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Originally Posted by Shannon
Between your knee, the snake bites and bee and scorpion stings, cat and other wild animal bites and other assorted outdoorsman/woman maladies, I might need to host a Wilderness First Aid Forum at some point! <grin> Not that I'd be a good moderator for it, since my stock answer is: "Does it itch? OK, Benadryl." "Does it hurt? OK, Aspirin." "Can you breathe? OK, well then it's not quite an emergency, yet. Where's the cellphone?"  |
Sadly, even as a nursing student, I'd not be much better. I had the same plans as you - I took Vicodin, Tylenol (not enough), Immodium, and Benadryl with me. My first aid kit had a lot of extra goodies "borrowed" from my clinic or left-overs I had in my pockets as I came home from a clinical rotation - bandage material, scalpel blades, suture, sterile saline flush, etc. I debated about the suture but figured, "Why not? I've closed surgical incisons on dogs & cats so I could sew if the need should arise besides, its a handy needle and thread as well!"
The cell phone idea wouldn't have served me. I was dumb and left mine on auto-roam. By the time of the accident, the battery was drained even though it was at full charge when I left Houston Monday morning. At the camping area of Lost Maples, I never got a signal.
The very idea of a wild mammal biting me scares the living daylights out of me. 10 years in veterinary medicine has taught me just how much scary stuff they can carry. Besides, Texas was in a rabies quarrantine for better than 10 years. It was just recently lifted but we still have it worse than any other state - esp in the skunks, bats and coyotes in south Texas.