Painful lesson

[dragon_rider10]

While we're talking about things that go wrong when I launch rockets, I thought you might find this humorous.

I was trying to recover a rocket in an unfamiliar area near my usual launch site. It was a grassy, sandy field, and apparently I didn't pay close enough attention to the surroundings. I never found my rocket, but I did find this in my leg:

At first I thought it was a huge insect. Apparently, its a type of 'jumping cactus'. I've lived in Florida all my life and never seen anything like this. Removing it was extraordinarily painful. Apparently the spines have microscopic barbs that look like snake scales. Whenever I moved it, it kept getting deeper My wife who was with me had one in the shoulder of her shirt. My daughter was with me as well, and I'm thankful she didn't get one. This one was dead, the one my wife found was green, and looked more like a typical cactus.

We eventually removed it, but I'm not going back in that field any time soon...

 

[RimfireJim]

Ouch! That hurts just looking at it!

 

[MarkII]

Yeow! That's gotta hurt! :y:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylindropuntia_fulgida

A friend in town told me that whenever his dog would try to be "friends" with porcupines, he would first trim the quills to about 1"-2" long, apply turpentine to them and then wait around a half hour. The quills would absorb the turpentine and then become very soft. After 30 minutes he could easily pull them out without any yelping or whimpering from the dog. I wonder if there is something that can be applied to the cactus spines in a similar way to soften them and make them much less painful to remove?

MarkII

 

[dragon_rider10]

Yeow! That's gotta hurt! :y:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylindropuntia_fulgida

A friend in town told me that whenever his dog would try to be "friends" with porcupines, he would first trim the quills to about 1"-2" long, apply turpentine to them and then wait around a half hour. The quills would absorb the turpentine and then become very soft. After 30 minutes he could easily pull them out without any yelping or whimpering from the dog. I wonder if there is something that can be applied to the cactus spines in a similar way to soften them and make them much less painful to remove?

MarkII

I'll send you one and you can try that out.

 

[jcDerRedMax]

Phoenix-101-Do-jumping-cholla-cactus-really-jump

Jumping Cholla youtube

Attack of the jumping Cholla

You learn to carry a leatherman when you go hiking.

 

[MarkII]

I'll send you one and you can try that out.

That's OK - I'm not THAT curious!

So when you pull it out, does all of it come out, or do you have to pick out pieces of it? (Well, I guess I'm still SORTA curious.)

Nice subject for two days before Christmas.... Let's talk about heli-rockets instead.

MarkII

 

[dragon_rider10]

That's OK - I'm not THAT curious!

So when you pull it out, does all of it come out, or do you have to pick out pieces of it? (Well, I guess I'm still SORTA curious.)

Nice subject for two days before Christmas.... Let's talk about heli-rockets instead.

MarkII

Luckily, the spines did not really spear me that deeply, so I was able to pull them out. I had to first clip away the extra part of the cactus that wasn't in my leg, otherwise i was afraid of driving the spines in further. I used a pair of nail clippers for this. Then, with the extra material gone, I could pull the spines out by hand. I have seen those YouTube videos before and that's what it was like pulling them out. I was surprised to not see any of my innards on the spines. I got most of them out in one go.

 

[r1dermon]

hmm...i wonder if simply holding a soaked rag with rubbing alcohol would've softened it up any...?

i know when i get metal slivers especially i run them under warm water, and then hit them with a ton of soap, and they usually come out pretty clean...other than that the alcohol usually does the trick..

 

[MarkII]

hmm...i wonder if simply holding a soaked rag with rubbing alcohol would've softened it up any...?

i know when i get metal slivers especially i run them under warm water, and then hit them with a ton of soap, and they usually come out pretty clean...other than that the alcohol usually does the trick..

The alcohol might cause more pain than simply pulling them out, though. Well, maybe it could be done. You would just have to keep it from seeping into the wound.

MarkII