RRC Archives

So, I forgot to include this in the weekend report. See, my buddy hasn't climbed for about a year, so the sauce was a little weak. Normally, he would cruise an easy ten, but the sauce was getting runny on anything harder than a 9. So, I lead pre-emptive strike (which is a cool route), with a but of a nerd gate ate the bottom. You know, one of those classic RRG climbs with the crux in the first 10 feet. I come down and he ropes up for a top-rope run. He reaches up t feel the moves and announces "OK, not gonna happen. I'm gonna pull through."

So, route being 100 feet or so, and rope kinda stretchy, I suck up all the slack I can till I'm hanging in the air about 5 feet, he pulls up, I go down. I ratchet up again, he goes up, I go down. Now,on my last ratchet, I kinda Fuck up, and end up swinging a little, you know, you toward the tree. On the wy back in, I scrape the tree pretty hard, and ratchet again, and my buddy is now through the crux. As he climbs, I'm thinking, man, my arm hurts. I Look at it, looks a little scraped, but no big deal. He climbs some more, finishes the route, comes down, and I start playing with my arm, and there is an inch long, thick sliver buried in my arm. Rhodo. I try to pull it out, no go. I try to push it out (yes, it was big enough to push), no luck. So, when I go home, I whip out the needle, tweezers, and razor blades and set to work. Being in my bicep, it was tricky to work on, also, I find that my natural self preservation wont allow my to really cut with a blade. So I pick and pull, no luck.

Wake up Monday, bright red circle around it.
I go to the doc, he whips you a big needle with a numbing agent, a razor sharp big needle with razors on it, and says "I haven't done anything fun like this all day!"

After a few minutes of deep picking, he pulls out this thick splinter. It was shorter than I thought it would be, bt thicker.

So, watch out for Rhodos with cut limbs, very sharp!

I kept asking myself if I was a pussy for not just cutting down to get it myself, but doc said it was good to come in, splinter being big and all, and gives me some antibiotic because of the length of time the splinter was in.

I think next time I'll get drunk and have dipsi cut it out.

Oh man splinters suck.

I had this splinter in my thumb for over a month and it just recently worked its way out. Day one of my kitchen remodel I somehow ended up with a splinter in my thumb. Never looked red and infected so I kinda let it be picking on it when I thought it might be close to the surface. Usually after a shower when my skin was soft and supple I'd sit down and try to dig it out. I'd work and work on this thing with a needle and tweezers digging deeper and deeper until I'd feel a little flush and woozy from tearing up my own flesh. Now I've dug out splinter before but never had one that was so much trouble.

So three weeks go by and we're in Colorado. I stick my thumb in our doctor friends faces and say how does this look? "Oh man you better get that cut out, when was your last tetnus shot? You know we can cut that out back at the house" I like my friends, and they're great climbing partners, but I'm not going to let them cut on my thumb. So a week later, on the way home, in a hotel room in MO I think I've got the offending matter out of my thumb.

The spot 'heals' up and the calused skin softens only revive the stinging sensation when I hit my thumb in a certain way (pretty much anything I do with my thumb hits the splinter in a certain way). One night I finally sit down vowing to get the demon out of my thumb. I arm myself with peroxide, a needle, and a tiny pair of tweezers and go to work. After about 15 minutes of digging to reopen the area I get under the splinter with the needle pushing it upward and free of a deep layer of my skin. Now I'm staring at a glimering piece of something sticking out of my thumb totally freaked out. This is it snag it with the tweezers and I'm free, or screw up and push it deeper into my throbbing thumb. I go down, grab the shiv, and slowly ease it out of the fleshy tomb. I'm free. Looking hard into the void in my thumb to make sure I didn't leave anything behind I grin from ear to ear. I have no idea how the sliver of metal got in there, but its now out. Ahhhhhh.

Leason, go to the doctor like huggy and get what ever foriegn object is stuck in you out. And stay updated on your tetnus booster.

Wussies. A real climber woulda had that out the first day with a nut tool and a big wall hammer.

I can't wait until I get a chance to suture ynot with a piton and some twisted tape.

A few months ago I met a little girl who was walking through a kitchen in the process of being remodeled and she got a splinter exactly the size of a wooden matchstick stuck in the bottom of her foot at the base of her pinky toe. We had to do the numb-it and dig-for-it approach, but she took it like a real trooper. There's something satisfying about a procedure like that.

now on to the sea urchins

ouch..

My mom always taped a big piece of bacon fat on our splinter holes before we went to bed. Next morning, there it was sucked into the bacon.

I don't know how it worked. She was from Harlan; they know stuff!

Bacon? I'll trust you Harlan Countians and try the ole bacon trick next time. But I don't think Jill will let me in the bedroom with bacon taped to my thumb.

You might be surprised, there, Steve!