Doctor uses Wikipedia for treatment!

[bfitzgerald]

And I'm not joking
I had a slight accident today whilst trying to diagnose a car issue one of the coolant houses snapped off, spraying hot coolant at my face (though I was wearing a baseball cap and that saved my eyes, which was fortunate. I got some in my mouth but spat it out very quickly

I quickly washed the coolant off, though I had quite a lot of pain (more than a normal hot water burn pain) after a short while I was persuaded to visit the GP (I'm not one to hog the doctor's waiting room). Go into the room and I watch her looking up Wikipedia! I just thought it was a bit odd for a qualified doctor. Fortunately one of the other GP's was called in (a skin specialist) and he prescribed what was required (a clear steroid cream which did provide quite a lot of relief) Also some French moisturiser (I get that part as the skin is irritated)

This was not a serious accident (at least to me) just thought it was a bit odd that's all. Maybe it's not a common accident or incident. Just wondering if the skin specialist wasn't around and the internet was down? I know wikipedia is pretty good I use it myself for information, but I'm not a doctor!

Just something I wanted to share if there is a doctor around

[Birma]

Wow - hope you're feeling better and on the road to recovery soon, Barry

Let's hope our very own skin specialist will be along soon for a second opinion!

[bfitzgerald]

Thanks Birma I think I was lucky here the skin is sore but has not (so far) blistered
I was surprised with the taste of the anti freeze is sweet, I had assumed makers were required to make it bitter tasting (to avoid people/kids drinking it)

[Dr. Harout]

Hmmm, sweet you say... I have to check on Wiki...
Glad everything's OK with you.

[Greg Beetham]

Ha ha good one Doc.
There are a couple of types of anti-freeze now apparently Barry, we don’t use them at all here in the tropics so I don’t have any firsthand experience with them.
According to the Wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol_poisoning it’s the Ethylene Glycol that is sweet tasting, the other nontoxic one in common use is Propylene Glycol, they even add that to food apparently (I never knew that before).
It seems you have to ingest about a mouthful (adult) of the concentrated Ethylene Glycol to be poisoned (as distinct from the diluted version found in the car coolant system, it’s mixed in with water apparently up to 30%, in order to be poisoned badly you would have to drink more of it I imagine).

Apparently the two antidotes used are Ethanol and Fomepizole, the last one is the treatment of choice but rather expensive.
I see also that a strong alcoholic drink can slow/stop the poisoning from progressing to a critical stage by enzyme blocking but they don’t mention any particular brands or quantities…i.e. half a bottle of single malt, ¼ bottle, 1/8th? Research is needed in this regard, what if you only have half a bottle of Vodka or Tequila? What then?
Lots of people wouldn’t necessarily have a full-ish bottle of Scotch, Bourbon, Vodka or Tequila on hand (maybe that should be made compulsory just to be on the safe side) although Rum is popular with fishermen apparently so if your neighbor is a fisherman he could be a good bet in the case of accidental Glycol poisoning…or even if you haven’t swallowed any at all, you can’t be too careful.
Greg

[Birma]

As you say Greg, you can't be too careful. Time to upgrade the first aid kit I think

[bfitzgerald]

Dr Greg srikes again I forgot Greg is big into Auto stuff!
I was hoping for a potent Dr. Harout input, but then I assume he's a doctor of??? (curious now)

I didn't wake up dead this morning so I assume I've not poisoned myself
The skin did peel a bit afterwards, but it wasn't that bad but it has made me cautious about poking my face around an engine compartment
I'm taking a guess now but I've Greg down as a Holden car owner, if I'm wrong I'll be disappointed

[Greg Beetham]

Doctor Greg yeah right, actually Barry I used to have a Holden when I was a bit younger and it was a pretty decent car, as far as cars go that is, but I have been driving a truck for many years now, a much more practical type of vehicle for me. I can go pick up long lengths of timber for doing the house renovations, move large items, take a load of garden rubbish to the dump, tow the boat, go bush for a week or so etc. (if I have time), I can’t really do any of that with a car as well as I can with a truck.
Greg
KM5D KM24-105
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[Birma]

Now that's a truck! Love it . If I didn't spend my time bashing up and down motorways then that's my dream vehicle (although it might need to say Land Rover on the front;) ).

What is the contraption on the front, Greg? Something to do with the boat?

[Greg Beetham]

Thanks Birma yeah Land-Rover is popular here too and are very good off road vehicles by all accounts, it’s just that there seems to be more Toyota’s available new and second hand here and the price is usually not too bad, (I kept my old one and just refurbished it, saved on buying a new one) and they are pretty good and reliable too.
Do you mean the front strut crosspiece? I made that for carrying very long pieces of timber etc. it bolts on to the bull-bar you can take it off pretty easily, I’m just too lazy to take it off when I’m not using it. The back hoop is missing at the moment, I took it off to replace the floor boards and haven’t got around to putting that one back on yet, with the three of them they line up pretty level and I can sneak really long things home like when I got the new 7metre lengths of gutter for the house, (or were they 8metre? I forget) well I never got pulled up for too much overhang anyhow, probably because I didn’t run across a cop when I did it I guess.
Greg

[Birma]

I see, Greg. I wondered if it was something for dragging the boat out of the water. Hauling 8m lengths of guttering also makes sense

I remember a TV program about driving across the outback and them saying that Land Rovers are very nice and all, but if your life depends on getting you somewhere then better to depend on a Toyota .

Did you ever see what the UK Top Gear guys did to a Toyota pick-up which kept running?

[Greg Beetham]

As far as I know Land-Rovers have a good reputation here, they’ve been around for even longer than Toyota’s have I think. One thing I remember some saying many years ago was they were down a bit on engine power but that wouldn’t be something that would have gone on for long and it’s certainly not the case now, someone else said that Land-Rovers could be known to break an axle now and then but again that was many years ago.
These vehicles get a tough life by some owners, who knows how badly they have been treated over many years and then get sold and the new owner breaks something and blames the vehicle, I think you have to treat a lot of those tales with a grain of salt myself. I have spoken to mechanics and panel beaters for maybe thirty years about various makes and if anyone knows what’s going on those guys do, they are up with new vehicles mostly and what goes wrong with them, that’s the proper info to have.
Yep I saw a show with a red Hilux they tried to destroy, those guys get a bit too enthusiastic at times I think, but it’s entertaining and that’s the reason why we watch…isn’t it?

There was another earlier episode in the Andes and it was as usual quite entertaining, they managed to break the rear drive on a Toyota too. I think I know how that happened, they fitted very large wheels and then I think it was left in four wheel drive while driving along the bitumen road near the end of the trip, that will do it.
The different rolling diameter between front and back due to the weight of the engine will bind up the driveline until something eventually breaks (there is a warning on the glove box against doing just that). There isn’t any proportional drive between front and back on those old design direct drive 4x4’s (mine as well) like there is on the Land-Rover wagon they had so I guess they had to show us how to break one, it isn’t a problem in sand or gravel or mud because that kind of surface allows the wheels to equalize continuously.
Anyway whatever, I remember being fascinated with them and the vehicles getting starved of oxygen at 17000ft and they were in jeopardy of getting hypoxia themselves, I thought it was getting dangerous at one point with most of them acting even sillier than usual trying to figure out how to jump-start a stalled vehicle and in general sort of losing the plot.
Then the huge slope at the end was mindboggling, the biggest sand dune in the world for sure, I forget how big it was but it looked like thousands of feet high.
It certainly looked like they had an adventure on that one.
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

Should have guessed Greg had a truck! A friend of mine had a land rover and loved it, bit it was costly to run (that's what he said)
Not really a 4x4 guy but I can see the appeal if you need one

[Dr. Harout]

...I was hoping for a potent Dr. Harout input, but then I assume he's a doctor of??? (curious now)
...

Dermatologist