[pct-l] pills for first aid kit

[Greg Mikol]

Don't forget Benadryl (diphenhydramine)!!

In '07 just north of Tacoma Pass in WA, I got stung by a bald-faced hornet
(It's a yellowjacket cousin...at least that's what I think it was). It got
me twice (it doesn't lose it's stinger). Once on the arm and once on the
back of the neck.

I didn't know I was allergic.

Within 45 minutes my feet were so swollen and broken out in hives I
couldn't walk anymore. 50 mg Benadryl (2 pills) and about 30 mins. of
chilling the f--- out got me walking again. I retreated to the forest road
at the pass (giving the nest *very* wide berth on my way back past). I
figured I could flag a ride into town. Little did I know that there was a
bridge out between me & town, so nobody was going to be coming over the
pass.  I took 7 Benadryl within ~7 hours and still had really bad hives. I
have gross pix if anybody wants to see them :) but I got through the night.
2 more pills in the morning and I was out of Benadryl. I road walked into
town & got bailed out but I was breaking out in hives for 2 more days. If I
had been in a more remote area and/or my reaction had been more severe,
things could have got dicey.

What's the lesson? If you have known severe allergies, you should
absolutely be carrying an epi-pen. But you may have an unknown sensitivty,
or your sensitivity could change due to stresses from thru-hiking, so a
whole bunch of Benadryl could (literally) be a lifesaver, and they don't
weigh that much or take up that much space.

My personal experience and my $0.02

--Greg

PS: +1 on the narcotics in labeled bottles. Maybe not too much of an issue
while you're on the trail or even in town / in transit, but if you forget
to get rid of them before you go through customs on your way back into the
states, it could get interesting.