Walking, your feet crushing the amber toned grass of late summer. You are visiting the central coast of California. A beautiful day indeed. Suddenly, there is a sharp, stabbing pain near your ankle, just above the top of your high priced sandal strap. The pain is kindred to being struck with a hot ice pick. You see, out of the corner of your eye, something scurry away through the grass, much the same color in fact. Discernible only because of the movement. You have just been stung by a scorpion.

This smaller species of scorpion are not deadly, but certainly let you know they have stung. Known as the "California Brown Scorpion" frequenting most of the area of California from Santa Barbara to Monterey are not particularly aggressive, but inflict a great deal of pain if tampered with or accidentally startled while lying in the grass. If not familiar you automatically conjure up visions of everything you've ever seen on "Discovery Channel" about scorpions. What comes to mind is the large, black animal that possess enough venom to bring down a human, flesh falling away, convulsions and death. Relax, all is not lost. You are going to be fine. Here is what to do.

First thing. Get control of your emotions. Find a cool place to sit down. Excitement will bring your heart rate up, speeding up distribution of venom throughout your circulatory system. We want to keep the venom localized as much as possible. While not deadly, this small scorpions venom can create havoc with your system if you just happen to be one of those allergic to it. That bottle of water you are carrying...flush the sting area with the water, if there is ice in the bottle place it on the sting site, cold decreases circulation, thus venom to the system. Calmly get to your transportation and go to the hospital.

Once at the hospital they will not be able to do much for you if not allergic to the sting. Very few hospitals have anti-venom for scorpion stings. There is just not enough call for it.

There will be some swelling that will last a couple of days. Ice packs will minimize the swelling and help speed up the healing process. The important thing is that you remained calm, localized the sting and followed up on treatment. That is what first aid is all about.

Walking, your feet crushing the amber toned grass of late summer, your eyes glued to the ground for any sign of that elusive little creature with the sharp needle at the end of his tail. Once you've been stung, you don't want a repeat performance!

Learn more about this author, Ken Wilkinson.
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