Wilderness Survival Guide 47 Pain & Injury Pain, your body’s response to injury, can be very disabling. Despite this, when threatened with danger, your body can at times momentarily mask pain. For example, while gingerly limping along on your sprained ankle, you meet a skunk and it rears its tail at you. No doubt you will find yourself running as though your ankle was never hurt. This is not to say that you should ignore the cause of your pain, but that by keeping yourself busy, you may be able to use this masking ability to help manage it and keep it from weakening your will to go on. Any injuries, even minor cuts, sprains, or bruising can drain you physically as well as emotionally and should be dealt with immediately. With that in mind, it is recommended that you take first-aid training offered by St. John Ambulance or the Red Cross. Pain, injuries, extreme temperatures, fatigue, anxiety, psychological trauma such as fear, and the loss of body heat and fluids are all aggravating factors that will increase the risk of your body going into shock. Shock is the depression of the nervous system brought about by a reduction in the volume of blood and body fluids available for circulation throughout the body. Immediate attention to injuries and the retention of your body’s heat and fluids, while avoiding fatigue, are vital. Just being in a survival situation can lead you into shock, so do the tasks suggested throughout this manual and reassure yourself that help is on the way. It is your responsibility to be alive when it arrives! (Fortunately, the chances of survival-related shock are diminished as you master the skills needed to survive.) In addition to physical and psychological discomforts, insects such as black flies or mosquitoes may also have to be dealt with, especially at dawn and dusk. The best ways of dealing with them are to tuck in and zip up all your clothing, spread mud on your hands and face if need be and if possible, make a smudge fire by burning green wood or leaves to produce an insectrepelling smoke. PAIN & INJURY It is recommended that you take first-aid training offered by St. John Ambulance or the Red Cross www.adventuresmart.ca
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