Stingray story

Disclaimer: The spacing and photo placement was not what I wanted but I am having posting issues. The pictures are supposed to be last and the spacing is messed up. Sorry. Enjoy though:

Who knew that such a tiny thing could hurt SO bad!
Matt, Me, Kimmy (Matt's niece), her friend Sammie, and beach patrol man
The cart I rode on.

I drew a crowd!

So, whenever crazy things happen I wish I would have taken pictures. But in the moment when there is stress and an injury related event, it just doesn't seem appropriate to take pictures. Well, I am glad my brother-in-law Mike snapped a few pictures of this incident.

We have just spent the week at the beach with Matt's side of the family. Overall it was a great week with good weather and fun times. Monday & Tuesday were spent at the beach. Wednesday we took a break from the sun and rode a ferry over to the NC Aquarium, then Thursday was spent at the beach. That is when it happened. I got stung by a stingray. Matt's college-aged niece, and her friend, and I were heading out to boogie board. We had been out previously and took a break then was about to head back out. I was walking in about knee deep water when I stepped and felt this pain. My first thought was wow, I must have just been pinched by a crab. I turned to head back out of the water and the pain started surging. I knew instantly that this wasn't a crab bite or anything like that. I pulled my foot out to look at it and I was bleeding a lot. In the next 30 seconds to a minute it was as if my mind was trying to make sense of what was happening. I was in a ton of pain, but there was only this tiny little spot where blood was coming out. I yelled out to Matt to come because I knew I was in trouble. This sucker HURT! In the next few minutes I was helped out of the water and sat down. Two other beach goers who were nurses came over to help. They got a napkin to stop the bleeding and was asking me questions. One funny thing is that when they pulled the napkin away to access, my foot squirted blood about 4 inches into the air because the little booger got me right on a vein on the top of my foot. It was funny to see it shoot out like old faithful.

Anyhow, all throughout the pain was just growing in intensity. I was crying, and crying HARD! I could not believe how much pain I was in. To make a very long story short, people asked if it was a jelly fish, but I had been stung before and this didn't even come close to that. I would have rather been stung a million times by a jelly fish than to feel like this. Someone down the beach called 911, but we told them to cancel that call because we knew it wasn't life or death. The beach patrol came and picked me up in a cart and helped me get off the beach where my brother in law and Matt got me into the van. We decided to head to the Urgent Care instead of the hospital. I am crying the whole time. I am telling you, I have never in my life felt any kind of pain like this. For the next hour and a half I was in horrible pain and it wasn't subsiding. We got to the Urgent Care and I walked in limping and crying and in pain. Everyone stopped talking and literally you could hear a pin drop. Apparently I picked one of the busiest days to get stung. I heard the receptionist talking and they said what is normally a 20 minute wait was going on 2.5 hours. THANKFULLY because they saw what kind of pain I was in, they quickly brought me back. And do you know what the "cure" for a stingray sting is?! Soak your foot in hot water as hot as you can stand it. Literally. They had that water so hot it turned my foot red. But let me tell you, when I had my foot in the water it was instant relief. The hot water draws the venom out. So we soaked it in the Urgent Care for about 20 minutes. I had to get a tetanus shot because of risk of infection. I also had to be put on an antibiotic because I had an open wound in the water. Then he asked if I wanted a shot for pain or a narcotic prescription for pain. But just having it in the water made me feel so much better, that I just took a prescription equivalent of Ibuprofen. So that was that. Your worse pain is in the first 3-6 hours and then it subsides. It has been 2 days since that happened and my foot is a little swollen and bruised. Needless to say Friday Matt and I decided to just head to the pool.

I have spent the first half of my life living in Florida where we went to the beach ALL the time! Mom would always tell my brother and I to do the stingray shuffle as we walked out. But, I now go to the beach once a year and I get stung! CRAZY. Oh well, now I have a fun story to tell and I can potentially help someone in the future!