+dikndi Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 I am considering writing a paper on the type of injuries sustained during Geocaching. Have you had one? Would you be willing to answer questions about it? I want to see if there is any common factors involved that will help us identify and prevent common injuries. If you are willing to participate, please email me with just your email address. If I get enough responses, I will then forward a questionaire. You can post a quick reply to the board so as to keep the post current( that would help me catch more readers) You can email me at geomed2004@hotmail.com I have set this account up just for the paper, If you have any questions please feel free to email me at my geocache account. It goes without saying that I will respect your privacy. Thank you in advance Quote Link to comment
+carleenp Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Are you only interested in injuries to people, or do cars count? I injured my car at this cache. I have injured myself caching several times, but nothing serious. Scraped a leg, twisted an ankle etc. Are you looking for stories of more serious injuries? There probably are some, but not from me. Hopefully it will stay that way! Quote Link to comment
+SBPhishy Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 I know there's a thread around here somewhere about this very topic... Not sure where though... Quote Link to comment
+dikndi Posted March 17, 2004 Author Share Posted March 17, 2004 Thats what happens when you post quickly, You leave out the important stuff. I am looking for all types of injuries, twisted ankle, cuts from brambles, strained back, Chest Pain, Asthma attacks, insect stings. etc etc. Once I have the initial questions asked, I will conduct 6 and 12 month follow up. It could be that the minor twisted ankle ended up being more. I am trying to see if there are any common threads or profiles. i.e a Lone, 37 year old male, with 38 cache experience, and a medical history of..... is more likely to have.......On days when its raining, looking for a 3/5 multi cache. Get the drift? This type of research is common in sports. However, unlike say skiing, its hard to get data from one or two hospitals. The nature of Geocaching lends itself to lone or pair participants ALL OVER america. Also, I am in no way saying that Geocaching is bad for your health. Like ALL sports, the most dangerous thing you do is driving to take part in your sport. Quote Link to comment
Proximus Centauri Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Last week, I was doing a multi cache that was located all in trees- way up in trees. i'm a big guy (6'4", 275lbs) and i definaty would not concider myself acrobatic...i fell from one of the trees- just bruises from impact- but you'd think i'd fallen through a meat grinder on the way down. After that- i didnt feel bad trading the TB for a nce pen... Quote Link to comment
WH Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 I was out caching on a chilly winter morning once and developed a chest cold and a hacking cough that persisted for almost 5 weeks. After about 3 trips to the doctor, it was explained to me that the chest cold that I caught had triggered a case of asthma which I still suffer from now almost 4 months after the fact. I have it under control with a variety of prescription medicine such as inhalers, nasal sprays and pills. Noone can tell how long it will last. It could end as quickly as it began, or I could have it for years. Theres just no way to know. Quote Link to comment
+SBPhishy Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 I got some gnarly poison oak last week. As I sit here typing this, I am covered in a red itchy rash. Does that count? Quote Link to comment
+carleenp Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 (edited) OK, I'll email. You will want to check this thread too since you will find that people will post instead of emailing. So, what exactly is this info for though? Basically, I'm wondering what you plan to learn from it and how it will be used. I imagine that geocaching injuies are about the same as hiking injuries, although cachers do at times do other things to reach caches, such as boating, scuba, driving, etc. Edited March 17, 2004 by carleenp Quote Link to comment
+flask Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 poison ivy. twisted ankle. small pucture wound. various bruises. cuts. wounded pride. if you don't come home bleeding, how do you know you had fun? and be sure to ask mountain wanderr about injuries. do you count the kind of injuries you get when you call home at 1030 on a saturday night to say "guess where we are? (giggling in the background) we're in sherbrooke! (this is not near home.it is not even remotely near home. it is not in the same country as home.) we have one or two more stages to find. (more loud giggling)." does your survey count the rectal insertion of a GPS unit? WHILE being thrown out a second story window? with all your topo maps? Quote Link to comment
IronMaiden Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 (edited) Last weekend when Ironman114 and I were caching. I walked over to picked Ironman114's hat. The wind was blowing pretty hard and all of a sudden, a spruce tree limb came between me and my eye glasses, scraping my eyeball really bad. Yeah it hurt, but we continued caching. About 7 hours later I was severe pain. When I got home I just took some pain killers and went to bed. Next morning I was at Urgent Care and was told I had a small scrape on the eyeball. It's healing nicey. It was my first geo-caching injury I do have asthma and I always take my meds and my backups with me. It's sad I live WA. State where cedar trees are kings and I'm allergic to the darn tree. Plus any in the cedar family. Edited March 23, 2004 by IronMaiden Quote Link to comment
+hikemeister Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 (edited) We created a new multi-stage extreme cache called COMBAT. See the most recent post for an example of a series of injuries! Fortunately none appear to be serious. Perhaps we went to far with the stage that requires crossing a swamp on the stumps of about 20 trees?? Edited March 24, 2004 by hikemeister Quote Link to comment
+Marky Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 I accidently missed work once because of a cache. Does that count? --Marky Quote Link to comment
+Mr. 0 Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Yeah it hurt, but we continued caching. About 7 hours later I was severe pain. When I got home I just took some pain killers and went to bed. Next morning I was at Urgent Care and was told I had a small scrape on the eyeball. It's healing nicey. So what do you do for that, just stick a band-aid on it? Quote Link to comment
+Lazyboy & Mitey Mite Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Many don't want to email. Privacy thing. I'm 57, out caching the woods, leaned up against a tree. It fell on me. I survived but was battered and bruised. Quote Link to comment
+ssmt Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 I've mostly had minor little cuts and scratches, although today I banged my middle finger between a rock and a bigger rock. But hardly any of the injuries required a bandaid, much less treatment, so either I've been very careful or going to really tame caches. With summer coming and the snow in the mountains melting, I'm sure I'll find my share of trouble. John Quote Link to comment
+aka Monkey Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 I had a friend who fell 20' into a cave entrance and landed on a rock. His face broke the fall. A photo of the aftermath is available here. To this day, his face is flat on one side from the shattered cheekbone. Quote Link to comment
IronMaiden Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Yeah it hurt, but we continued caching. About 7 hours later I was severe pain. When I got home I just took some pain killers and went to bed. Next morning I was at Urgent Care and was told I had a small scrape on the eyeball. It's healing nicey. So what do you do for that, just stick a band-aid on it? No I just sucked it up and went on to the next cache. Isn't that what a true geocacher would do? Quote Link to comment
+ChileHead Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 I've injured my pride a number of times. Mostly in the winter when the cache is under 2 feet of snow. Quote Link to comment
+Croaker Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 I guess a ruptured Patellar Tendon counts. Stepped off the road, about a 50 degree slope. 3 foot elevation loss. Slipped, fell down. I knew I'd tweaked my knee. Tried to stand up, fell down, twice. Crawled back up to road. On a Forest Service road, 50 yards from the main road. Heard a car coming. Yelled enough to get them to stop. They helped me to my truck. Sent them on their way. Duct taped 2 steel rods to my leg and drove home. This happened on Sunday the 23rd. Surgery on Wednesday the 26th. No caching for a while. 48 years old. Often cache alone. Experienced outdoorsman. Some might say I made some bad decisions that day. 1. No cell phone. If I'd taken it what could I have done? Scare the hell out of my wife by calling her and telling her I was 30 miles away and had wrecked my leg? Call 911 and have an expensive and unnecessary ambulance ride? No blood spurting here, no urgency. No, a phone wouldn't have helped. 2. Being alone. My usual cache partner is my 8 year old daughter. Well I suppose it would have expanded her vocabulary. I did call out to various deities, so she may have learned a bit about different religions. Really the only thing it would have done is scare the hell out of her, cause it scared the hell out of me. I'll file this under lessons learned and be back caching by the end of June. Croaker Quote Link to comment
+Eswau Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 I had a Geo Accident once - I thought I just had gas, but I was incorrect. Quote Link to comment
+TeamK-9 Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 In a local park there's a certain kind of tree that looks normal, but it's branches are covered in invisible thorns. The cache was on a hill, with these trees.... Most cachers would grab onto these trees for support and get quite a surprise. After getting this cache, I had the same experience, I think one of the thorns was imbedded in my hand for a week or two, until one day it just fell out... Quote Link to comment
+Snoogans Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Yep! Look at #3. Sn gans Quote Link to comment
+Team Flying Dachshund Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 I know many people who0 hurt themselves by climbing. I think that is the most commom major injury. Quote Link to comment
+Stunod Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 I know many people who0 hurt themselves by climbing. I think that is the most commom major injury. I doubt it is the climbing...more likely it is the falling! Quote Link to comment
+TotemLake Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 I know many people who0 hurt themselves by climbing. I think that is the most commom major injury. I doubt it is the climbing...more likely it is the falling! Wouldn't it be the sudden stop? Quote Link to comment
+Red Clover Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 I fractured my ankle about 4 wks ago. Its still aggrivating me a bit. But, sitting in the mud w/ a rapidly swelling right ankle and doing a trade was still better than sitting at home watching TV anyday. Quote Link to comment
WolfWalker Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 I'd like to participate in your survey, if you're still interested. I tried to send you an email. but according to hotmail your email address doesn't exist. Quote Link to comment
+Kordite Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Log at Rocky Riffles I don't think I cracked a rib on this one. It's still sore when I stretch a week and a half later though so maybe it was more than just a nasty bruise. Log at Foreign Finance Fund 2 This was quite a fall and if I had been a foot to the right I would have been seriously injured. However, I was lucky to get off with only scrapes and bruises. Quote Link to comment
+tirediron Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 I had a Geo Accident once - I thought I just had gas, but I was incorrect. WAY too much information!!!! Quote Link to comment
PyroDave Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 I'm a walking accedent well atleast acording to the people I go caching with. cuts brusis, tons of insect bites to propve it. Quote Link to comment
+Jeeters Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 (edited) I got some gnarly poison oak last week. As I sit here typing this, I am covered in a red itchy rash. Does that count? Me, too. Poison Ivy, though. All over both shins. Pretty bad, although for some reason it's not all that itchy and looks a lot worse than it feels (and it looks *bad*). Got it last Saturday on a 1-star/1-star cache, no less which I failed to find and so logged a DNF. Cache required off trail bushwacking through brambles; was wearing shorts. 1-star? Ha! I've come close quite a few times to twisting my ankle. Usually in areas where the cache is hidden amongs rocks, such as a glacier moraine area. Seems like these sorts of caches are great for family caching... big area, tough to find, so the more people to cover the area, the faster it's found... "we started searching, when 5 minutes later little Ashley cried out "found it!". Whereas with us solo cachers, we have to to do all the work alone and get punished by the surround obstacles for it quite a bit. Edited June 1, 2004 by Jeeters Quote Link to comment
+TresOkies Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 How about this... 37 year old male goes geocaching at 2:00 pm in mid-August in Central Texas. He is alone and has packed a backpack with water and enough emergency supplies to sustain him for the 2 mile roundtrip. After a 30 minute hike in 100 degree+ temperatures through varied terrain, he reaches the general area of the geocache. Sweating, but not stressed from the walk, he sits his pack on a boulder and begins searching for the cache. He spots the cache under a nearby rock. He reaches under the rock, and at the same moment, he hears a loud hiss from behind him. Jumping up and away, he turns around. He sees a black and white blur, right before he sees a spray of liquid heading his direction. Fortunately, the cacher was far enough away to sustain only a minor spraying. He doesn't smell nice, but he's not drenched in skunk spray. His backpack, unfortunately, isn't so lucky. He carries the smelly backpack and it's contents back to his jeep. He straps the pack and his smelly shirt onto the roof of the jeep for the 60 mile drive home. ---- Aside from this incident, massive PI overdoses and minor scrapes, said cacher has been fairly lucky. Quote Link to comment
Northern-Lights Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 We recently hosted an Geo-Caching social http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...67-b6b60684e5a4 social. One of the attendees was caching during the game I put out and fell and broke her arm. I think she logged it at the cache page. That's as close as we've come.......bummer to get hurt doing something as leisurly as caching. Quote Link to comment
+AslCacher Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 I went out a couple of weeks ago to find a few caches. One of them was in the woods where I spent alot of time looking but did not find it. However I did get poison ivy all over my arms. After a couple of days of over the counter stuff I went to the doctor who gave me a pack of pills to take over 6 days. The stuff worked great. A week later I was back in a different wooded area looking for another cache that I did not find, but I was watching out for the poison ivy. Well I must be blind or I don't know what I'm looking for because I am not on the pills again with bumbs all over my legs. I think I better stick to the trails next time. Quote Link to comment
+Doggiewoggie Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Three weeks ago, I got a splinter under my fingernail--it was almost an inch long, and it went all the way in. It's got to be the worst form of torture... I nearly passed out from the pain! And it took me about 45 minutes to slooooowly pull it out with my Leatherman. I felt like I was having a baby! Quote Link to comment
WH Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Does not making it to the restroom on time count as a geocaching accident? Quote Link to comment
jdoe Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 Does not making it to the restroom on time count as a geocaching accident? Yuck! If you have this type of accident, it's time to look into buying a case of "Depends" undergarmets. Seriously now geocaching injuries" Scraped knee's, palms. Scratches and punctures from plants. Quote Link to comment
+Beta Test Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 Does not making it to the restroom on time count as a geocaching accident? Yuck! If you have this type of accident, it's time to look into buying a case of "Depends" undergarmets. Seriously now geocaching injuries" Scraped knee's, palms. Scratches and punctures from plants. Ha! that would be an interesting trade item/CITO! Quote Link to comment
+CCrew Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 Lyme Disease from a tick bite while geocaching in DE last year..... -Roger Quote Link to comment
+clearpath Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 Lyme Disease from a tick bite while geocaching in DE last year..... -Roger Lyme for me last year as well. Although I don't know if it was from caching, camping, hunting or canoeing? Quote Link to comment
+dingermcduff Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 I got numerous thorns buried in my hands trying frantically to grab anything to keep me from falling down a hill. Turns out I had the wrong coordinates in my unit. Also, in some parts of the country BLASTOMYCOSIS may be a concern to cachers. Two years ago, 2 people in the county adjacent the one I live in got the disease. Dogs are frequently infected. The symptoms resemble pneumonia. You can get Blastomycosis from inhaling spores from fungus that grows in soil and rotting wood, particularly in the areas that are drained by the Mississippi and Missouri River watersheds. Because the disease is fairly uncommon doctors rarely think to check for the disease even though it's easily cured with antibiotics. If you have been caching and have pneumonia-like symptoms it's important that you inform your doctor that you may have been digging in rotton logs, soil, etc. Hope this post helps prevent someone from coming down with a "mystery illness." Quote Link to comment
+Doggiewoggie Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 (edited) Oh, yeah... I hadn't thought of Lyme as an injury--but I've got it. Officially: Chronic Disseminated Lyme and Neuroborreliosis, as well as Lyme reactivated Eppstein-Barr (that being reactivated mono). Edited June 25, 2004 by prettynwitty Quote Link to comment
+Webfoot Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 (edited) Scraped leg while searching for hiding spot for a cache. After falling and riding pebbles down an incline for about 10 feet, I decided that that particular spot probably wasn't a good spot to hide a cache. Oh yeah, I hurt myself, scraping my leg on a fallen tree, while clamboring up to find a cache that my son found ahead of me because he thinks he's a mountain goat. Edited June 25, 2004 by Webfoot Quote Link to comment
+Team Maximus Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 Shotski the TB has taken a few victims does that count Shotski Travel Bug -Team Maximus Quote Link to comment
+GSVNoFixedAbode Posted June 25, 2004 Share Posted June 25, 2004 Ouch Here's Osmirik's rather sore tale: Quote Link to comment
+chris-mouse Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 Literally walking in the park on a perfect sunny day. Temperature was about 15f or so, and I slipped on the ice. Result: One spiral fracture of both bones in the lower part of my right leg. Six days in the local hospital, and three months on crutches. I still have the surgical nail and a couple of screws in the leg. It hasn't stopped the geocaching though. I was out and scouting for a new cache placement before I was off the crutches. Quote Link to comment
+Torry Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 I've been a smoker for about 30 years now. I'm eagerly waiting for the big aortic blow-out on some trail somewhere. When it happens I'll let you know. By the way, dikndi... Whatever happened to the Bug Bear - Kongie #1002 TB? You picked it up las and never did anyhing wih it according to the page http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.as...06-41379e5663d6 That bug cost me four hours and $400 dollars in towing so I'm rather interested in its progress. Quote Link to comment
kayaker22589 Posted June 27, 2004 Share Posted June 27, 2004 Poison ivy, scratches, tripped over barbed wire and almost got tetanus. Thats about it. Quote Link to comment
+UnHoly453 Posted July 17, 2004 Share Posted July 17, 2004 (edited) ]AHHHHHH IM DEAD...oh, wait, if i was dead i would not be typing this right now. anyway i've got a pretty odd story here. Ok well i had just gotten home and i was headed out with my dad (programmer64) to replace some of his caches that were messed up... well little did i know that I was going to walk away with a split head!!!! oh yes the dangers of caching, first my dad slips and busts his leg, then i came over to see if he was o.k. but on my way to check on him ,very un-expectantly I fell ,hit my head on a rock , and bled all over the place, so now all you have to do to find the cache is look for the blood... lol. OH YEAH AND 1 MORE THING PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(by the way this all happened while replacing the MR. BELVEDERE cache in delawere) Edited July 17, 2004 by gamerboy1991 Quote Link to comment
+DustyJacket Posted July 18, 2004 Share Posted July 18, 2004 (edited) Last year it was the ticks. This year it is massive poison ivy. And ticks. I am giving up caching in the summer! PS - caching has ruined 4 or 5 pair of pants. Edited July 18, 2004 by DustyJacket Quote Link to comment
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