  He rushes for a total of 87 yards on his drive until…

So after the doctor on the field immediately diagnosed the break, and the ER confirmed it with an x-ray, his elbow surgeon got us in Monday and stuck this thing in him Wednesday.  
The math?  1 elbow screw plus 1 titanium plate plus 8 more screws = we met our insurance deductible.
The elapsed time for this one?
3 minutes from injury to diagnosis
12 hours from injury to x-ray
64 hours from injury to specialist appointment
92 hours from injury to surgery
Rehab plan?  4 weeks in an immobilizer
8 more weeks of strengthening
We could do all sorts of other math…how many pain pills per 24 hours period…how many minutes of ice application…how many shows watched on NetFlix…how many hours of school missed…how much the TOTAL BILL is going to be…
So anyway–if anyone would like to figure out the total amount of time this poor kid has spent NOT in sports due to his injuries, let me know.  On second thought–DON’T.  I’m painfully aware…
Thanks for stopping by–and make sure to check out the other blog posts about some “real life” math!
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Meg

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