Quake3World

Wouldn't wish this on anyone. Was on a camping trip down here in oman - we had just speared about 8 fish, had come back to shore and were gathering firewood.

The main source was dried-up small thorny trees, and we were carefully ripping off the branches, being careful not to get too scratched up.

Was trying to break this one branch and was throwing a large stone at it. Each time I did so, the whole tree would vibrate and a bunch of thorny debris would fall all over me.

The third time i did it, i felt what felt like a thorn being stuck in my left ankle. I looked down at my foot, and my sandal was covering the area where i felt the prick. I assumed a thorn had been wedged in between my sandals and my ankle. The pain wasn't going away, so i asked my friend to take a look, since i didn't want to move at all and lodge the thorn in further. Plus i was in severe pain.

She took off my sandal and said:

dude: it must've been an ant, i don't see any thorns in your foot. Then she points to this scorpion scuttling off right next to my sandal...

it had stung me in two points on my left ankle. You know the feeling when a sharp thorn penetrates your skin? That immediate spike of pain which is really nasty? Well imagine that, but CONSISTENT...and ACCELERATING.

my god...

luckily, we were only a 5 minute hike from the main beach, and we found someone to take me to hospital, where they administered some anti-histamine, and a couple local anaesthetics on my foot.

Only problem was, they had to inject right on the sore area. I almost broke the damn gurney with the convulsions from the pain. Then three seconds later - the pain disappeared ENTIRELY. Was fucking magic.

Pain started to creep in an hour later, so they gave me another dose before discharging me. They said they'd give me some antihistamines and painkillers (oral).

I ended up being sent home with actifed and paracetamol - WTF???

pain returned about 30 min later but didn't peak to same level as before. Swelling was minimal - seems i got fairly lucky in that department.

anyway - was a great opportunity to examine the nature of pain - i was conscious of this opportunity and took some time to do some phenomenological observations...

of which your summary finding was "ouch".

Sounds like quite an experience.

fucking scorpions creep me out. Never have seen one in person (as I live in Canada) and that's just fine with me.

Jackal wrote:fucking scorpions creep me out. Never have seen one in person (as I live in Canada) and that's just fine with me.

Same here.

Spearing fish on the other hand, I would like to try out.

Sounds like a fun camping trip aside from that though man, glad you came away with some "phenomenological observations."

Jackal wrote:fucking scorpions creep me out. Never have seen one in person (as I live in Canada) and that's just fine with me.

I'm more of a "creeped out by lobsters" kind of a guy. Another reason why I don't eat seafood.

Edit: that said, I like this little fella less:

the one that got me was quite large (as far as scorpions go) - i can't remember exactly what it looked like but this looks close:



was about 5 inches long tail included.

i probably pissed it off by tossing that rock around its environment. Maybe it lived in the rock - was one of those concrete blocks.

gonna go to bed - hopefully this pain will have gone down by morning. Starting to get uncomfy.

I remember reading that the smaller a scorpion is the more deadly it's venom is. Not sure how true that is but I'm sure I read it somewhere.

good shit man, should have grabbed him and smoked him

dayumn...What about bullet ants? I got stung by 3 of those at once in costa rica, supposedly they are supposed to be able to kill an elephant on their own, but the tour guy (cool costa rican guy) had some anti-bullet-ant-pen-injector things and he stuck 3 of them into my thigh right above where i got stung, i didnt feel the needles go in but they were LONG and i didnt die (as you can see!) but i did pass out for 9 hours, and my thigh hurt like a fucker, but yeah All i have now are the neat-o scars...

(Scorpions creep me out, ants not so much)
(I have a dead scorpion in a glass orb, its neat)!

Ryoki wrote:Sounds like quite an experience.

Just glad you came out of it reasonably OK :icon1:

What really creeps me out are spiders... eeewwah god I hate creepy ass bugs like that.

riddla wrote:

primaltheory wrote:some anti-bullet-ant-pen-injector things

they're called epi-pens. epinepherine doses. only about 1/100th of whats in the vial ends up in your thigh.

I carry a couple for long hikes and camping.

W/e it's called it saved my ass!

(how does so little end up in? where does the rest go)

Jackal wrote:I remember reading that the smaller a scorpion is the more deadly it's venom is. Not sure how true that is but I'm sure I read it somewhere.

Not sure about scorpions, but this is partially true with snakes. Younger snakes don't have more potent venom, but being inexperienced and more easily frightened, they will inject much more of their venom in one strike than a mature adult will, resulting in a much more potent bite.

I think it's true for scorpians too, not as they grow, but their final size, the smaller ones (males or females i can't remember) are much more potent...Somebody go look on the wiki

[xeno]Julios wrote:
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yep, i wouldve shit

Heh.... that's pretty freaky. I don't know much about scorps. Glad you're okay though. I'm assuming some scorpion bites can be fatal, yes?

smaller ones are edible, my brohter in law sent me one from HongKong it was a 3cm scorpion encased in toffee - all fully edible..

primaltheory wrote:dayumn...What about bullet ants? I got stung by 3 of those at once in costa rica, supposedly they are supposed to be able to kill an elephant on their own, but the tour guy (cool costa rican guy) had some anti-bullet-ant-pen-injector things and he stuck 3 of them into my thigh right above where i got stung, i didnt feel the needles go in but they were LONG and i didnt die (as you can see!) but i did pass out for 9 hours, and my thigh hurt like a fucker, but yeah All i have now are the neat-o scars...

(Scorpions creep me out, ants not so much)
(I have a dead scorpion in a glass orb, its neat)!

ouch, you poor bugger

last time i was there (want to go again, costa rica is beautiful), one of the guides at the place we were staying got bitten on his ass. looked like total bloody agony.

always have to be so careful where you stand and how long you stand there for in a place like that.

Yea, The volcaino was fucking sweet though (vulcan arenal) the hotsprings were, uh, hot... Yea those fuckers are impossible to crush too, btw, they are worse then ticks (which require either somthing very heavy or somthing with lots of leverage to honestly kill)

Fucking hell julios, that's some serious shit. Glad you're alright. Shoulda railed the bastard.

mik0rs wrote:

Jackal wrote:fucking scorpions creep me out. Never have seen one in person (as I live in Canada) and that's just fine with me.

I'm more of a "creeped out by lobsters" kind of a guy. Another reason why I don't eat seafood.

Edit: that said, I like this little fella less:

that's 2 "little fuckers".

I could give you some phenomological observations about kidney stone pain.
Like passing 11 of them in about 2 months.

Just ow dude, ow....

Serves you right for visiting wierd countries.