Time to open door eleven, and see if we can learn more about cold injuries and hypothermia. This is an area which we can dig much deeper in, so I will have a own blog for this topic further on. First of all is the importance of predicting work. So understanding how this type of injurie works is crucial for avoiding it. Fist we can divide this type of injuries in two areas; Frost bites without icing. This category often mention as “immersion foot”. It appears when a part of the body is exposed for long time immobilization and in combination with moisture and a temperature around 0 degrees. In Swedish this symptom is also called skyttegravsfot. The other injurie can be characterized by of icing/frostbites. This injurie often appear in strong cold, often in combination with strong winds. Sometimes persons with locally cold injuries also got low body temperature. The injurie mechanism is that the water in the tissue freezes and build up crystals which is destroying the cells structure. In this type of injuries it is important to asses the deepness of the wound. If superficial injuries without icing or if it is injuries with blisters with clear fluid. Or if it is deep injuries with blood filled blisters, or if it is full tissue wounds. This with no blisters but wax like tissue, and in the next step mummified tissue, black necrosis.

So what will be your action in this situation? First you must remove the person from the environment of coldness and moister. Remove moistened clothes, protect from the wind. You should not warm up if there is a risk for refreezing. Passive warming from body part or partner etc. Do not massage injured tissue will get hurt easy. Hot and sweet drink. High arms and legs, don’t let the patient walk on freeze feet, due to the risk of tissue injuries. (You can use Ibuprofen 400mg twice a day for the pain and reduce the inflammatory reaction)

A normal reaction that always appear is the shudder. This is involuntarily contractions from the skeletons muscles. This because of produce heat to the body. The more cold the person become and feel the more he or she will shuddering. The body reaction will increase the metabolism. What this means is that the body need energy to being able to shuddering. At the same time we freeze we crimes more energy. That why it is so important to add energy to one that is freezing. Hot drink ant food will help a lot of course. You can achieve the same effect as shuddering with physical work, you will get warmer. Do push ups etc.

But first of all, knowledge is the solution for not having frostbites. With a clothing within the multilayer principal and understanding the winds affect on the human body and also the affect of the wind drift. So why don’t start the day by doing an analyze of what risk of frostbite will the conditions and activity have…that is what I call a good start for an adventure day.

See ya tomorrow…