May 13, 2006 San Juanico and the "Aquatic LandmINE
Air temp: 91° Water temp: 78°
Sunset at San Juanico cove
HAH!! I was just re-reading the last Travel Log entry- the one about the harmony of nature - and can't help but laugh at the irony of it.
Just two days after writing that piece about the idyllic conditions at Isla Carmen, we arrived, along with our friends on Amalfi and Godspeed, at San Juanico Cove, on the Baja about 25 miles north of Loreto. Like the last place we visited, this cove is pretty and the white sand beach beckoned us. We put the dinghy in the water, loaded up the dogs, and headed to shore. The water was refreshing, about 78°, and all of us were cooling off, even little Sadie, who within the last couple of days has decided she's a swimmer. We were having such a nice time, playing in the water with the dogs, when we were joined on the beach by Beth and Leonard, who had dinghied over to join in on the fun.
Standing in knee-deep water, I turned to walk to the dinghy and WHAM! Something starts thrashing about under my feet. I suddenly feel intense pain, mixed with a strong dose of fear. The water is so churned up I can't see what's down there. My foot hurts so bad... I start screaming to Bryan... Oh my God, I have to get out of the water, but I can't walk! I can't put pressure on my left foot. Bryan scoops me up under my arms and gets me to the dinghy. The inner arch of my left foot has a one inch vertical gash in it and it's bleeding like crazy. Bryan rinses it off and applies pressure to stop the bleeding. Holy crap, what happened?! Was that a stingray in the water? I guess it must have been, but I never saw a thing.
Oh man, my foot is really hurting. And bleeding. Bryan is trying to get me to calm down. Needing to get back out to the boat, Leonard helps Bryan load me and the dogs back into the dinghy. We get back to the boat and get out the first aid supplies. Not really knowing what to do, we read the paragraph about stingrays in our first aid book. Hot water! It says immerse the injury immediately in hot water, as hot as the person can tolerate. We do as instructed. The bleeding is subsiding, but the pain in increasing. How is this possible!!? It already hurts so much! As the extremely hot water is drawing the venom out of the wound and I can see it trickling in a bloody ooze from my foot, I start to cry. I have never felt such pain. And it's getting worse, not better.
Word about what has happened to me starts to spread around the anchorage. Kasey comes over and brings some antibiotic ointments he found in his medicine cabinet. Our friend Tracy from s/v Eagle Dancer delivers an Epsom salt-like mixture to put in my bucket of hot water. It turns out they were anchored last season near a lady who got stung by a stingray and who used the same stuff. Gino and Pat from s/v Chalet Mer, whom we've never previously met, stop by. Pat was stung six months ago in Muertos and they know what needs to be done. They come aboard, look at my wound, give Bryan instructions about digging out the barb (which is still in my foot), and hurry back to their boat to get me some medicine. We have just found out that antibiotics need to be started right away, or else a staph or strep infection can set in. Gino and Pat return with the medicine, demonstrating the compassion and generosity that is so common among cruisers. They supervise while Bryan removes five pieces of the stingray's barb from my still-oozing wound. Pat encourages me to take something for the pain, and I am thankful that we have Vicodin on board.
A couple hours have passed and I'm still soaking my foot. The pain is still excruciating. Every time Bryan adds new hot water to the bucket, thus causing more venom to come trickling out of the wound, the discomfort is kicked up a bit more. I comment to him that I didn't have nearly this much pain after my surgery last year.
Beth and Leonard come over to check on me. While they are there, I am overcome by nausea and dizziness, probably from the Vicodin I took. Beth puts a cool washcloth on my forehead and the symptoms start to go away.
After a few hours of soaking my foot and a bit of good 'ole Vicodin in my system, I start to feel better. Thank goodness. I don't know how anyone could get through more than a few hours of such pain without passing out. Bryan moves me inside, gets me situated on the couch with my foot elevated, and makes me some dinner. Afterwards, I soon fall asleep.
By the next morning, I'm much better. My foot doesn't hurt much at all, but it is swollen. I have to take it easy most of the day. I begin to realize that it isn't all that surprising this happened, considering how much time we've spent in the water over the last eight months. I'm very thankful it didn't happen to one of the dogs, and now we'll be more alert when we take them to shore.
After reading up on the subject, we now know that stingray injuries are quite common in the Sea of Cortez, although they can happen anywhere. We've also read that the power of their sting is likened to that of an "aquatic landmine," which I agree is a pretty accurate description. Wearing shoes in the water and doing the "stingray shuffle" while you walk are helpful but not foolproof against stingrays. If you are stung, rinse the wound with clean, fresh water (not sea water) as soon as possible and soak it in water as hot as 113° for at least 90 minutes to draw out the venom. Remove any pieces of the barb or other debris with sterile tweezers. Start a five day regimen of antibiotics to ward off infection. Apply a sterile dressing to the wound each day for the first few days. Stay out of the saltwater for at least a week, longer is advisable .
So there you have it, my stingray story. Not too glamorous, but hopefully now you all will know what to do if it ever happens to you. (And let's hope that it never does!) I certainly hope that I never step on another stingray as long as I live.
It doesn't look like much in this photo, but trust me, it was painful!!
May 26, 2006 Follow-up to the stingray incident
It has been 15 days since I stepped on that dumb stingray, and my foot is finally doing better. It was swollen and painful to walk on for the first five days. I was lulled into a false sense of security after the sixth day when it started feeling much better, and went walking around the ghost town at Bahia Salinas with Bryan and some friends, and additionally got my feet wet at the beach. I guess I did too much too soon, because the next day I had a relapse which lasted for five more days. The swelling was bad, and I had to elevate my foot at least a couple times a day. I hobbled around the boat because it hurt to walk. I had been advised that the wound would take a long time to heal, but I didn't know how long that really meant. Now I do. Two weeks for the swelling to subside and a minimum of three to four weeks for the wound to close up. It's a good thing I don't have to wear shoes anytime soon!