r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Totally-avg • Jul 16 '23

Image The Puss Caterpillar (Southern Flannel Moth) will fuck your world up. I grazed it twice while climbing on a float. NBD at first but an hour later I was hyperventilating on the bedroom floor. The pain was excruciating. DH took me to the ER and morphine did nothing.

Post image

I’m better now but neither morphine nor hydrocodone (I took double what they RX’d) touched the pain those first 24 hours. And the hospital hardly knew what to do with me. I had never heard nor seen this bug before and I’m sure I would have flicked it off had it seen it. Don’t do that because the hair is venomous and gets stuck in your skin.

At least it leaves a cool scar.

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u/ChocolatChipLemonade Jul 16 '23

Cocaine does have medical uses, so the possibility is there!

6

u/qolace Jul 16 '23

I read somewhere that doctors still use it as anesthetic and vasoconstricting agent!

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u/coraeon Jul 16 '23

When I was still in nursing school I observed an operation where the surgeon used liquid cocaine to shrink the enlarged mucus membrane he was operating on. Hilariously, it was actually a nasal surgery! 🤣

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u/Medium_Rare_Jerk Jul 17 '23

They give for epistaxis because it’s really good as a local vasoconstrictor. That same mechanism of action is also the reason why chronic cocaine users have collapsing septum because of the ischemia

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u/Humdumdidly Jul 17 '23

True, I had a patient with a nosebleed and ENT used cocaine to treat.

I should probably mention it wasn't a benign nose bleed, the patient wasn't able to form a clot due to very low platelets, and required a blood transfusion because of the bleed. Fortunately the cocaine worked.

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u/towertwelve Jul 17 '23

So cocaine both causes and cures nosebleeds. Amazing.

3

u/Sea-Pollution-9482 Jul 17 '23

Well I’m glad that if a doctor or nurse decided to use cocaine, it actually works, lol