Need help, here now - would first aid have

[WDW in Pearls]

Maybe but it still boggles my mind when people post questions on boards like this when there are far easier and probably better sources of information more readily available.

Did it occur to you that you can read a topic without responding? I've seen my share of head scratching questions, but I choose to move on.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I usually don't stick my nose in where it doesn't belong, but I feel bad for the OP because if it was me, I would be hurt by these replies. They were trying to find out information to help their child, not asking everyone at pick at them for doing it.

People spend months on these boards asking questions and getting advice for their WDW trip. Is it wrong to feel a sense of community and to feel comfortable enough here to ask a question even if they had the option to ask someone else?

I personally don't understand why anyone would even question why the OP asked here. Really, who cares? You can choose whether to answer the question or not. But why try to analyze the reasoning? Answer (or don't) and move on.

I've only been on here about 5 months, but i've observed a ton helpful people who are friendly and kind and then there are those other people who seem to purposely go out of their way to make people feel stupid. I don't get it.

Nicely said.

Thanks. They have us the tweezers and then they cleaned it for her.

Glad you were able to get it taken care of, Jen.

 

[declansdad]

Did it occur to you that you can read a topic without responding? I've seen my share of head scratching questions, but I choose to move on.

I have many times.

 

[littlejen22]

OK ... But she'd have to go right past First Aid to exit the park. So either way ...

I don't know that tweezers are really "medical equipment". Pretty much any basic first aid kit has a pair. It's not like she was looking for a nebulizer or specialized monitoring devices.

I guess my point is ... why do people (and it's not just OP) who have questions about WDW while they're AT WDW come to the DIS instead of just asking at the park? That just seems so odd to me.

It honestly did not dawn on me at first to go to First Aid at all as I never use first aid at a park. We had just sat down for dinner when I saw the tick and my husband and I immediately thought to buy tweezers when we leave even if that sounds stupid after the fact. And when I thought of First Aid I knew people here would know and I really did not want to freak out my 4yo and be told they could not help. And the fact is they did not take it out but let us borrow their tweezers.

I appreciate the person that said yes go there. I surely did not expect this to be so controversial.

 

[WillAustin]

I personally don't understand why anyone would even question why the OP asked here. Really, who cares? You can choose whether to answer the question or not. But why try to analyze the reasoning? Answer (or don't) and move on.

I completely agree. It's probably best to trust that a person knows their situation well enough and either try to answer their question or leave it alone.

A few months ago we were at WDW and I posted a question asking which hospital we should choose if we needed it. My wife was sick, had already been to a doctor near WDW, and had been told if she didn't improve within 24-48 hours we should head to a hospital. I wanted to hear the experiences of others on the DIS. I got some strange replies. More than one said if I need a hospital to call 911. As I said then, I know when to call 911 and I certainly wouldn't be posting instead, and it's very possible for someone to need a hospital without needing an ambulance to immediately transport them.

Glad the OP had their situation resolved positively.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I don't see asking the question here as a bad thing: reaching scores of people, some of whom are likely to have an idea of the answer in a few minutes, vs talking to one or two people in the same amount of time who may have no idea. Why not use electronics to your advantage?

 

[littlejen22]

Nicely said.

Glad you were able to get it taken care of, Jen.

Thanks to anyone that was helpful. I have not read all the replies and while I have spent a while here preparing I do not feel like I know anyone enough or am states enough here to get hurt by the responses especially since someone was nice enough to quickly reply with a real response. I hope this does not stop anyone else from coming here for quick advice because the board does have tons of helpful people.

And as a side note I had no idea where First Aid was and it is sort-of hidden in a corner and I never would have seen it without looking.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

OP, you should ask some CMs if the First Aid stations have tweezers and see what kind of responses you get, just out of curiosity.

 

[WillAustin]

I don't see asking the question here as a bad thing: reaching scores of people, some of whom are likely to have an idea of the answer in a few minutes, vs talking to one or two people in the same amount of time who may have no idea. Why not use electronics to your advantage?

Yes. I remember one CM telling my wife "we are a theme park, I'm not sure what you expect us to do," when she was asking about possibly contacting a doctor. Another CM eventually ended up being much more helpful to us, but I certainly wouldn't dismiss the potential access to information available from others on here. I used it to supplement what we were being told in person.

 

[asta]

OP, I would not feel bad at all about asking what help you could expect. My experience with first aid was at Universal, not WDW, but I had a terrible fall. It was bad enough that I ripped my meniscus in three places and I had quite a bit of blood running down my leg. My husband helped me limp to the front of the park where we looked for first aid. They would only give me a small finger band aid and nothing to clean up all of the blood. Not even one employee offered to help. After that, I would never assume the help that would be available and I was very sorry I wasted time finding "first aid".

 

[nkereina]

Didn't read all replies but I read enough. Perhaps OP was waiting for people on a ride, in the middle of a show, or even eating lunch and thought they would just pop on and post a question. Most questions on here get a response in under 5 or 10 mins. If that is the case, then where is the harm in asking on here? If the answer was no, it would have saved OP the trip to first aid possibly from the back of the park. So what's the difference? And why is everyone so quick to assume OP wouldn't have asked someone in the park too?

As for first aid, I think some people have the impression that first aid is staffed by a couple college CMs who hand out band-aids and Neosporin and send you on your way. It's obviously not a doctor's office or urgent care and if you've never utilized a first aid stop somewhere, how would you know? I would think liability would play a factor too. Of course it never hurts to stop and ask, but if you think of first aid in this sense, whether or not they would help with a tick is a fair question. I would have expected to be sent to urgent care.

 

[littlejen22]

My thoughts exactly.

I also wondered about the tick. Curious if she got it during the vacation or if it was prior to it and just wasn't noticed until then.

She had it the day before going to the park. I felt like a bad Mom yesterday for not noticing but the day before I thought she was bleeding and tried to look at it before bed and it was dark, she yelled I was hurting her and I did not think twice especially because of the location inside the top love of her ear, and her hair is long so it was easy not to see it. Then when we sat for dinner I was on her side where I could see it and realized it was a tick after looking.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Really? It took the OP 2 minutes to get an answer to the question. If she was all the way across the park from first aid, it would take more than 2 minutes to get there. Perhaps OP didn't know where first aid was located - I only know for MK because I used it once, but have no idea where it would be at Epcot or AK!

Two minutes is a lot quicker in my opinion...

Not hard to find the first aid station on a park map.

 

[Mousemommy1]

She had it the day before going to the park. I felt like a bad Mom yesterday for not noticing but the day before I thought she was bleeding and tried to look at it before bed and it was dark, she yelled I was hurting her and I did not think twice especially because of the location inside the top love of her ear, and her hair is long so it was easy not to see it. Then when we sat for dinner I was on her side where I could see it and realized it was a tick after looking.

It takes 48 hours for Lyme Disease to transmit, so if you got it out before then, you are probably all good. But, keep an eye on it. Look for a bullseye around the bite area. Glad you got it out.

 

[WDSearcher]

Thanks to anyone that was helpful. I have not read all the replies and while I have spent a while here preparing I do not feel like I know anyone enough or am states enough here to get hurt by the responses especially since someone was nice enough to quickly reply with a real response. I hope this does not stop anyone else from coming here for quick advice because the board does have tons of helpful people.

And as a side note I had no idea where First Aid was and it is sort-of hidden in a corner and I never would have seen it without looking.

Thank you. That seems perfectly logical in that context. I really appreciate you passing along your thought process there, particularly when you certainly had no obligation to do so.

When I asked the question of the OP, I thought it was a valid question. It's something I've wondered about, and I was, as someone else said, thinking out loud when I asked. I didn't think my question was posed in a way that was nasty or inappropriate. But to anyone I may have offended or angered, I apologize.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

She had it the day before going to the park. I felt like a bad Mom yesterday for not noticing but the day before I thought she was bleeding and tried to look at it before bed and it was dark, she yelled I was hurting her and I did not think twice especially because of the location inside the top love of her ear, and her hair is long so it was easy not to see it. Then when we sat for dinner I was on her side where I could see it and realized it was a tick after looking.

I am unclear on quite a few things about your situation. Like where you live, what the tick looked like, exactly how long she had it imbedded in her scalp, etc. But if you think it was a deer tick and it was imbedded for more than 24 hours, you might consider antibiotics to prevent development of tick-borne illness. (Even though the risks of that are very low.) At this point, I would probably call my pediatrician's office for guidance. (I have done that on vacation.)

 

[mousefan73]

She had it the day before going to the park. I felt like a bad Mom yesterday for not noticing but the day before I thought she was bleeding and tried to look at it before bed and it was dark, she yelled I was hurting her and I did not think twice especially because of the location inside the top love of her ear, and her hair is long so it was easy not to see it. Then when we sat for dinner I was on her side where I could see it and realized it was a tick after looking.

the same thing with my son! We were in a biergarden eating outside and I look at him and was like, what is that black dot on the top of his ear!. I tried my best not to freak out! ticks also don't fall from trees, they come from the grasses, bushes, ground up. So this thing was crawling on him a while.

Another time I was giving him a bath and there was a huge one, like an eraser tip. My husband said strange, as those type normally dont go on humans. This mom was soo good and wasnt not freaking out. DS helpt asking what is going on, I said nothin.. Inside I was screaming.

 

[littlejen22]

I am unclear on quite a few things about your situation. Like where you live, what the tick looked like, exactly how long she had it imbedded in her scalp, etc. But if you think it was a deer tick and it was imbedded for more than 24 hours, you might consider antibiotics to prevent development of tick-borne illness. (Even though the risks of that are very low.) At this point, I would probably call my pediatrician's office for guidance. (I have done that on vacation.)

We are from NJ and there is definitely a chance it was from home. Since she wears her hair up for school it is very likely we would have seen it on her ear on Friday so she likely got it Friday after school or Saturday. It was on her a while but in the past our pedi will only do antibiotics if there is an infection of some sort. I know one of the pediatrician a in our office would give a script for bloodwork which you cannot do for a few weeks to test for infections. My son has had ticks twice before and once we saw the pedi because it got infected but once I just called.

Thanks for the insight though because many people are lucky enough not to know.

 

[Lyndria]

Glad all is well and you were able to get it taken care of. Enjoy your trip!

 

[chartle]

ok i'm very confused. my wife has had to go to first aid twice.

lets just say she has a very delicate digestive system thats compounded by having a few food allergies that i'm not sure she knew of at the time and gets skin rashes by just touching the wrong type of cotton. i mean we have military spec skin creams around the house.

in 99 she picked up a bug on our departure day when we were flying out around 6 that night. it was really bad when we were in the mk. we went to first aid and couldn't be better unless we were at an er. she stayed there until she was better, they gave her some meds for the flight home that i'm not sure were over the counter and even arranged for a ride back to our cabin at FW through backstage areas.

next time it was in late aug when many brits seem to visit. they were wheeling them one after the other with various levels of heat stroke. it was like an er and they were triaging them and i swear but may be wrong starting IVs and directing the worse ones to a hospital.

last trip she got the florida leg rash that we now know has some thing to do heat and pavement. she had gotten it before and had talked to her dermatologist group (its attached to a major teaching hospital) and they didn't really know what it was and started with bed bugs and other bugs. the people at Epcot first aid knew exactly what it was and gave her a sample pack of cream.

so i'm not sure why the posts saying they barely did anything for them and just handed out band aids. like I posted above I think there was at least one nurse practitioner there who could hand out certain non OTC meds.