peznurse

Congratulations to sciuchetti on finding #2600 today at 'The Bloated Feastering Head of My First Victim"! Way to go! Now go wash some of that MUD off!

PezNurse checking in! I am, of course, a nurse - I am an operating room nurse for the last 7 years and love,love, love it! Before that I was a pediatric nurse - I worked at the local childrens hospital as a med/surg nurse on the transplant and post-op unit, worked as a home healthcare nurse with children on ventilators and as a phototherapy nurse (that was fun - got to help all those jaundice babies!) I love being a nurse! I work with another nurse whose is a geocacher and with 4 surg techs who are geocachers as well! We have a lot of fun talking about geocaching at work, or talking about work when we get toghether to geocache! A couple of the surgeons we work with are interested in joining us geocaching sometime - maybe we can add a couple of MD's to the mix soon!

I think my vehicle is Ok for the roads - it has 4wd. But I am unfamiliar with the road. It's only me, so I plenty of extra places for those needing a ride.

Late one evening I noticed a new cache in my area - only 1-2 miles away and I had to give it a try. My husband said "have fun but take your pepper spray with you". So I grabbed it on the way out and stuck it in my front pocket. When I got to GZ, and looked around a bit, I noticed my leg was really cold, but since it was pretty cold that night, I ignored it at first. Pretty soon, I could not ignore it any longer and realized what had happened - the pepper spray/tear gas cannister had leaked (the saftey lock was still on) all over my leg and I had given myself a nasty chemical burn. Well, I had to give up on my search and head back home and once I got there I did an internet search on what to do about pepper spray burns. I couldn't find any reliable medical info, so I tried washing my leg really well and went to bed. I only slept a fitful few hours - I kept dreaming that my leg was burning through and through, so I got up only to find the redness was spreading and it still hurt like the dickens! I gave in and called the nurse hotline for my medical plan and tried to explain what I did. The nurse was really nice and had worked in jails before so she had some experience with pepper spray burns. She said it should have lasted only an hour or so, and told me to call the poison control center. More explaining to the great guy there who came back with some useful information - put a dairy product like sour cream or plain yogurt on it for 10 minutes and then some hydrocortisone or aloe and added "now go out get yourself a new cannister of pepper spray, girl!". It worked like a charm, and I was able to get STF later that morning. I never thought that I would need to call the poison control center because of geocaching, but you just never know!

I just saw this thread - I hope it's OK to tag along as well. It sounds like fun!

I have ran into way too many snakes - just plain old gardner snakes - while caching. I have added a paper bag to my caching gear because no matter how small they are, I always hyperventilate when I see them. After that first time, standing on the trail with my head between my legs thinking I'm going to pass out and this is how they will find me, I keep that bag in a very handy spot! I have also seen a big bull elk come crashing through the woods and stop about 50 feet from the cache - we all looked at each other for about 15 seconds until he skeedaddled back into the woods - guess he realized he would not get the FTF! The deer I have seen have been much braver. There were two standing right at GZ, I kept thinking they would run off as I edged forward. They finally backed up a bit, sat down and decided to watch the wacky lady in the woods as I grabbed the cache. I was also follow for a while by a coyote and saw a big pheasant/quail type bird (I don't know my birds) - but it was good sized, on the ground and unusual looking. In the same area I have seen a beautiful gray wolf. I saw it before I stopped to get a cache and decided to go elsewhere since I was by myself. But my all time favorite was an evening I went out - it was already getting dark, raining and I forgot to "mark" where I parked with the GPSr. After a few turns on different trails, I realized none of the trails where marked - should I turn around or continue? Continue of course! Well, I found the cache, decided to get another on in the area and I was heading back to the general area on the car - completely soaked at this point and a bit cold. Came to yet another Y in the trail, choose one path (neither went where I was interested in going) and started heading down it. Suddenly, there was a low growl from behind me. Dreading what could be back there, I slowly turned around (imagination running everywhere at this point) and the flashlight revelled a dog - thank goodness, just a dog! I yelled at it to go home, which worked for a minute until I heard the growling again and so I stopped and yelled at it again to go home when I heard "Hello?". I was releived, and felt a bit sheepish, for yelling at this guys dog in the woods - but it was dark and this guy didn't even have a flashlight, but he did know the area. He helped me get out of the woods and back to my car, and the doggy didn't growl at me the rest of the way[]

You asked about breakfast places along I-90 going toward the APE cache. The last place to stop before you get to the pass with restaurants is in North Bend. I have heard good things about the breakfast at Gordy's just off of exit 32 in North Bend and about Twede's cafe about a mile off of exit 31. I think there is a waffle house up at Snoqualmie pass as well, but I am not positive. Enjoy your visit to Seattle!

I recommend that you ask the surgeon for clarification on the activity restrictions. As an OR nurse, that restriction seems a bit much, unless all the caches you do involve strenous hiking and such. And you should not be driving if you are taking pain meds. I think I was out and about a couple of weeks after a C-section. So double check which activities the doctor means. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

I started off as an EMT, now I am operating room nurse.