Last week we talked about taking that hike around the beautiful hills around the campground. Today is a few weeks later the beautiful fall colors are gone and a white carpet of snow glistens in the sun light; but as we are taking, our walk the sky opens up, and it starts snowing, and the temperature starts falling.
Now if you listened to me last week, you pull out the extra coat and water proof parka. Smiling to yourself, you think what a smart camper you are. Just then, while walking across a frozen stream, your feet fall through a weak piece of ice, and you are suddenly knee deep in water, very, very cold water, cold as a witch’s heart (and you thought I was going to use some other portion of her anatomy?).
You know that you need to get back to camp to avoid hypothermia, but as you walk your feet become colder and colder until you can’t feel them, not at all. What is happening? You finally make it back to camp and into the camper and pull your boots off. What meets your eye’s scares you. Your legs and ankles start out fire red, then your feet are blue grading into a waxy yellow/white, and your toes are hard and even a little black. Then it hits you. You have frost bite! What do you do?
Remember when in doubt, run around, scream and shout! No, that doesn’t work! Rubbing the area with snow is out, in-spite of what you may have heard. It just creates more damage. In fact, any vigorous movement or massage can cause more damage. What can you do? Well first, if it is a large area that is “bitten” or any chance of re-freezing, do not try to thaw it out! By the way, complete hands or feet are large. You need serious medical help and SOON. Put dry socks on and loose shoes/boots and call for help or, if you have to, drive for help. But whatever you do, don’t delay getting help as soon as you can. There is no shame in calling for an ambulance if it is a large area that is affected. Large areas can even be reason for amputation especially if not handled properly.
If it is a small area like just a part of a finger or two and you are safely back at camp, you have more options. You can use water (lukewarm to cool) to thaw it out. Hot water is a bad idea (remember the movie, Jurassic Park III? “That’s A Bad Idea!”) and yes it will hurt (talk about pins and needles!). Even then it is a good idea to get checked out. After it thaws you still might have some pain and develop blisters like a burn, they usually heal in 10 days to a couple of weeks. Clean dry dressings and some sort of antibiotic cream are good if the blisters open or other open wounds develop. Watch carefully for any sign of infection and, if it develops, seek medical attention.
And please remember, it doesn’t always have to be your feet to get frostbite. That dry ice you are using in your cooler can very quickly give you frostbite on your hands, or changing that flat along the roadway in snow and ice. It doesn’t even have to be winter; it seems one 4th of July I decided to do my mother a favor and thaw her deep freeze out. I went and put all the stuff in it in boxes and covered them with blankets and started thawing out the freezer, but it wasn’t going fast enough to suit me ( I had a hot date planned that night), so I put in hot water and salt. I started mixing it around with my hands . . . 45 minutes later they felt like clubs, 90 minutes later they finally quite hurting (remember Hot water is a bad idea?). I happened to see my Doctor down town that night and still the had the pain. After I told him the story and he quit laughing, he told me I had the finest case of Frostbite he had ever seen in July. The blisters and pain for the next week or two were fairly easy to forget. But my Doctor and family still remind me . . . Now that hurts!
Your obedient servant,
Gary Smith, Jr.
I wish to say I am sorry to my readers. I am working on getting pictures to go along with my articles but with limited success; it seems no one wants to volunteer to have any of the problems that I am writing about. So if you have any pictures of any outdoor injuries or illnesses, please feel free to private message me with the information.