what injurys.?

[+The Chubblees]

After being stung by nettles & scratched by bushes. fingers cut. etc etc. it got me wondering.!!!!!

 

what other injurys people have had whilst geocaching. would love to hear about it.

Edited June 21, 2010 by The Chubblees

[+roziecakes]

I've actually managed to play it pretty safe. Just a lot of scratches from thorns and bushes for me!

[ashnikes]

there has been some pretty nasty ones from what ive read in this thread....

ouch thread

[+mchaos]

My gf twisted her ankle a bit once. The closest I have come to injury was when I was on my bike trucking it down a trail and hit a tree root that was a bit higher then anticipated and landed practically on my face. Although I am too quick and was able to land properly. Just made me giggle a bit because I am sure I looked funny...

[+StarBrand]

Numerous brusies, scrapes, scratches, pulls, twists, aches, pains. But nothing real serious - so far. Nothing worse than could be adquately treated by a first aid kit and some ice anyway.

 

My worst injury was only 60 foot or so from my car at a Interstate Rest Stop Cache. In the fading twilight, I banged my head into a metal crossbar that seems to have had no earthly purpose except to bash in people's heads. Lost some blood and got a huge bump but was a good 40 miles from any town of appreciable size - I was feeling much better by the time I got there so I went ahead a drove home. My wife thinks I should have gone for a checkup and possibly a few stitches but it turned out ok.

Edited June 21, 2010 by StarBrand

[+boda]

I had a run-in with with eight bees one day; but no major injuries. We do not, however, count any caching day as successful unless someone is bleeding. There must be blood.!

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Biting ants (not fire ants --thank you!), because I wasn't paying attention to where I was standing whilst admiring a beautiful local lake I had not seen before. I can tell you also, that they still bite underwater too!

 

Have earned lots of "stripes" while caching in the brush -- remember, only those stripes that actually bleed count.

 

Couple of forest floor "rashes" on the elbows from failing to notice that limb on the ground.

 

Stopped one time to gather in my bearings while busting through tallish bracken fern. Just before stumbling forward again, noticed a rather large paper hornet nest knee-high and in perfect alignment with my knee had I started out again w/o looking! Cold sweat, thinking about that yet!

 

The freeze-frame (non-injury) was walking up to a large blackened stump, only to have it turn around and look at us when we were about 8' from it. Take note that large black stumps just could be a resting bear, eh?

 

So far, so good...

[+thedeadpirate]

I took a bad step while hunting a cache one day. It twisted my foot completely around 180 degrees.

 

I managed to hobble on to the cache and sign the log. It was a bit difficult getting back. I'd twist it back around and it would twist again. It was rough going getting back to the truck.

 

But fortunately when I got back I was able to grab an allen wrench and tighten it back up. I was good to go after that.

[+GeoGeeBee]

I took a bad step while hunting a cache one day. It twisted my foot completely around 180 degrees.

 

I managed to hobble on to the cache and sign the log. It was a bit difficult getting back. I'd twist it back around and it would twist again. It was rough going getting back to the truck.

 

But fortunately when I got back I was able to grab an allen wrench and tighten it back up. I was good to go after that.

 

I see that you and my Dad have something in common.

 

He fell at work one day. "dadgum, I think I broke my leg." His panicked co-worker asked if he should call an ambulance. Dad said, "No. Just call my wife and ask her to bring me the other one."

[+thedeadpirate]

I took a bad step while hunting a cache one day. It twisted my foot completely around 180 degrees.

 

I managed to hobble on to the cache and sign the log. It was a bit difficult getting back. I'd twist it back around and it would twist again. It was rough going getting back to the truck.

 

But fortunately when I got back I was able to grab an allen wrench and tighten it back up. I was good to go after that.

 

I see that you and my Dad have something in common.

 

He fell at work one day. "dadgum, I think I broke my leg." His panicked co-worker asked if he should call an ambulance. Dad said, "No. Just call my wife and ask her to bring me the other one."

 

It does have it's advantages for the humor inclined.

[+Semper Questio]

shattered heels 2-1/2 yrs ago

[+Chokecherry]

Dislocated my ankle last weekend (popped it back in and all was well with the world). Encountered stinging nettles once (lesson learned). Serious other bug bites.

 

Various scratches and pokes by various plant life as well. Good scrapes from when I almost went butt over tea kettle down the hill and grabbed some trees. Bruises of course.

 

I'm a klutz so any injury is just normal day to day life for me.

[+SeekerOfTheWay]

When i was looking for my first HIPS cache, i didn't know what HIPS meant. So i sat on a log to think and look around.

 

A bunch of fire ants went up my shorts and bit my thigh and butt! Ouch! i did some dancing to get them out! i have the marks still. It wasn't long ago...ha

[+hurleyanne]

I've scratched myself and even had a stick poke me up the nose once, but other than that I've been pretty good out on the trail.

 

I'm not so fortunate to say the same about events - once I sprained my ankle going down someone's deck stairs in the dark! And no, I had not been drinking!

[+brslk]

I've scratched myself and even had a stick poke me up the nose once, but other than that I've been pretty good out on the trail.

 

I'm not so fortunate to say the same about events - once I sprained my ankle going down someone's deck stairs in the dark! And no, I had not been drinking!

 

Those pics of your legs from the doggle attack don't look too pretty! (the scratches, not the legs. They look fine)

[+Douce Us 5]

My worst injury was about 3 weeks after tearing a calf muscle , I thought I was well enough to be able to drag myself around to hide a cache. As I limped around an open meadow with grass about waist high (with my bad leg) I stepped into a hole that was about 2 feet across and at least 3 feet deep . I re-injured my leg, and was about a half mile from my car....that was the longest limp I ever took.

 

My only other injury was when I reached into the end of a dead end guard rail and pulled out a fist sized wasp nest COVERED with wasps . I threw it to the ground and managed to only get one sting......the funny part was as I was walking away my wife called me on my cell phone which was set to vibrate. I thought I had a wasp in my pocket. FREAKED me out!!!

[+ttester]

I was hunting a cache that was 25' up a tree. Had to go horizontal to get it. I got up the tree just fine and was able to get the log out. As I was reaching for my pen, I had dropped my pen and my GPS to the ground. The back of the GPS popped off and the batteries went flying. So I put the log back and started back down tthe tree. On the way down, I slipped and fell about 5-6 ft' and caught myself. I ended up catching myself on a broken limb tore into my hand(about a 2 inch gash) and left a long splinter buried in my hand. I was still about 10ft up yet and was bleeding like a stuck pig. After quickly getting down, I wrapped my hand in the only thing I had with me at the time, my shirt. Grabbed what I could of my GPS and forgot about finding the pen, and headed to the nearest hospital ER. Ended up with 7 stitches in my hand and a couple other scrapes and brusies. Good thing was is that my GPS still works after that nasty fall.

Went and climed the tree a month or so later to sign the log:)

[+mchaos]

I took a bad step while hunting a cache one day. It twisted my foot completely around 180 degrees.

 

I managed to hobble on to the cache and sign the log. It was a bit difficult getting back. I'd twist it back around and it would twist again. It was rough going getting back to the truck.

 

But fortunately when I got back I was able to grab an allen wrench and tighten it back up. I was good to go after that.

 

Never did anything like that while caching, but once when I was a teen at a skate park, Went up a quarter pipe, then about 5 feet up the wall over a gap, then down another quarter pipe. next to that one was a bigger one, and the open space was exposed. Came down on an angle toward it, caught my foot in it, Did about the same thing you did, only I fled it pull out, and swing around back into place back into the socket. Took about 4 days before I could walk right, but by then end of the week I had but a wee limp. No permanent damage either... It only hurt until the pain went away.

[+Team Cotati]

I got stuck by a thorn once.

[+brslk]

I took a bad step while hunting a cache one day. It twisted my foot completely around 180 degrees.

 

I managed to hobble on to the cache and sign the log. It was a bit difficult getting back. I'd twist it back around and it would twist again. It was rough going getting back to the truck.

 

But fortunately when I got back I was able to grab an allen wrench and tighten it back up. I was good to go after that.

 

Never did anything like that while caching, but once when I was a teen at a skate park, Went up a quarter pipe, then about 5 feet up the wall over a gap, then down another quarter pipe. next to that one was a bigger one, and the open space was exposed. Came down on an angle toward it, caught my foot in it, Did about the same thing you did, only I fled it pull out, and swing around back into place back into the socket. Took about 4 days before I could walk right, but by then end of the week I had but a wee limp. No permanent damage either... It only hurt until the pain went away.

 

I'd be willing to bet that Geo's foot would heal faster if I ripped it from it's limb than yours. Even if he is old.

[+Markwell]

About the only ones I've personally encountered were sprained ankle and poison ivy. The scratches, tick bites, mosquito bites, nicks, abrasions are too numerous to mention. But the sprained ankle was on a 3 mile hike in mountains with a mile back to the car. The poison ivy from last September 18 lasted until October 30th.

[Ayeaka]

Gotten poison ivy twice... Poison ivy doesn't do much to me beyond what a few mosquito bites do, though.

 

I've gotten gashed up a tad, though, and fell into a drainage ditch once... xD only to find that the cache was on the opposite side of the road.

[+wimseyguy]

Getting bit on the finger by a copperhead is the most pain I have encountered while geocaching ever!

But I think that SQ will 'win' this thread.

 

Edited June 22, 2010 by wimseyguy

[+thedeadpirate]

I'd be willing to bet that Geo's foot would heal faster if I ripped it from it's limb than yours. Even if he is old.

 

Yep. I've been known to go all afternoon with my foot detached from my leg on halloween.

[+briansnat]

I partially tore my Achilles tendon playing soccer. Finished it off a few weeks later while geocaching when I stepped on a root the wrong way.

[+KBLAST]

My daughter and I are going through a really rough couple of months.

 

I was out seeking a cache and got a bad case of poison ivy. It spread quickly and I scratched it. A few days later it swelled up my arm and I could barely move it, so I went to urgent care. Got antibiotics and steroids to take care of the swelling, but in the process of scratching earlier, I apparently caused a secondary infection. I had to go in to get an MRI and had to have surgery to remove the remnants. I just got out of my splint I had to wear for 11 days.

 

My 13 year old daughter had it worse. She was doing a tree climb where the cache was 10 to 15 feet above the ground, but there were no limbs until you reached that point. She climbed it great, put a rope around the limb to stabilize, and got the cache, then as she was lowering herself down (sort of repelling down the tree) she let go of part of the rope and fell backwards to the ground and landed on her back. She got up after lying there for a while being comforted, and we moved on to the next tree in the multi. She then started complaining about her back, so we went to children's hospital, where they discovered she fractured her C7 (lower neckbone) and was confined to a hospital bed for a week. After the week, they put her in a halo that she is going to be in for 8 weeks when it's all said and done, and then she'll be in a neck brace for 4 weeks after that. Her entire summer is going to be much less active than she is used to.

 

Sorry if these seem flippant or nonchalant - believe me, I have dealt with this in more ways than I care to share here. I just saw the topic and felt like I had to share.

[+bittsen]

Compared to the stories above I have little itty bitty injuries.

Basically I leave blood at quite a few caches around my area but we have a LOT of blackberry and other thorny plants.

 

I did narrowly avoid a bad injury a couple times though. Once I slipped and landed flat on my back and another time I fell a few feet while climbing down from a baseball fence. And of course I've gotten a few eye pokes but I have super fast eyelid reflexes.

 

Be careful out there folks. That serious injury is often inches away.

[+power69]

After being stung by nettles & scratched by bushes. fingers cut. etc etc. it got me wondering.!!!!!

 

what other injurys people have had whilst geocaching. would love to hear about it.

sprained ankle, cut knee, pinched nerve in lower back accessing a cache from top of a ridge[fell about 20 feet down a ravine]

oh by the way the page said to not try accessing it from the top or you might fall.

[+The Chubblees]

WOW.!!!! i cant believe some off your mishaps..im just fed up of being bitten by insects & scratched..

 

i do think the bite from the copperhead would win this thread..!!

[+hydnsek]

I've been relatively lucky. I've been stung by wasps (more than once, and one time a swarm of them), had some scrapes, a twisted ankle, and almost died (but obviously didn't) last fall when I lost my footing over a sheer drop and only a skinny rope saved me from oblivion (came out unhurt except for rope burn). Oh, and I got a staph infection on my face (reaaally swollen and painful) after a vegetation encounter.

 

However, some of my companions have not been so lucky. I spent one afternoon in an ER with a cacher who broke her wrist, and was also around when others broke an elbow, broke an ankle, severely sprained an ankle, and got sunburn so bad they had to go to the ER. I know of one cacher who took a serious fall and broke his patella (knee), eye socket, ribs, and other stuff; he's recovered and showed me his impressive surgical scar on his leg from the knee repair. And another who split her scalp and got stapled. However, we also had a cacher die last year in a freak fall while finding a cache; I think that sadly trumps anything else.

 

Needless to say, all these were on hiking adventures, not park-n-grabs.

Edited June 29, 2010 by hydnsek

[+DragonsWest]

Out looking for a tricky hide in the woods.

 

Observed a broken branch stub was quite sharp and I needed to avoid it. As I continued to walk around the tree I thought, 'I'm gonna walk into that thing, yet.'

 

Well, I did.

 

I turned my head and it stabbed me good. Just missed my left eye, too. Decided that was enough time spent looking, before I'm doing a pirate impersonation. Hopefully be healed up by the time I get to GW8.

[sweet6yt5]

I have twisted my ankle, fell down a hill, minro scrapes, the bf has fell down a few times too, all goes with caching and for me, being clumsy lol

[+SeekerOfTheWay]

i'm still new so relatively few injuries so far. The other day i had a run in with what i think is a Florida Poisonwood Tree. On contact my arm broke out in a painful red rash, then blisters started popping up. It felt like bees stinging me. i did get freaked out and left for home right away.

 

After a few hours the rash disappeared and the blisters were just red marks! Strange! 3 days later i have an itcy rash where the stinging was and it's on other places now too, my ankle, elbow, knee. They don't burn, just itch so i can deal with that.

 

i'm glad i didn't stick my face in the tree! Ouch!

[Coastie41]

No real injuries but I stepped right over a rattle snake three times before I noticed he was there. I got lucky, no bite, nor did he attempt to bit me. But it did scare the crap out of me when I noticed him about three feet from me. I pay close attention to the ground now.

[+Warturtle]

After six caches, I've already ripped off skin on branches, and fell into a thistle.

 

Nothing near as bad as broken bones or that copperhead, though!

[+JnJ walkaway]

We cachers are some of the toughest ppl out there .broke ,bleeding,sprained,we still keep on caching..

[+2lablovers]

My husband got hit by a golf ball the other day. He had just turned around so it hit him on his upper back - a few seconds earlier and it might have been in his face. Except for that, its just been some scratches.

[+Spirit of Guernsey]

We recently had a little meeting in to area, so planted a couple of caches close by, only published on the day.

 

There was a bit of competition for FTF, maybe too much, read the early logs.

 

LINKEY