Rattlesnake Adventure (part one) I Was Bitten By A Rattlesnake

Written 5-15-10

The picture I took right before the snake bite

How far does a girl have to go to get face time with her friends?

Dinner parties are great but you are always busy feeding everyone.
Coffee is great but everyone comes and goes and it’s loud. Bars are crazy; you can’t really have a conversation when you’re surfing.

So, I decided to try something new last Wednesday. I stepped on a snake, a rattlesnake—a four-foot long rattlesnake with a big mouth.
I have spent more quality face-to-face time with my friends in the past three days than I have all year.

Here’s the story:
I took two of my girlfriends daughters for a walk along with my dog and a neighbor’s dog. I was taking pictures of wildflowers for this very blog, the girls were chatting about horses and well up ahead of me on the trail and the dogs were cavorting through the brush.

The girls rounded the big oak tree up ahead of me and walked back towards me. They stopped and asked if they could run ahead to the horse barn about a quarter mile back to the trailhead without me and I said "yes."

This was one of the best decisions I had made all day.

As I watched them run I notice they ran by a beautiful little patch of lupin flowers. I had been taking long shots of wild flowers and no close-ups. I slowly started to move toward the patch of flowers as I looked down to adjust my camera lens.

I took one more step without looking up and wham! I heard a weird whipping noise and I felt a violent jab to my leg that felt like two white-hot nails being driven into my ankle with quite some force.

For a split second I thought I had stepped on a piece of debris with a sharp object attached.

Then I heard the rattle. That is right, the snake didn’t rattle until after I stepped on it. How unfair is that? Of course when I heard the rattle, I knew what had happened.

I stepped back to see a large rattlesnake coiling away from me. It was rattling up a storm. The snake made a run for it across the trail rattling all the way. My neighbor’s dog ran after it. I grabbed him and walked down the trail a bit until the dogs weren’t interested any more in the snake. I plopped myself on the ground, pulled out my cell phone and called my girlfriend who’s house was at the trailhead and told her to call 9-1-1, first because I didn’t know her address which is where they would dispatch the call and second because it is a lot faster to get emergency services from a land line.

I started to slowly walk toward the trailhead.

I was already feeling the affects of the venom.

Every inch of my body was vibrating, the sensation of Novocaine wearing off—only about 10 times stronger.

My lips, my mouth and my tongue had that buzzing sensation also but more intense. My tongue felt big and fuzzy and my mouth was dry and had a terrible metallic taste.

Soon I heard the children’s voices, three of the neighbor kids running towards me to help. This was to be one of the many highlights of my snakebite adventure.

“Chigiy, are you O.K.? Did you get bit? How can we help?”
I was quite impressed. I handed the dogs off to them as my friend Nihal approached.

As he approached I could hear sirens in the distance getting closer.

He helped me to walk a bit toward the gate. It was getting a little too painful to walk, so Nihal just let me hold onto him and stand. I couldn’t remember what to do. I thought I was supposed to lie down and relax but I couldn’t figure out how the ambulance was going to get to me.

At some point I could tell by the sound, that the ambulance had missed the private road to the trail where I was located.

I’m going to go back eating my hospital dinner through my Vicodin daze.

To be continued.

Stumble It!

Comments

[Carol]

Oh my! I hope you are okay!

[Kalynskitchen]

OMG, this sounds awful. I am assuming you're okay now, since you're writing the post, but scary!

[chigiy]

Carol and Kalyn,

I spent five days in the hospital and I am now recovering at home. It has been all so surreal. I will recover fully, but I plan to have the place where the rattlesnake bit me tatooed on my leg.

[Katie]

Oh my gosh that is crazy! Glad to hear you're ok. It's funny how something like that can spark a tattoo!

[chigiy]

Katie,
I don't have any tattoos, but I figure what's a couple of dots on my ankle. How are you doing?

[Jacqueline]

For the record, I was waiting at the top of that driveway for the emergency vehicles so they wouldn't miss the turn! You probably heard each vehicle stop while I told them where to go. The fire truck had to take that sharp turn at the bottom of the hill very slowly, so there was a bit of stop and start there, too.

If I had it to do over, I would have additionally posted kids along the route to where you were. "Keep going! Keep GOING!"

When are you going to post the gruesome photos of your Shrekfoot? ;)

SO glad you are home!

[Alice Mahlum]

The area of WYO where we lived had many rattlers but I fortunately didn't meet any. I always wondered the effect--very interesting--but sooooo scary. We are glad you are okay1!

[Gail]

Hi Chigiy! I've been thinking of you and am so glad you're back home and recovering! What a scary experience! I heard your foot is worth a lot of money now!

[Jaleh Hobson]

Chigiy,

I've thinking about you since I heard about this. I even had a dream about you on Thursday night, woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. I would like to bring some dinner over for you guys. I'm so glad you're doing well.

Jaleh

[chigiy]

Jacqueline,

Don't worry, I'm going to address the driveway issue in my next post. Thank you for being such a hero. xo

Alice,

Hi! I bet you have your share of rattlers, please don't step on any. Thank you for visiting my blog. Say "Hi" to Marshall. I hope he is doing O.K..

Hey Gail,

Are you counting down the days? Next
year we will have to get together more and do some hiking. Wear large leather boots.

Jaleh,
Thank you for your concern. Did you know about the "incident" Thursday night before you had the dream? That would have been weird if you hadn't heard yet. Thank you for your offer. I think we are set for dinners but come over and visit.

[kimmy r.]

Chigiy. Love your story. Next tell us about your hospital stay, all your girlfriend's visits, the funny gifts they bestowed upon you, and how your very cute friend put your roomie to sleep while describing her middle grade novel.
Xoxo kimmy

[chigiy]

Kimmy!!!!
I'm on Vicodin, yeah.
Hey it was hilarious when that lady started snoring, I almost wet myself, which was quite a feat in itself considering I was hooked up to a catheter. I just talked to Rich's friend about publishing your book.
Yeah, I'm on Vicodin. Come see me. Did I mention I was on Vicodin.xox

[Gina Bommarito]

Chigiy,

It is funny how far some people would go to get some "girlfriend face time." I have to admit, this is pretty outlandish and hard to top! Hmmm...too bad there are no cobras in California. Anyways, just want to say that you don't need to be bit by a snake to get quality face with me... just tell me there is coffee and I am there!!! Miss you!

[chigiy]

Gina,

I miss you too girlfriend! Congratulations on your presentation. Whooohoooo. Let's have cocktails and Vicodin.

[BarB Payne]

Hi Girlie Girl, Jennifer told me of your latest - to say the least - adventure. OMG - Did you know this is exactly why we moved to Hawaii-no snakes! Just wanted you to know we are thinking of you and so happy to know you are doing much better. Much love for now-Aloha PS from now on please use your stilts for walking around.

[chigiy]

Aloha Dear Barb,
How is that island treating you? I did not know snakes were the reason you moved. I hate to burst your bubble but there are snakes in Hawaii. The snake is the Brahminy blind snake. It is tiny and looks just like an earth worm. They love to eat termites, so be happy that they are there.
Thank you for checking in. Enjoy a Mai Tai for me.

[Dee @ Red Dirt Ramblings]

OH NO!!!

[Rita Arens]

I'd like to talk to you about syndicating this series on BlogHer. Can you e-mail me at [email protected] to discuss? Thanks!

[Annie in Austin]

Adventure, indeed... just glad the title is not The Final Adventure of Chigiy the Brave... good grief!

Going over to part 2

Hugs from TX

[chigiy]

Hey Annie,
I bet you have plenty of the lovely creatures in your area.

[Annie in Austin]

Hi again Chigiy,
(Just freaked out my husband by showing him the photos) We haven't seen anything but little Texas brown snakes at this Austin house - but the house we owned from 1999 to 2004 was on a canyon so there were rattlesnakes and coral snakes (and scorpions) there.

Your story reminds us why old-time pioneers preferred a zone of beaten earth around the house!

Annie

[chigiy]

Annie,
OOOO coral snakes. They are interesting. The antivenin for coral snakes is almost non-existent I hear. A bite from a coral snake is pretty rare though, because they have small mouths and small teeth.
Stick to that beaten earth, it's safer,

[BarB Payne]

OK - I had two Mai Tai's for you and me - you know for the pain and all.
Things are good here - we are getting the house in shape-loving the grand kids visits-
Our middle child Izzy was watching me make Chicken soup(from scratch) as I pulled the chicken from the pot to cool-she asked - did I shoot it? I said no-well where's the head? she replies, I said there is no head-she replies, yes there is-If I had shot it there was a head- well we talked about where here grammy get's HER chicken-from the store. There is another story in this -about the wild pig Jason shot a few weeks ago-about 150 lbs. After cleaning it they needed a fridge- they had no room. When we tried to shove it in my BRAND NEW FRIDGE a leg kept popping out while Kollette and I tried to put the rest in(without the head)- this is 2 am on the 1st night we were in our new house-Great house warming gift- New hawaiian custom!! Did I mention my new fridge. We have since eaten all but 1 loin and that is being roasted this weekend. No Head!
Lots of love PS you look fantastic.