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Has Anyone Else Ended Up At The Hospital??


Nathannah

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Have you ever been out geocaching and ended up at the hospital instead???

 

I received an email from my brother in law last night and imagine my surprise when I followed the link and read a story about how my DAD ended up in the hospital. I was very impressed with my BIL's restraint to not continue looking for the cache but instead take my Dad to the hospital. :lol:Here's the story. Everything turned out okay and now he will have a story to tell when they get home!!

 

Hey OzGuff, feel free to elaborate on this story!!!

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I was stung twice by bees yesterday while rooting around in a hollow tree. At first it was the usual pesky bugs but then I got bit good on the back of the head, and then on the arm ... OW!! :blink: Then while driving the car, I felt another bee in my hair and quickly shoo'd him out the window. Luckily I didn't have a reaction to my stings, but did go into the hospital to work that night. Does that count?

 

You bet I was extra careful when digging around in another fallen tree for a different cache today! :D

 

-BIFFBRADFORD-

Wisconsin

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Have you ever been out geocaching and ended up at the hospital instead???

 

I received an email from my brother in law last night and imagine my surprise when I followed the link and read a story about how my DAD ended up in the hospital. I was very impressed with my BIL's restraint to not continue looking for the cache but instead take my Dad to the hospital. :)Here's the story. Everything turned out okay and now he will have a story to tell when they get home!!

 

Hey OzGuff, feel free to elaborate on this story!!!

Hornets! B) How horrible B)

By the way, let Ozguff know that I've picked up his "two dollar" travel bug today...

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Yes, but I won't relate which cache it was or else I'd be giving something strange and challenging away... if it's still there. Imagine four guys ranging from full camo fatigues to tie dye shirt and red shorts (if I remember my attire correctly) and one with a "Do Rag" storming the front desk of a rural hospital. Quite a sight!

 

But you meant from injuries, didn't you?

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yes, i was looking for a cache with my 2 boys as i usually do, and on the way up the trail saw someone walking down with a gps, we started talking and such, he was a geocacher, and while we were talking my oldest son nailed my youngest son in the head with a rock!! blood everywhere, screaming kid and the whole works.. luckily the other cacher i was with had a first aid kit close at hand, mine was rather bare (just a few bandaids, i have since restocked) and we cleaned him up, i took him to the hospital and after 4 hours! he needed 2 stiches.

 

the cache is called My Happy Day, it wasnt real happy for my youngest son. we did however go back after the hospital visit and score the cache...

 

My Happy Day Cache

 

My log Entry

 

Log Entry of other cacher.

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Just last week while looking in a likely spot for a cache, i turned around to be looking at the first below ground hornet's nest i have ever seen, about 5 feet from me. There was a small hill a few inches high, with an opening about an inch in diameter. The hornets or wasps were flying in and out and all around. After my initial surprise and looking in disbelief for about 15 seconds, my brain kicked in and i exited rearward before i riled up the hive. I'm happy to report that there were no stings. B)

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A few years back at the height of the Killer Bees frenzy here in So Cal I was out hunting and following a deer trail that had fresh tracks (a mother and her fawn) as I rounded a bend I stopped for a moment to rest and glass the next hillside. After about a minute I heard this constant buzzing. I turned around to see in the hollow of a still standing tree the biggest behive I have ever seen!

 

I got out of there fast and more than likely scared off any deer within 2 miles of me!!!

 

But this is what I learned and still use while caching...

 

LISTEN....

 

Most if any of us don't have the senses like they did 150 yrs ago when people relied on them to stay alive. It can be developed but it must be done consciously every minute of every day.

 

Don't get too focused on finding the cache. Take a moment and stop and listen to all the different sounds in the field.

 

Ken

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Remember when you used to slip and fall and you'd jump back up in case someone saw you...how embarrassing! Now, I just lie there and take inventory before I get up...one foot had fallen in a hole pitching me forward and I thought OK...it's either a broken arm or broken leg. Luckily it was just the usual scrapes and bruises. B)

Edited by Charles Street Gang
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Yes I've been to the hospital overnight for dehydration, one of the first caches I did, my friend and I went on a 4/4 and didn't bring enough water. Ended up drinking out of a stream and both of us spent a free night at the hospital.

The worst part was the cache was logged DNF, and while I was in the hospital my wife and I missed are first year wedding annv.

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LISTEN....

 

Most if any of us don't have the senses like they did 150 yrs ago when people relied on them to stay alive. It can be developed but it must be done consciously every minute of every day.

 

Don't get too focused on finding the cache. Take a moment and stop and listen to all the different sounds in the field.

Several times I've been caching when I hear a loud buzzing getting louder only to have a swarm of bees fly over me. I pray they aren't killer bees, so far so good!

 

No hospital trips for me. Smacked my head on a wall yesterday. I got the usual mosquito bits, tears on the legs from branches. I did see a fellow cacher fall 15' down a rock face once, but he lived! :huh:

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I grew up raising bees and have had a few hives myself. But of course I got a funny look from my caching partner when I refuse to continue searching for the micro in the woods placed right next to a bumblebee hive.

 

Sorry, if they come out of the ground I don't want anything to do with them. Freaking hornets are the worst. Just being there is enough to make them attack.

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It was really funny listening to Flowerdoc scream and thrash about while slipping/falling down the side of the hill! OK, OK, so it is funny in hindsight; had he had a bad reaction to the stings it could have been bad. I have to admit that I kept my spirits up the entire time, and peppered him with jokes -- mainly about him and how funny he sounded.

 

Seriously folks -- I am glad that my first aid kit had an antihistamine. If nothing else it might have had a placebo effect on him calming him down some. His first really bad reaction to a sting was after ONE sting -- Flowerdoc was imagining how bad it would be after 8-12 stings!

 

I joked about wills and last words as I sped to the hospital, and while talking to my mother-in-law on the phone (after she had talked with her husband) I let her know that Flowerdoc had told me that he loved her. She laughed and Flowerdoc laughed. I suppose I use humour as a defense mechanism.

 

The hospital was also fun, and the nurses and doctors enjoyed having someone in the emergency room that was in good spirits. (However, the guy who came in next that was telling the doctor about his kidney stone was in rough shape!) After being prescribed steroids and Benadryl Flowerdoc was mainly concerned about his ability to consume alcohol -- we were scheduled to attend a $150/plate fund-raiser that night with an open bar -- and he wanted to drink his fair share!

 

Moral to the story -- cache with a first aid kit!

 

P.S. As Nathannah said, I was bummed at not being able to continue caching!

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Well, we didn't go to the ER after my 6 yr old was stung by 3 bees recently while caching, but the pediatrician slapped my hand later for not going! This is where 15 yrs of pediatric ICU experience can sometimes be bad for your kids.

 

We weren't aware he had an allergy til after the stings that day. We had calmed him down and were rifling through the cache when I noticed he was turning bright red and breaking out in head-to-toe hives. Thankfully we did have liquid Benadryl on hand as a part of my daughter's allergy kit, so I gave him a good dose and we left. As we were driving towards home (and away from the hospital) he complained that his throat felt like it had thorns in it. Eek. My husband thought the swelling was going down so we opted against the ER. Ok, ok, now I know, bad idea. Next time. :blink:

 

Today while bagging a FTF two of my other kids were stung! I'm so thankful that the 6 yr old wasn't stung since I know it could be much worse the next time. Sigh. I have some family members who want us to give up geocaching because of this. Maybe wait til cold weather sets in?

 

So to answer the question, no, we haven't gone but yes, we should have. :rolleyes:

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woodyk...

Did you log the find?!!!

 

No....I continued to search for it but my ankle started swelling so fast

that I thought I'd better head home. I'll go back to it SOME day.

I didn't even log it as a DNF, cuz I was kind of perturbed at the cache.

(AND myself).

 

NOW my wife makes me take a cellphone wherever I go....geez... I

got the GPS, a cellphone, a digital camera...I feel like I'm packing more

hardware than the actual satellites DO!

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My girlfriend and I spent a day caching a couple of months ago. We did a few caches up in the woods, climbing over rocks, trees, streams, and so on, getting a few bumps and scratches along the way.

 

To finish the day out, we decided to do a quick 1/1 cache that was hidden in a park. After finding the cache, on our way back to the car, I tripped in an empty parking lot and broke my elbow. :huh:

 

Even the doctor laughed when I told him how it happened.

Edited by TaltosVT
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I almost had a good one..my wife didn't think it was funny, but I always seem to laugh unless I come into physical pain lol. We were walking er...climbing along a rocky waterfall area (basically a little ravine with water in it). I stupidly leaned against a tree to steady myself, and it gave way, as all leaning trees seem to do. The tree broke, and I instantly changed direction, performing a graveful eight foot belly-flop onto the bank on the other side of the creakbed. I thought it was quite funny, though since the broken half of the tree (it was about eight feet tall, and 5' broke off) missed my wife's head by oh...a foot and change, she didn't laugh nearly as much as me. Wonder why... lol. Had the roles been reversed, I'm sure we would've had to have her helicoptered out, as she is the most brittle person I know. She once broke her ankle walking on a paved walkway. (true, I have no idea why I risk taking her anyway lol).

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Neither myself or my boyfriend have been injured persay, but we had a lovely experience where we went the absolute WRONG way into the woods and lost our way. We didn't even log our parking coordinates! We bushwhacked with bare arms through what felt like miles of pine trees that scratched and scraped us, while we took turns shooing the hundred or so mosquitos off of our bodies. I think I cried once too. =X I thought we were goners, lost in the woods forever!

 

Then we found a fence. And when we stopped on a log that was buried a little into the hillside to figure out if we were finally near the car (we'd decided to give up and log as a DNF), my boyfriend looked down and was nearly standing on TOP of the cache itself.

 

Needless to say, we were both perturbed and elated at the day. And Canadian mosquitos can bite through shoes! O.o!

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Yes I have! Wrecked my patellar tendon. Stepped off a forest service road, a little slip and whoops next thing I know it's out with the duct tape and steel rods to make a brace to I could get home. Then off to the ER. They thought the steel rod and duct tape brace was quite amusing. Had to have surgery to fix it, big incision type too, none of that arthroscopic stuff. :lol:

 

Croaker

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RazorBack Sep 24th and it looks to be a great evening.. I decide to take the afternoon and do some hiking..

 

(log entry)

 

Here is the scoop... Last friday, the 24th, I left work alittle early after a long week and planned to get this cache. I parked at the trailhead just before 1500. I arrived at the cache location, after a few wrong choices, around 1745. I realized I would not be able to go back the exact same route because I was unable to climb down the way I climbed up...

I started looking for a different route when a rock slide out from under me. I was able to grab onto a crack and hung by fingertips for alittle over one minute. I knew I was going to fall, the best I could do was 'aim' my fall.

 

My plan worked fairly well, all things considered. After much falling and a very hard landing, I recovered my backpack, camera and cell phone. I walked approx 120-150 feet before the world started going dark. I realized my injuries were alittle more serious then I had hoped for so I called 911 and explained my situation. It was now just after 1800 hours and I was instructed to turn off the phone to conserve batteries. Four more phone calls and about 4.5 hours and I had members of S.A.R.A. coming up the hill for me.

 

They checked me over and decided there was no way we were climbing down. We got to spend the night and wait for morning until Ranger (the helicopter) could make a successful pickup.

 

Spent most of Saturday in the trauma center and amazed everyone when we found out all the swelling and lumps and cuts and bruises ended with nothing but damaged tendon's, contusions and cuts.. No a single broken bone could be seen in the xrays. Bruised rib, knees and baddly sprained both wrists. Trully a lucky day.

 

Long story, but a trully memorial location. Please do not take this as a bad indicater for the cache. I just had back luck with a single rock. I loved the views and will likely make that climb again sometime just to get my best and to prove to myself that it aint all that bad

 

I left a YJTB and a turtle. Took the bandana.

 

TFTC

 

**Edit to add** Got back from the Orthopaedic specalist today.. The left wrist is broken.. Still feel very lucky**

 

One month later and the knees still hurt. Ribs still hurt. Radius is still broken.. BUT I still have FTF on the cache. ;)

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<_< Reminds me of the story of the guide in Alaska with a 350lb client. The guide was about 175. The hunter asked the guide, "if I break my leg, how do you plan to get me out?" His reply, "just like when I get a moose, I'd make two trips". I carry a cell phone, and have local EMS numbers in phonebook as well as local air ambulances. Plus a personal "batltle pack" for longer treks.
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One of our members got bit by a copperhead (or similar) snake last week... the description of what happened is NOT pleasant. Her leg is swollen from hip to toe. Doctor said they could relieve the swelling using either of 2 options:

 

* Leeches

* Filleting

 

:rolleyes:

 

Which would YOU choose!

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I GeoCrashed in Arizona last year when I slid down the side of a mountain and landed with my 2 hands wrapped around a jumping chola cactus. It took me over an hour of ripping and tearing and lots of swearing to get the nodules of cactus out of my bleeding, bruised hands. I had to go to the hospital to tear the left-over spines out of my fingers and palm. I have had 2 more appointments, and still over 4 months later, I have spines surfacing that I have to take care of...sucks!

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:rolleyes: Just call me blinky from now on.

 

While heading for the first cache on 12/28/04 walked into a pricker branch at eye level. I now have a reference point for the phrase, "Better than a sharp stick in the eye". Yes, everything is better than a shape stick in the eye! Still kept caching even though I would stop every couple of minutes with stabbing pain and blinding flood of tears...and HDIGH asking if I wanted to go to the doctor. Once it stopped hurting, I could see just fine. Finally gave in (after 4 caches in this condition) and used the Atomic Betty (Garmin's PDA thingy) to get directions to the local hospital. Spent 2hrs at the emergency room for ..... and then did 5 more caches once I could keep the eye open. Yep we're over the top.

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I had a stick in the eye experience as well. This was my first cache of the day, I jum a creek a limb hit me in the face a a twig stuck in my eye. I pulled the twig out and continued on my way. I then drove another 1 1/2 hours and worked for the rest of the day. I finally went to an eye doctor and he found no major damage. My eye was swollen and black for a few days.

 

Below is the link to the cache and part of my log dated may 20,2003..

 

3. This is an expensive cache and it cost me a great day of caching in the Starkville Area, and $120 to an eye doctor in Starkville. Why, you might ask. As I entered the woods from the parking location at 6:45 this morning, I came to a creek I jumped across and a limb hit me in the eye and a twig from that stuck in my eye. I pulled it out and continued on my way, but by the time I made it to Starkville well lets just say (smiley with black eye) This is how I look as I type this tonight.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...&log=y&decrypt=

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RFLMAO!!!!!! Again & Again & Again & Again. Ha! Surgery for two lower inguinal hernias later from this fantastically fun game. So far the bill has luckily only been about $8,000.00.

 

I will never forget the Doctor after my examination: I have good news and bad news for you**********

The Good news is you have a hernia-

The Bad news is you have Two!

 

I hope he's enjoying his new golfcart I bought him. :huh:

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