What Injuries have you experienced on your walks

[corvus]

butterfly pads and superglue are the go ,make sure you have one those crepe elastic bandages as well, beats needle and cotton anyday and less painful, if you dont have bandages just rip up your shirt into strips , also works with snake bite,our tiger snakes are one of the most venomous in the world so it is important to slow the rate of venom into your body as much as possible,dont panic

Interesting combination of 1st aid treatment, please tell us what you do do with ripped shirts,butterfly pads and superglue
c

[johnw]

butterfly pads and superglue are the go ,make sure you have one those crepe elastic bandages as well, beats needle and cotton anyday and less painful, if you dont have bandages just rip up your shirt into strips , also works with snake bite,our tiger snakes are one of the most venomous in the world so it is important to slow the rate of venom into your body as much as possible,dont panic

Interesting combination of 1st aid treatment, please tell us what you do do with ripped shirts,butterfly pads and superglue
c

Actually not so strange. In my experience this is exactly the sort of thing that they teach you in remote area first aid training. While it's always best to carry appropriate equipment, you need to be able to improvise if necessary. Ripping up shirts or other clothing can be one way of doing that.

Super glue I believe can be used as a wound closure as an alternative to stitching. In fact I had such an experience many years ago when I accidentaly almost sliced the top off a middle finger. It wasn't on a bushwalk though. I reached into a toolbox at home without checking; had accidentally left an exposed blade and...ouch. Anyway I went to the nearest emergency medical centre and the doctor glued it back on rather than stitch it. Eventually healed up nicely.

Also good advice for snake bite re slowing the rate of venom through the lymph system. Keep the casualty still and calm; immobilise the limb from the extremeties inwards with a compression bandage (ripped shirt if that's all you have, although a proper compression bandage would be far better).

N.B. These are my opinions and not a substitute for proper first aid training. I'd recommend everyone consider doing at least the senior first aid certificate or equivalent.

[ben.h]

... we did come across a bloke at the base of Pelverata Falls, he slipped off the track the previous evening unfortunately he was dead ...

That's the worst injury mentioned so far!

[north-north-west]

Got a big chunk knocked out of me and could almost see my kneecap. A bandaid fixed it up. Amazingly it didn't damage my trousers at all, baffles me how the heck it could stab into my knee and cut a chunk out without stabbing though my trousers.

Similar incident with a lump of wood going halfway through my leg, but no damage to the pants. Wound looked like a bullet hole. Walked out (about 5km) after a little rudimentary first aid.
Dislocated toe (yes, from barefoot bushwalking). Walked out. Had to reduce it myself 'cause the jerk just about fainted when I got him to try fixing it.
Torn medial ligament. Limped/staggered out (about 10km).
Badly bruised knees and/or shins (many times). Just kept walking/limping/staggering/crawling . . .
Grazes from falls. Ditto.

That's my favourite method of dealing with injuries - just keep going . . . until you collapse . . .

[Taurë-rana]

Never had bad injuries from walking, other than some nasty blisters and the normal scrapes and bruises. The worst was a bruised rib which I thought might be bad for a while. Different story with horse riding,squash, Futsal, motorbike riding, in fact I think in my experience bushwalking is a relatively safe sport... which I have thought of sticking to so that my other activities don't stop me from walking.

[north-north-west]

Futsal? Is that a word?

[tasadam]

I bent a finger back a bit, it was in my glove so with my other hand I quickly bent the whole hand forward, curling the fingers the way they were supposed to go. Sore for a couple of weeks but no lasting damage.
A stick went up under my fingernail once, that wasn't much fun.
Banged my head a few times - my hat seems to block vision to head high things, like logs over the track. One time I was walking along then suddenly find myself on my butt with a sore head - the pack acts as a magnet to the ground as soon as the balance is out.

Pretty minor stuff - hopefully I don't have to add to this list.

[Seamus]

I've steadily scaled my first aid kit back over the last few years, trying to keep it down to bare essentials.

One thing I've found helpful was to get rid of the pack I was using as the first aid kit - one of those kathmandu fold-out zip ones, with a mirror inside. Quite a heavy item, really. now I just use a snap-lock bag, with meds: Voltaren (anti-inflam), Panadeine forte (in case of hideously broken leg), anti-histamines (hayfever or significant allergic reaction), ankle strapping tape (must know how to tape an ankle; doing a figure-8 is BAD NEWS), bandaids (gotta love the classics), fixomol (fantastic stuff, low allergy, covers everything from burns to blisters, or just to reinforce bandaids), elastoplast: one, long, continuous roll, which can be cut up - great blister prevention/treatment. That's about it, I've done away with a lot of other bits and pieces.

[Leggy]

Some of these posts make my experiences sound very tame

Rolled my ankle while walking alone on the Lycian Way, in a valley where the nearest villages were both at the top of big hills. I put a crepe bandage on it for a smidge of support, put my shoe back on and limped up to the next village, then stayed off it for the rest of the day. (Shame you can't pack Turkish hospitality in a first aid kit.)

Also, slipping down a hillside in rainforest and grabbing a wait-a-while vine to stop myself is not an experience I would care to repeat. Tweezers, you always have a home in my kit.

[Liamy77]

smaller sounding injuries are far less tame when your out there away from it all !

[durks]

I was climbing in the Alps once with a bloke I'd just met on the campsite. When I found out he was a doctor, I thought it was a good chance to get some tips, so I asked him what he had in his first aid kit. His answer: just a roll of zinc-oxide tape. That could be used for lots of different things and, if anything else were needed, it could be improvised. (e.g. Large bandage? Use clothes. Splint? Use a cut-up karrimat and whatever comes to hand, e.g. an ice-axe.)

His big tip though, concerned what to do in the case of broken arms or legs: 'Durks, you *gotta* check that you've still got a pulse on either the hand the foot. And if you haven't, you've gotta pull the break to straighten it out so that you *do* get a pulse.' 'Oh right', I said 'so what happens if, after all that, you still haven't got a pulse?' Answer: 'You're buggered, mate.'

[Joel]

haha, good story durks. I'm currently learning to walk again after taking about a 4 meter fall whilst rock scrambling up to the base of a climb. 4 broken bones, 1 steel plate and 7 screws. 3 months off work.

[Bluegum Mic]

After joking five minutes earlier about how I'd worn my low cut shoes and forgot my hiking pole (bet you I stack), I caught my left toes on a rock which sent me flying. As I twisted through the air with foot still caught I tore a 5cm tear in my anterior tibiofibula ligament (runs up between tibia and fibula like a sheath) and cracked my talar dome in my foot/ankle. Whilst I could list the necessary first aid I used, I don't think most could fit the two handsome strapping young men in their packs that helped me hobble out of the bush. Hmmm if only they fit a compression bag

[Liamy77]

.... and still breathe...

[Phil S]

Sprained ankle
Knee problems
Minor cuts and bruises
Hypo and Hyperthermia
Diarrhea

My first aid kit is based around (depending on the trip): Neurofin, zinc-oxide tape, Betadine, Elastoplast (squares, cut-to-size) and tweezers.

This is not the first time I've heard of Super Glue as a replacement for sutures. Is it just a matter of bunging it into the cut and drawing the two sides together?

[plaz]

Its not exactly as you describe, phil; the idea is to push the edges of the cut together first with fingers pressed on the skin on either side a couple of centimetres away from the wound and then using the other hand apply the glue in a layer over the surface of the skin across the cut while you are pushing it closed. As the glue dries it should form a hard film across the wound and you can then let go and this film will hold the tension and keep the wound edges together. If you put the glue into the wound itself as you intuitively describe rather than across the top it will delay healing as it forms a foreign body between the two edges of the wound, leading to more scarring than is needed. If the deep tissues need to be brought together you really need a stitch, as this will go through the deeper tissues as well as the skin, but in the field you may manage with butterflies or steristrips over the glue to help in absorbing the stretching forces that want to pull the wound back open.
Mistakes to make with the glue include glueing ones own fingers to the wound, or having it spill into the eye in wounds on the face. Both these mistakes sound obvious but are surprisingly easy to make.
I have never used it on a bushwalk, but have glued up cuts on my kids with good results using off the shelf superglue. The official medical sort is sold under the name histacryl - I don't know if it is really any different.

Cheers, adrian

[mikethepike]

An recent experience taught me to include some neurophin tablets that contain codeine, in my first aid kit.
Just before sunset last autumn, I broke my wrist (radius) near Pine Valley Hut and for pain relief, took paracetemol. It seemed to have no effect on the pain - well maybe it did but the pain was still enough to keep me awake until the first light of daybreak. That morning, some symapthetic and kind person gave me some Neurophin tablets. This got rid of the pain so well that, twice on my walk back to Narcissus, I stopped to seriously consider going back to the Hut and climbing Acropolis. But I knew that was absurd and kept going. That night I needed help getting the tent up because my hand was almost useless. So while hopefully you'll never need the tablets yourself, you never know when they might be helpful to someone else!

[north-north-west]

An recent experience taught me to include some neurophin tablets that contain codeine, !

The first things I check in my kit are the Panadeine and Sudafed. I don't go anywhere without those two drugs.

[Liamy77]

i like a ibuprofen/codeine blend (faster acting and also anti-inflam.) better than paracetamol, which takes up to 30hours of 4-6hour doses to reach its full effect
mersyndol is good too

[ULWalkingPhil]

I always take neaurophin plus with me, it's rare I use it, but it's always there in the outside pocket of my backpack if I need it. The only injury I've suffer from so far, on long hilly days are sore leg muscles, particularly today. Bush walked at the Blue Mountains 2 days ago. Went down the giant staircase, than walked past the base of the scenic look out for a few k's and returned to katoomba via the furber steps. Ouch!

[walkinTas]

I always take neaurophin plus with me, it's rare I use it, but it's always there in the outside pocket of my backpack if I need it. (italics added)

A lot of us do it - carry the card of tablets but not the box. One of the problems with carrying tablets around like this is that you need to be very careful of expiry dates. I would also caution that folk don't take tablets like nurofen for the first time when they are away from home on a long walk. If you had a bad reaction you'd be in big trouble. Always carry pain relief you know is safe for you.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Good advice walkingtas, my mum, ends up in hospital if she takes such a tablet, I'm lucky it don't effect me.

[nomadic]

broken pride

[north-north-west]

[ I would also caution that folk don't take tablets like nurofen for the first time when they are away from home on a long walk. If you had a bad reaction you'd be in big trouble. Always carry pain relief you know is safe for you.

That's why I stick with Panadeine. I know how it works for me: One tablet eases the pain enough to be able to walk (or whatever). Two tablets put me to sleep.

[Liamy77]

Always carry pain relief you know is safe for you.

true

[WarrenH]

On the Boyd Plateau I was bitten by a Latrodectus. Talk about making me sweat, their venom does that. It took a long time to heal, nearly 12 months.

A doctor drew the line around the injury. I was in hospital for 10 days. It is my only famous bushwalking injury apart from having tick toxaemia that had me admitted a few years earlier, for a week.




The mark on my other shin, was from being bear-trapped a couple of times.

Warren.

[gayet]

Ugly - I had to look up Latrodectus - a member of the widow spider family (like black widows), in case anyone else was wondering. How long after the bite did it become so obvious?

[WarrenH]

Gayet, that Widow with the red stripe. About 5 days, although after 2 days I had gone into a sweating profusely mode. I was crook.

Tick toxaemia was the worst. I couldn't convince several doctors that I had removed the body of a paralysis tick but couldn't get the head out. I couldn't see the area of the bite and the head had buried itself. I was totally toxic after 5 days. One of the doctors at Canberra Hospital told me, that he and his colleagues thought that I was going to die, ... but only the good die young. I don't know what happened for the first few days in hospital, because I slept through it. Then I was bed ridden for the next 3 months.

I collapsed, the doc who saw me said, "He looks like he has tick toxaemia." My wife Helen told him, that I had been trying to convince doctors every day for the past week, that I had.

Warren.

[gayet]

Touch wood, I haven't been bitten by dangerous spiders and QLD bush ticks are small, easily removed and only an itch for a while afterwards. Don't know about Tas ticks, but I'll take appropriate precautions in the central highlands.
Glad you aren't good, we would hve missed all those fabulous photos! Except the spider aftermath maybe.....

[WarrenH]

Gaye, thank you. You are too kind.

Warren.