First Stings First
(Title courtesy of Alvin)
At first, there was just the pain of a deep cut. Half an hour later, the foot felt strange. Not excruciatingly painful, but weird; numb and tingly, the feeling moving slowly up to the knee.
I was nervously expecting more serious pain. But manfully went on for lunch with the team after the trip. After all, Alex advised the best way to counter venom is to add to body mass so as to dilute the toxicity.
In the midst of the cure, indeed, the pain went away!
Thus, I was able to safely operate the PV (production vehicle) ... though most wouldn't consider my driving safe.
Of course, as soon as we got home, we immediately looked up our ever-popular "A Colour Guide to Dangerous Animals" by P. Gopalakrishnankone (ed.), which says...
Rays are considered the most dangerous venomous fish by local fishermen. (I feel so manly already) Many rays are armed with sharp venomous spines at the tail. (tell me about it)
Venomous rays are widely distributed throughout the world and the incidence of injury is high (OK, I feel better now, not like I'm the ONLY stupoked person to get stung by a ray), with death resulting occasionally (Oooo...)
In many cases, the symptoms are localised, but sometimes nausea, weakness, unconciousness, diarrhoea, convulsions and respiratory distress may occur. (These symptoms are unfortunately hard to distinguish from the regular Stupoks that sets in after a trip. But I did take advantage the "weakness" and gratefully demured when Robert offered to carry my camera bag. When he took hold of it, he exclaimed "Good Grief! What do you put in here? Can I change my mind?". When I tried to encourage him by remarking how nice a gentleman he was, he gruffly said "I'm only a gentleman up to 5kgs". Oops, my bag is like 15kgs over the limit. But he still carried it to the boat. What a sweetie!)
The text adds suggestively... The flesh of most species is edible. Hhmm, I wonder what that means? Revenge on the ray that stung us?
Sting Journal
I thought this a great opportunity to study the effect of marine toxins! So here's some updates ...
Day One
0800hrs: Ouch!
1000hrs: Lunch does the trick, pain goes away
1300hrs: The wound doesn't hurt at all, but is weeping profusely. I can't really feel my toes, which seem to have swollen up somewhat. The site is turning a nice shade of purple. It will soon no doubt start rotting away so I have to chop off the foot. To ensure this is done with minimal pain, Tom has kindly offered to club me over the head with the Gitzo and use a hacksaw to do the job. Isn't nice to have friends who care...
1800hrs: Severe bout of diarrhoea. But maybe it's just too much ice-cream ... Pounding headache still there. Wound still weeps but less profusely. Tender area now almost the whole of the side of the foot, quite an impressive swelling. Toes still swollen.
2200hrs: Headache gone (I think that was just due to the scorching day). Foot nicely swelling up. All small joints stiff including fingers, but I think that's just the arthritis being aggravated (yah, I'm THAT old). Alas, obviously a stingray sting doesn't work like bee stings to cure arthritis. Hurts a bit to put weight on foot now. Am about to eat dinner ... let's see if I can hold that down ... Will pop an antihistamine soon, just so I don't die in my sleep. This is fun! Living science! Would like to thank all kind friends for calling/checking up to make sure I'm still alive.
Day Two
0800hrs: Had to miss guiding at Chek Jawa this morning. I thought I should be responsible (for a change) and give the ol' body a break. Dinner stayed down. Swelling has gone down, but still tender. Toes no longer look like grapes and I can wriggle them! The slight pain is more like a healing cut than toxins. Aside from the usual morning arthritis, I feel perfectly OK. Probably because I had more than 3 hours of sleep for the first time in 5 days :-)
1700hrs: Wound still weeps a little, slightly swollen (probably can't wear booties or real shoes for a few days). But otherwise, no discomfort.
Well, looks like I'll live. This time.
Day Three
1700hrs: Just back from 5-hour shoot on the shore. Couldn't squeeze on booties and didn't want to get feetie wet so I stayed on the high shore. And discovered lots of things about snails. For one, they move real slow, if at all. Wound seems fine. Doesn't hurt at all, except when I poke it. But Chay Hoon told me about this guy who got secondary infection and the problem lasted a whole year ... eeeks. Apparently he iced the wound which made it worse. I didn't do a thing to it and left it well alone. Tom asked whether I got it X-rayed to see if any bits of spine are still stuck inside ... I didn't think about that. It appears I might not be out of the woods just yet...
Day Four
0830hrs: Back at work, and wearing Real Shoes too! Absolutely no problems. Wound doesn't even hurt when I poke it. Just a small area of redness around the actual wound.
1400hrs: Just had a chat with Subaraj. He says it was probably the Mangrove whiptail (Himantura walga) that stung me as it's not as venomous as the Blue-spotted stingray (Dasyatis kuhlii). Indeed, the Mangrove whiptail is very commonly seen in that very lagoon at Sekudu. I was just asking for it, wading through without looking properly. Fortunately, I've never yet seen the Blue-spotted stingray at Sekudu. This is NOT the same as the Blue-spotted fantail ray (Taeniura lymma) that we more commonly see on the reefs of the Southern shores. I don't really want to test which of these is the most toxic.
Day Seven: Still slightly swollen and the area has started to itch quite badly. Tomorrow, the next series of super low tides are starting and so have to get back into the water...
Day Eight: Put a dinky plaster over the wound and went out into the water. Not good. Site has swollen badly: purply red with impressive blood vessels; tender and painful. I think this is the dreaded secondary infection that Chay Hoon spoke about. The crew tried to console me by saying that I would look quite fetching with a wooden leg. But I would have to watch out for barnacles and wood-borers.
Day Nine: Put OpSite plaster over the wound and tried to keep foot dry. Yah, right. That worked for about 5 minutes. OpSite plaster came off with bootie after the trip and foot is REALLY bad now. Finally succumbed and went to see the doctor who prescribed antibiotics. He was most impressed by the injury. A first for him. Anyway, he doesn't think I'm going to die.
Day Ten to 13: Doggedly go on with field trips but try to stay on high shore. Wound got worse (swelling grew, a blood vessel or nerve into the heel got infected). Over the days, improved gradually. In between trips, tried to keep foot elevated, which makes for a very amusing pose at the computer...
Day 14 to 15: End of trips. Foot finally gets to stay dry in between baths.
Day 16: End of antibiotics and pain completely gone. No longer swollen or painful, and can finally see my ankle bone again. But the area around the sting now quite hard. Looks like I have to cancel the order for the wooden leg...
Loy has added a link to this entry from his blog. Thanks for the good wishes Loy! No, I didn't intend to get stung. But since it has happened, might as well find out how bad it can get.
As I've discovered, not too bad. Perhaps it was a small ray and not a very mean one. I will certainly NOT want to repeat the experience. Must be careful when wading through murky waters.
What next?
Robin (of Stonefish Fame) remarked, for us Wild Things, it's not a matter of "if" we will get bit, stung, jabbed, burnt. It's a matter of "when". Chay Hoon added sagely: "and by what".
Perusing the above-mentioned book (which we last pored over when Robin got hit) we identified some other things which we will no doubt eventually encounter in an unfriendly way:
Sure Die One...
Sea snake
Cone snail
Blue-ringed octopus
Serious Ouch ...
Sea urchin
Scorpionfish
Catfish
Fireworm
Jellyfish
Fire coral
Hydroids
It's a miracle we are still alive and have most of our appendages ...
At first, there was just the pain of a deep cut. Half an hour later, the foot felt strange. Not excruciatingly painful, but weird; numb and tingly, the feeling moving slowly up to the knee.
I was nervously expecting more serious pain. But manfully went on for lunch with the team after the trip. After all, Alex advised the best way to counter venom is to add to body mass so as to dilute the toxicity.
In the midst of the cure, indeed, the pain went away!
Thus, I was able to safely operate the PV (production vehicle) ... though most wouldn't consider my driving safe.
Of course, as soon as we got home, we immediately looked up our ever-popular "A Colour Guide to Dangerous Animals" by P. Gopalakrishnankone (ed.), which says...
Rays are considered the most dangerous venomous fish by local fishermen. (I feel so manly already) Many rays are armed with sharp venomous spines at the tail. (tell me about it)
Venomous rays are widely distributed throughout the world and the incidence of injury is high (OK, I feel better now, not like I'm the ONLY stupoked person to get stung by a ray), with death resulting occasionally (Oooo...)
In many cases, the symptoms are localised, but sometimes nausea, weakness, unconciousness, diarrhoea, convulsions and respiratory distress may occur. (These symptoms are unfortunately hard to distinguish from the regular Stupoks that sets in after a trip. But I did take advantage the "weakness" and gratefully demured when Robert offered to carry my camera bag. When he took hold of it, he exclaimed "Good Grief! What do you put in here? Can I change my mind?". When I tried to encourage him by remarking how nice a gentleman he was, he gruffly said "I'm only a gentleman up to 5kgs". Oops, my bag is like 15kgs over the limit. But he still carried it to the boat. What a sweetie!)
The text adds suggestively... The flesh of most species is edible. Hhmm, I wonder what that means? Revenge on the ray that stung us?
Sting Journal
I thought this a great opportunity to study the effect of marine toxins! So here's some updates ...
Day One
0800hrs: Ouch!
1000hrs: Lunch does the trick, pain goes away
1300hrs: The wound doesn't hurt at all, but is weeping profusely. I can't really feel my toes, which seem to have swollen up somewhat. The site is turning a nice shade of purple. It will soon no doubt start rotting away so I have to chop off the foot. To ensure this is done with minimal pain, Tom has kindly offered to club me over the head with the Gitzo and use a hacksaw to do the job. Isn't nice to have friends who care...
1800hrs: Severe bout of diarrhoea. But maybe it's just too much ice-cream ... Pounding headache still there. Wound still weeps but less profusely. Tender area now almost the whole of the side of the foot, quite an impressive swelling. Toes still swollen.
2200hrs: Headache gone (I think that was just due to the scorching day). Foot nicely swelling up. All small joints stiff including fingers, but I think that's just the arthritis being aggravated (yah, I'm THAT old). Alas, obviously a stingray sting doesn't work like bee stings to cure arthritis. Hurts a bit to put weight on foot now. Am about to eat dinner ... let's see if I can hold that down ... Will pop an antihistamine soon, just so I don't die in my sleep. This is fun! Living science! Would like to thank all kind friends for calling/checking up to make sure I'm still alive.
Day Two
0800hrs: Had to miss guiding at Chek Jawa this morning. I thought I should be responsible (for a change) and give the ol' body a break. Dinner stayed down. Swelling has gone down, but still tender. Toes no longer look like grapes and I can wriggle them! The slight pain is more like a healing cut than toxins. Aside from the usual morning arthritis, I feel perfectly OK. Probably because I had more than 3 hours of sleep for the first time in 5 days :-)
1700hrs: Wound still weeps a little, slightly swollen (probably can't wear booties or real shoes for a few days). But otherwise, no discomfort.
Well, looks like I'll live. This time.
Day Three
1700hrs: Just back from 5-hour shoot on the shore. Couldn't squeeze on booties and didn't want to get feetie wet so I stayed on the high shore. And discovered lots of things about snails. For one, they move real slow, if at all. Wound seems fine. Doesn't hurt at all, except when I poke it. But Chay Hoon told me about this guy who got secondary infection and the problem lasted a whole year ... eeeks. Apparently he iced the wound which made it worse. I didn't do a thing to it and left it well alone. Tom asked whether I got it X-rayed to see if any bits of spine are still stuck inside ... I didn't think about that. It appears I might not be out of the woods just yet...
Day Four
0830hrs: Back at work, and wearing Real Shoes too! Absolutely no problems. Wound doesn't even hurt when I poke it. Just a small area of redness around the actual wound.
1400hrs: Just had a chat with Subaraj. He says it was probably the Mangrove whiptail (Himantura walga) that stung me as it's not as venomous as the Blue-spotted stingray (Dasyatis kuhlii). Indeed, the Mangrove whiptail is very commonly seen in that very lagoon at Sekudu. I was just asking for it, wading through without looking properly. Fortunately, I've never yet seen the Blue-spotted stingray at Sekudu. This is NOT the same as the Blue-spotted fantail ray (Taeniura lymma) that we more commonly see on the reefs of the Southern shores. I don't really want to test which of these is the most toxic.
Day Seven: Still slightly swollen and the area has started to itch quite badly. Tomorrow, the next series of super low tides are starting and so have to get back into the water...
Day Eight: Put a dinky plaster over the wound and went out into the water. Not good. Site has swollen badly: purply red with impressive blood vessels; tender and painful. I think this is the dreaded secondary infection that Chay Hoon spoke about. The crew tried to console me by saying that I would look quite fetching with a wooden leg. But I would have to watch out for barnacles and wood-borers.
Day Nine: Put OpSite plaster over the wound and tried to keep foot dry. Yah, right. That worked for about 5 minutes. OpSite plaster came off with bootie after the trip and foot is REALLY bad now. Finally succumbed and went to see the doctor who prescribed antibiotics. He was most impressed by the injury. A first for him. Anyway, he doesn't think I'm going to die.
Day Ten to 13: Doggedly go on with field trips but try to stay on high shore. Wound got worse (swelling grew, a blood vessel or nerve into the heel got infected). Over the days, improved gradually. In between trips, tried to keep foot elevated, which makes for a very amusing pose at the computer...
Day 14 to 15: End of trips. Foot finally gets to stay dry in between baths.
Day 16: End of antibiotics and pain completely gone. No longer swollen or painful, and can finally see my ankle bone again. But the area around the sting now quite hard. Looks like I have to cancel the order for the wooden leg...
Loy has added a link to this entry from his blog. Thanks for the good wishes Loy! No, I didn't intend to get stung. But since it has happened, might as well find out how bad it can get.
As I've discovered, not too bad. Perhaps it was a small ray and not a very mean one. I will certainly NOT want to repeat the experience. Must be careful when wading through murky waters.
What next?
Robin (of Stonefish Fame) remarked, for us Wild Things, it's not a matter of "if" we will get bit, stung, jabbed, burnt. It's a matter of "when". Chay Hoon added sagely: "and by what".
Perusing the above-mentioned book (which we last pored over when Robin got hit) we identified some other things which we will no doubt eventually encounter in an unfriendly way:
Sure Die One...
Sea snake
Cone snail
Blue-ringed octopus
Serious Ouch ...
Sea urchin
Scorpionfish
Catfish
Fireworm
Jellyfish
Fire coral
Hydroids
It's a miracle we are still alive and have most of our appendages ...
1 Comments:
Take care Ria! Glad to hear you well and kicking! :)
Post a Comment
<< Home