First Aid

I arrived home on Saturday just in time for the Labor Day weekend. A few days ago, during a storm, a dead tree had fallen on our property. While having a few days off, my son and I decided to remove the tree as it was close to our mailbox. While my son was in the basement preparing the tools we would need,  I walked over to take a look at my task at hand, picked up a branch from the tree and threw it into the woods. Just then, a swarm of "European Hornets" came buzzing out around me. several of these hornets began stinging me on my wrist and arm. I realized quickly what was happening and ran as fast as I could into our garage and into the house. I yelled for my wife to close our garage door behind me. My wife and son started a sink full of ice water for me and I put my arm and hand in there for quite some time. The pain was terrible! My hand and arm began to swell... even with applying ice. My wife ran upstairs to get the "Benadryl Creme" and she called her mother who is a retired nurse. My mother-in-law suggested to immediately ingest "Benadryl". Luckily, we had some on hand in our medicine chest. A day later, my symptoms are swelling, redness and itchiness. Needless to say, I'm not going near that tree until a much later time...

 

With this incident, I couldn't help but think... what if this happened while out on the road? Many people are allergic to bee stings. This is a good reminder that we all should carry a "First Aid Kit"in our trucks. You never know when it will come in handy.I checked mine recently and it was out of date. This means the medications are expired, however you may still be able to use some of the items in the kit. I will purchase new one's over the weekend for all my vehicles at home as well as the truck.  Make sure you carry any medications you take on a regular basis and those which you might need if an incident occurs. obviously, we can't prepare for everything, but preparation can go along way, especially if you have any type of medical issues.

 

For those of you who are not familiar with the "European Hornet", I've posted a link for you. These hornets are very large in size and can cause tremendous harm to animals and humans alike. 

 

Henry