Posts in category: Health

Overview

Typically, the eyelids react to a threat by closing quickly to protect the eyes from harm. However, chemicals can still sometimes reach the eye if the lids don’t close quickly enough. Chemicals may be in liquid or powdered form and can cause irritation and burns.

The most dangerous chemicals are strong acids or alkali. Alkali burns tend to be more serious than burns from acid. Alkali chemicals include lye, concrete, mortar, oven and drain cleaners, dishwasher detergent, and fertilizers.

When to seek emergency help

A chemical splash in the eye requires immediate medical help. Seek emergency care by an eye specialist (ophthalmologist) or call 911 or your local emergency number. Take the chemical container or the name of the chemical with you to the emergency provider. If readily available, wear sunglasses to help reduce sensitivity to light.

Treatment

If a chemical splashes into your eye, take these steps immediately.

1. Wash your hands with soap and water. Thoroughly rinse your hands to be sure no chemical or soap is left on them.
2. Remove contact lenses (if wearing).
3. Flush your eye with water. Use clean, lukewarm tap water for at least 20 minutes. Use whichever of these approaches is quickest:
   • Get into the shower and aim a gentle stream of water on your forehead over your affected eye. Or direct the stream on the bridge of your nose if both eyes are affected. Hold the lids of your affected eye or eyes open.
   • Put your head down and turn it to the side. Then hold the lids of your affected eye open under a gently running faucet. Use a work site eye-rinse station if one is available.
   • Young children may do best if they lie down in the bathtub or lean back over a sink. Pour a gentle stream of water on the forehead over the affected eye or on the bridge of the nose to flush both eyes.

What to avoid

• Don’t rub the eye — this may cause further damage.
• Don’t put anything except water or contact lens saline rinse in the eye. And don’t use eye drops unless emergency personnel tell you to do so.

16-hospital health system OSF HealthCare, based in Peoria, Illinois, has put together mandatory education for all 24,000 employees. It has a deliberate strategy behind making sure everyone – from the custodian to the CEO – is aware of the power of generative AI.

THE PROBLEM

Adopting generative AI as quickly as possible is extremely important to OSF HealthCare. Like all nonprofit health systems across the country, it runs on thin operating margins with workforce shortages expected to persist for at least the next decade. In addition, clinicians are continuing to recover after COVID-19 and face burnout from the increased administrative burdens.

“We must seek every opportunity to improve efficiency, productivity and work smarter with the resources we have,” said Melissa Knuth, vice president of planning at OSF HealthCare. “We’ve all read about the great promise of generative AI on the transformation of healthcare, but actually getting to that future state is challenging. We need the power of the entire workforce pushing on the same side of the rock to reap the rewards.

“While we understood our generative AI education needed to be mandatory across our health system, we also understood people have a reduced attention span,” she continued. “Traditional education modalities were not going to work for this. We have variation in the knowledge base across the workforce and we needed to provide education to everyone from transporters and housekeepers to surgeons.”

The health system also had an aggressive timeline for completing the education – approximately six weeks, due to the prevalence and availability of generative AI tools publicly.

“We knew people across our workforce were using these tools personally and in the workplace,” she said. “We needed to ensure they understood the organizational rules of the road with regard to the use of generative AI tools at OSF HealthCare. We wanted to educate about the potential benefits and the potential pitfalls to avoid.

“To rise to the challenge before us, we took lessons from social media on how to grab someone’s attention and hold it for short snippets of time (1-2 minutes) to communicate our key messages,” she continued. “We used mixed media to keep the content interesting and we used generative AI tools to assist with the content creation.”

PROPOSAL

OSF HealthCare knew the first lessons needed to focus on establishing a foundation of AI literacy across the organization, so it created a “Getting to Know Generative AI” course to enhance everyone’s understanding of generative AI. The organization had to get everyone on the same page, but it had to be fun, and it had to be interesting, because this was going to be mandatory education for the entire workforce, Knuth said.

“To stay true to the guidelines we had laid out and our vision for this education, we created content that was compartmentalized,” she explained. “If any of you are reformed coders in a past life, it’s a similar concept to creating containers of code that can be assembled to create one or more programs.

“We created content components that were a subset of the whole, but we needed something to bring it together in a cohesive way – such as scaffolding to give it structure,” she added. “We used Articulate Rise software to accomplish this. Our components included interactive elements, visuals, videos and text content to create flow, much of which was created with generative AI tools.”

It was important to create compelling content that would hold attention for an increasingly distracted audience with a short attention span. The health system also was clear in explaining that OSF HealthCare has a commitment to innovation, so that requires continuous learning for all employees.

“The OSF vision is to harness the power of generative AI to advance the exploration, use and adoption to optimize healthcare delivery, empower healthcare professionals and improve patient experiences across our health system,” Knuth stated.

After sharing the vision, she noted, key messages included:

• As you begin to use these tools, keep in mind they are not perfect – it’s important to validate the results you receive back.
• These tools can provide false and misleading information and it takes the user to discern the value of the information they receive.
• If you are using these tools in the course of your work at OSF, never copy and paste patient protected information into a generative AI tool that has not been approved for that use.

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

OSF strategically rolled out education tailored to the individual needs of all 24,000 employees. One version was aimed at leaders and providers, and the organization created another version for all other roles.

“This allowed us to tailor messages and the level of education appropriately for both groups,” Knuth explained. “We deployed our first round of mandatory education across the workforce in January/February 2024 along with a brief survey that allowed us to understand the impact the education had.

“We have a platform that was internally designed called Corporate University that housed the module which could be completed in about 15 minutes,” she continued. “This is not connected to Epic but is available on the OSF website employee portal. All employees receive email notifications about the mandatory training and follow-up emails if it is not completed by the deadline.”

The content includes brief quizzes to ensure comprehension.

RESULTS

78.75% of all OSF employees completed the mandatory education, 74% of those learners said it enhanced their knowledge of the subject matter, and 65% said the learning activity provided content that was relevant to their role, said Shana Freehill, DNP, RN, manager of education and professional development at OSF HealthCare.

“When you consider there are 24,000 employees, 78.75% completion is strong,” she noted. “Seventy-four percent indicating the content enhanced their knowledge of subject matter and 65% believing the content was relevant to their role demonstrates the education was robust and well developed.

“It takes creativity to develop meaningful education for such a broad group of learners when we take into account clinical and non-clinical roles and the various work areas throughout the ministry,” she added.

ADVICE FOR OTHERS

According to Harvard Business Review, ChatGPT is one of the most widely diffused and fastest-adopted products in history. Just two months after launch it had 100 million users. Instagram took two and a half years to acquire that many users. Facebook took four and a half years.

The faster technology spreads, the less time users have to learn from one another and mimic patterns of use, so it is important everyone knows expectations and guidelines and has a basic understanding, Knuth said.

“Also, realize you will have to do ongoing training because the most-advanced AI-based tools will change and there can be new features and new use cases, so just realize this will be something to review and prepare for by initiating new training as it becomes necessary,” she advised.

“As we do with any education effort – understand your audience and where they are starting from on the subject matter,” she continued. “Consider how people regularly seek and receive information today and try to understand why that works, why it is effective. Consider important takeaways when designing your education – both for approach and content.”

Generative AI is a fun, interesting topic, she added.

“The educational approach and content should be innovative, different and feel new,” she recommended. “Use generative AI tools to create content and make sure your learners understand what parts of the education module were created using generative AI tools – videos, visuals, key messages, etc. Transparency is an important hallmark of ethical use of generative AI so it should be included in your training content.

“At OSF HealthCare, we’ve also created a tool called Prompt Buddy – a free app that will also be available in Microsoft Teams, which most employees use daily,” she concluded. “It is a way for us to crowdsource some of the best prompts that have been found to be helpful so employees can learn from each other what works. We will likely include how to best use and contribute to Prompt Buddy in a future training.”

Follow Bill’s HIT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

The HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum is scheduled to take place September 5-6 in Boston. Learn more and register.

What’s happening

Oprah Winfrey hosted a new TV special earlier this month in which she shared her personal experiences with new weight loss drugs and discussed how the revolutionary new medications have changed the lives of people struggling with obesity.

Over the course of her career, Winfrey’s honesty about her own challenges with weight made her something of an avatar for the nation’s broader struggles with diet, health and beauty. For a time, tracking her weight became, in her words, a “national sport.” After spending decades chronicling the latest fad diets, wellness plans and weight loss innovations on her megahit daytime show, it was all but inevitable that she would give her opinion on the emergence of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.

It’s difficult to overstate how much these new medications, known as GLP-1 agonists, have changed the conversation around weight in their short time on the market. Though there’s been strong pushback to certain predictions that they might end obesity, the drugs have shown to consistently provide significant — sometimes dramatic — weight loss in ways that diets and exercise plans do not.

Winfrey acknowledged taking a weight loss drug, without specifying which one, late last year despite having said she viewed the injectable drugs as “the easy way out” for weight loss. She was also a member of the board of directors at WeightWatchers when the company opted to begin offering the drugs as a potential supplement to its long-standing weight loss programs. She recently stepped down from that position to avoid any “perceived conflict of interest” around her decision to host the special.

During the show, Winfrey spoke of the “shame” she felt for years because of the false belief that her weight struggles were caused by her own shortcomings.

“All these years, I thought all of the people who never had to diet were just using their willpower and they were, for some reason, stronger than me,” she said. She added that, thanks to these new drugs, “there is now a sense of hope.”

Why there’s debate

Winfrey has been such an important voice in the discussion about weight for so long that her endorsement of drugs like Ozempic is bound to shift the conversation.

Some commentators said the special’s core message, that struggling with weight is a matter of personal biology, not a lack of commitment, could really resonate with a whole generation of people who have been stuck in the same failed dieting cycles as Winfrey through the years. They believe that the deep connection between Winfrey and her audience could also inspire people to consider trying the drugs for the first time after seeing her success.

But others said the special came off as more of an infomercial for Big Pharma than a true discussion of the complex issues that underlie the emergence of GLP-1 agonists. They argue that Winfrey glossed over important facts about the limitations and potential risks of the drugs while completely ignoring the primary barriers that prevent people from accessing them: high costs and lack of insurance coverage.

The harshest critics believe that Winfrey’s embrace of weight loss drugs only serves to solidify our culture’s widespread bias against overweight people. In their eyes, she should be using her enormous power to help end weight-based stigma and combat misconceptions about the correlation between weight and health, rather than celebrating that she finally found a way to satisfy society’s harmful beauty standards.

Perspectives

Her experiences resonate deeply with so many others

“Oprah is conceding an uncomfortable truth: Diets rarely work. It doesn’t matter how much grit or willpower you have or how hard you’re willing to work, the weight comes back; it nearly always does. If Oprah’s army of chefs and trainers couldn’t transform her into a size 6 without drugs, then maybe it’s time to question the tired American (diet) dream that hard work = success and redefine success altogether.” — Adrienne Bitar, CNN

Her honesty, as always, is commendable

“As Winfrey herself explained last year of her regimen: ‘It’s not one thing. It’s everything.’ Let’s respect Winfrey for finally finding that ‘everything’ and being frank about her weight-loss journey.” — Charles Passy, MarketWatch

She should be battling to end weight stigma, not celebrating a new way to dodge it

“She doesn’t stop to ask if maybe fat phobia is the problem, not fat people.” — Mara Gordon, NPR

Her special felt like a love letter to Big Pharma

“Winfrey could have acknowledged the inequities around who can and cannot afford these drugs and their cost to the healthcare system, and asked what that will mean for evolving attitudes around shame and stigma about weight — the very issues that she claims to want to dismantle. But instead, she moved right on without using her platform to forcefully challenge the drugmakers on price, and then let her obesity expert guests (who had myriad industry conflicts) and even the drug makers themselves have the last word.” — Lisa Jarvis, Bloomberg

It’s not her job to defeat anti-fat bias all by herself

“I have a weird need for Oprah to be happy, because it feels like our happiness is intertwined. People like us will never relinquish the desire to be thin. … I didn’t create this system, I’m just trying to live within it. Like Oprah, I’m not going to be shamed for my desire to be thin.” — Kristine Lloyd, Salon

She should be commended for not acting as if these drugs are a miracle cure

“There aren’t simple answers here. But Winfrey’s wise words — that the availability of this medication feels ‘like redemption, like a gift’ — offer a jumping-off point for some honest talk about how to handle this wonderful new opportunity that science has brought us.” — Ruth Marcus, Washington Post

She has every right to find joy in finally meeting her own personal goals

“Watching Oprah stand onstage, towering above the audience, wearing the kind of figure-hugging monochromatic jumpsuits she now favors, I realize that this may not be about us. This is about Oprah. You may find inspiration in her final weight-loss chapter. Even if you don’t, she clearly has found a way to love her body. It is hard to judge that.” — Tressie McMillan Cottom, New York Times

The question My sister spends a significant percentage of her modest income on expensive boutique groceries from farmers’ markets and other high-end food stores. “To each their own” is my view. Fancy foods make her happy and that’s great. She doesn’t spend her money on cigarettes or lottery tickets, etc. And she only occasionally buys alcohol or goes to restaurants.

The thing is, a lot of the food she buys ends up rotting and getting tossed in the bin. This has been going on for years. Fancy cheeses, fancy ice-cream, yoghurt, crackers, bread and all kinds of organic produce rots in her kitchen. She literally wastes well over £1,000 every year on food she never eats. It’s tragic, but what’s worse is that she often complains about not having enough money to spend on other priorities. I don’t think she’s aware of how wasteful she is when it comes to food.

I wish I could talk to her about it, but whenever somebody criticises her constructively, or even makes a casual suggestion, she feels like she’s under attack and things get tense and awkward. Ultimately, I’m trying to help her, but also help the environment in a small way. Should I broach the subject or just mind my own business?

Philippa’s answer The financial and environmental implications of your sister’s habit, particularly the wastefulness of unused food, appears to present a valid concern. And yet, reading between the lines, I sense this may not be the main issue here. I am picking up a superiority in your tone that is coming over to me as possibly patronising. Sounds like you’ve got a know-all stance going on. If I’m right, and I might not be, such an entrenched position would be irritating to your sister. If you threaten people’s dignity by moralising at them, you will not persuade them. This is a lesson we have all got to learn.

I don’t think your dilemma is about food waste. If you are really worried about the environment, why not start with the enormous amount of food thrown away by supermarkets after the end of each day?

So what is the real problem that you have in your relationship with your sister? You say she often feels attacked when you try to apply constructive criticism. The way you talk about her gave me the impression that she might feel you show her more disdain than respect. She has probably told you she doesn’t want any more of your “casual suggestions” and perhaps you are now applying to me about how to cross that boundary once more. Am I standing in for a parental authority to appeal to, or for you to get more ammunition for this veiled attack? I think you are denying that your constructive criticism is an attack, but I’m unconvinced.

Your question is, “Should I broach the subject with her or just mind my own business?” I’m not sure this is the right question. Questions you might ask instead are: What am I feeling towards my sister and how do I want to feel? Do I feel threatened or uneasy that she knows about fancy food and I just eat ordinary stuff? Do I feel somehow threatened by my sister, because perhaps she seemed to be more highly regarded by our parents or by people in general? Do I need to somehow get my sister to be wrong so that I can seem more righteous? Am I taking the moral high ground over her because there is some enjoyment for me in making her seem nonsensical and thus making me feel a little bit more worldly-wise? How much of an old sibling rivalry is bound up in how I am thinking about my sister and her behaviour? Do I want to demonstrate I am the better sibling? Do I want her to acknowledge that I am superior to her?

You may feel you want to dismiss my questions, but don’t do that. Write them down, spend some days thinking about them, or maybe discussing them with other people who have worked through their sibling rivalry – or even a therapist.

The way you notice that she doesn’t drink too much or go to too many restaurants is like you are scrutinising her behaviour – like a teacher passing her in those subjects and failing her in grocery shopping. I don’t think your goal should be to change her habits, but to stop this scrutiny and turn your focus away from judging her. Be more curious about yourself: how you do this, the motivation behind it and what purpose it serves you. Perhaps, then, your sister’s shopping habits can be her business and maybe she won’t feel so judged and your relationship with her may even improve.

Communicate with your sister from a place of love and support, not criticism or judgment. When you know that old sibling rivalries are not rearing their head, maybe then you could both have a discussion about living more comfortably and sustainably. You might learn why more expensive organic food is better for the planet and she may take on board some of your wisdom. People tend not to listen unless they themselves feel heard.

Every week Philippa Perry addresses a personal problem sent in by a reader.
If you would like advice from Philippa, please send your problem to askphilippa@guardian.co.uk. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions

Before deciding whether to operate, Salgado studied the literature to find out if a larger clitoris led to increased sexual pleasure. He found a 2014 study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine that showed a correlation between women with larger clitorises and the ability to orgasm. But the study was small, with only 30 participants, and it did not prove that a large clitoris could cause women to orgasm. 

Other more recent studies also showed little consensus. A 2020 study in the Turkish Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that clitoral size was not correlated with greater orgasm, while a 2020 study in the Journal of Surgery and Medicine found that surgeries “to increase clitoral glans visibility can facilitate sexual satisfaction and/or increase orgasm intensity [and that] clitoral glans visibility is more important than clitoral size for sexual stimulation.” Leah Millheiser, an OB-GYN and clinical professor at Stanford University who specializes in sexual health, told BuzzFeed News that “enlarging your clitoris has never been shown to increase sensitivity in women who have a normal size clitoris.” 

Salgado told Ana he’d never done this surgery before and that she could possibly lose sensitivity in the area. Ana was worried about the possibility, but she hoped the surgery would bring her stronger orgasms. “I wanted the surgery as soon as possible,” she said. But Salgado was booked for three months, and he also required her to have a psychological evaluation before the surgery, where they asked her about her gender identity (she is cisgender) and whether her husband was coercing her to get the surgery (she said he wasn’t). 

She passed the evaluation and underwent surgery in August 2018. It took about three hours and went smoothly. Her insurance didn’t cover the surgery, which Salgado says usually costs between $6,000 and $15,000. 

After Ana healed, her clitoral glans (the visible part of the clitoris) grew a half inch to a length of 2 inches, nearly double the size of an average woman’s clit. And it became even larger when aroused. She noticed a difference in sexual response immediately; her orgasms were more intense. “The sensation is different,” she said. “It’s not like multiorgasms. It keeps going, keeps going, keeps going. It’s nonstop.” She said during oral sex, “my husband has to keep his mouth [on my clit] until my soul comes back to my body.” But her inner labia were covering much of her clit, and she wanted more of it exposed. “I told [Salgado] I want to do something with my small labia. So he wrapped the labia [minora] around the clitoris, so that it looks like a small penis without circumcision.” 

“I don’t know why all women haven’t done this,” Salgado recalled her telling him.

One day, while her husband was performing oral sex, she said she had an orgasm that lasted eight minutes (her husband timed it). “It really changed my life,” she said. Her orgasms went on to become even more intense. In 2020, she had one that was “so strong that it completely locked my muscle on my back,” she said. Her physician said it was the first time he’d seen an orgasm cause back issues. 

She is now taking testosterone prescribed by a doctor to increase her clitoris size, and she uses a nipple pumping cylinder, which creates a vacuum around the clitoris and enhances blood flow. Ana said it increases the length of her clitoris to 4 inches. When she goes to the beach, sometimes people stare at her crotch, but she’s OK with it. “You have to be happy with yourself. [If] you want to explore your body, if you want to feel different, do it,” she said. 

When she told friends about the surgery, they were skeptical, but she assured them that the improvement in her sex life was worth it. 

After Salgado published an academic article on Ana’s surgery in 2020, other cis women started reaching out to him. They were looking to improve “not just the function, but also the aesthetic appearance,” he said. He has since performed this surgery on four additional women. 

Austria has reported more outbreaks and related illnesses in 2023 compared to the year before.

A total of 42 foodborne outbreaks were recorded, 14 more than in 2022. Also, 222 people were affected compared to 128 in 2022.

38 people had to be hospitalized in connection with outbreaks and there was one death. The largest outbreak sickened 32 people. 25 incidents were classed as household outbreaks and 20 as general epidemics. Ten Salmonella and five Campylobacter outbreaks were associated with travel abroad.

Data from the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) shows Salmonella was the most common cause jumping from 11 outbreaks in 2022 to 21 outbreaks, 141 cases, and one death in 2023.

Cross border events
Campylobacter came in second place with 12 outbreaks and 26 cases, followed by five outbreaks of STEC with 12 infections, two outbreaks of norovirus with 138 people sick and one each of Listeria monocytogenes and Yersinia enterocolitica, which affected three and two people respectively.

Three major outbreaks in 2023 were caused by different types of Salmonella Enteritidis. A total of 31 people fell ill in Austria and 10 of them were hospitalized. One person died. This was part of a multi-country outbreak linked to chicken meat from Poland.

One outbreak from 2022 that sickened four people continued in 2023 with another patient. The pathogen was Salmonella Senftenberg and infections were caused by tomatoes likely from Morocco. This was also a multi-country outbreak.

Another cross-border outbreak was due to Salmonella Strathcona. It involved 24 people in Austria, four of whom had to be hospitalized. The suspected food was cherry tomatoes from Italy.

One Listeria outbreak affected three people, two of whom had to be hospitalized. The food vehicle was pork from an Austrian producer.

Control program findings
Austrian authorities have also published results from several focus control campaigns. One tested sesame pastes and nut butters for Salmonella.

In 2022 and 2023, there were a number of Salmonella findings reported via the RASFF portal in sesame products and nut butters. A total of 31 samples from across Austria were tested but no Salmonella was detected.

Another targeted action looked at 87 infant and follow-on formulas. Selected contaminants and residues such as heavy metals, 2-monochloropropanediol and 3-MCPD, chlorate, perchlorate, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mycotoxins, and pesticides were assessed. Microbiological tests were also undertaken but did not reveal any problems.

In total, 51 infant formula samples and 36 from the follow-on formula category were compliant. In one infant formula sample, a low amount of a substance used in disinfectants and cleaning agents was detected. Low levels of chlorate were found in another infant formula.

Lead was detectable in 32 samples and cadmium in 25 samples at levels below legal limits. Trace amounts of nickel were detected in 65 samples and arsenic in six samples.

A separate action targeted meat products from direct sellers and small businesses. It examined 71 samples from across the country. A previous campaign revealed a non-compliance rate of 9 percent.

Seven of 71 samples in the latest control were flagged. In two cases, low levels of Listeria monocytogenes were detected. Other samples were contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

In one sample of poultry sausages, there was a suspicion of adulteration as it had a significantly higher fat content than what is permitted.

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Overview

Most snakes aren’t dangerous to people. Only about 15% of snakes worldwide and 20% in the United States can inject poison when they bite. These snakes are called venomous. In North America, these include the rattlesnake, coral snake, water moccasin, also called cottonmouth, and copperhead. Their bites can cause serious injuries and sometimes death.

Most venomous snakes in North America have eyes like slits and are called pit vipers. Their heads are triangle-shaped and they have fangs. One exception is the coral snake, which has a cigar-shaped head and round pupils. Nonvenomous snakes typically have rounded heads, round pupils and no fangs.

When to seek emergency help

If a venomous snake bites you, call 911 or your local emergency number right away, especially if the bitten area changes color, swells or is painful. Many emergency rooms have antivenom drugs, which may help you.

Symptoms

Most snakebites happen on the arms, wrists or hands. Typical symptoms of a nonvenomous snakebite are pain, injury and scratches at the site of the bite.

After a venomous snakebite, there usually is serious pain and tenderness at the site. This can worsen to swelling and bruising at the site and all the way up the arm or leg. Other symptoms are nausea, labored breathing and feelings of weakness, as well as an odd taste in the mouth.

Some snakes, such as coral snakes, have toxins that affect the brain and nerves. This can cause symptoms such as upper eyelid drooping, tingling fingers or toes, difficulty swallowing, and muscle weakness.

Sometimes, a venomous snake can bite without injecting venom. This is called a dry bite.

Treatment

After you call 911 or your local emergency number, if possible, take these steps while waiting for medical help:

• Move far away from the snake.
• Stay still and calm.
• Remove any jewelry, watches or tight clothing before swelling starts.
• Sit or lie down so that the bite is in a neutral, comfortable position.
• Clean the bite with soap and water. Cover or wrap it loosely with a clean, dry bandage.

What to avoid

• Don’t tie off the bite area, called using a tourniquet, or apply ice.
• Don’t cut the bite or try to remove the venom.
• Don’t drink caffeine or alcohol.
• Don’t take pain-relieving medicine, such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) or naproxen sodium (Aleve). Doing so can increase your risk of bleeding.
• Don’t try to catch or trap the snake. Try to remember its color and shape so that you can describe it. If possible, take a picture of the snake from a safe distance. Knowing what kind of snake bit you can help with treatment.