Vinegar No Longer Included In My Dive Bag

[Diver Dennis]

That's a good point Hank.

 

[DocVikingo]

Given that fresh water can cause "unfired" nematocysts to trigger, (due to swelling caused by osmosis?) I wonder if super saline water would help. Like, mixing 200 ppt or more and applying it to the affected area.

Hi Hank,

By doing so, one again would be creating a significant osmotic differential, simply in the opposite direction. By the same principle, this might disturb undischarged nematocysts, causing them to release.

The best course of action probably would be to thoroughly rinse the affected area with water taken from the same general location where the diver was envenomated.

Helpful?

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[pickens_46929]

For hot water, a solution might be a solar shower. Some boats carry a solar shower on board. Problem is it's mainly fresh water. So I'd be half tempted to carry a portable solar shower bag, fill it with sea water at the start of the dive and leave it on deck. That way you'd have that hot water needed for stings. Easy and cheap. If no one needs it, you can dump it overboard at the end of things.

Figure it'd only take 20 mins for it to heat up in the sun...

Dave

 

[DandyDon]

For hot water, a solution might be a solar shower. Some boats carry a solar shower on board. Problem is it's mainly fresh water. So I'd be half tempted to carry a portable solar shower bag, fill it with sea water at the start of the dive and leave it on deck. That way you'd have that hot water needed for stings. Easy and cheap. If no one needs it, you can dump it overboard at the end of things.

Figure it'd only take 20 mins for it to heat up in the sun...

Dave

To 113F?!

Yes, any hot water is going to be fresh water. The suggestions were to flush with sea water to remove lose debris, but the hot soak is going to be fresh - and it's going to usually be back in the room.

Use the credit card on the boat to remove anything stuck to the skin, flush with sea water, and if you're sure it wasn't a man-of-war - maybe the vinegar is still worth trying on the way to the hot shower. Unless you're on a liveaboard, then head for the head.

 

[Natasha]

Yeah, I'm thinking that's something I'm not going to waste the space for in my kit. Benadryl, hydrocortisone, and a several other things have long been a staple but calamine :no Now if we suddenly get a poison ivy bloom out in the gulf....

I read somewhere calamine lotion is a placebo.

For poison ivy, after trying several things, and MD visits with my ex, opening the Aloe plant leaves on my patio, and putting it's juice directly on the rash, worked wonders.

 

[Thalassamania]

Given that fresh water can cause "unfired" nematocysts to trigger, (due to swelling caused by osmosis?) I wonder if super saline water would help. Like, mixing 200 ppt or more and applying it to the affected area.

I suspect that it'll do the same. Best move might be to heat ocean water and then apply.

 

[DandyDon]

I read somewhere calamine lotion is a placebo.

No, it does help some things - at least the pains, but hydrocortisone is now OTC and probly better.

For poison ivy, after trying several things, and MD visits with my ex, opening the Aloe plant leaves on my patio, and putting it's juice directly on the rash, worked wonders.

A popular folk treatment, couldn't hurt, worth a try - if it feels good, great.

 

[BlueDevil]

Don - some dive boats have hot tubs so this would Always believed the vinegar treatment story. Wonder where it came from?

The original research on the use of Vinegar was published in the Medical Journal of Australia and I think it would date back to the late seventies or early eighties. If I recall correctly people had been advocating the use of methylated spirits for the box jellyfish prior to that, but the reseach showed that this caused further firing of the nematocysts. However when they tried vinegar they found it inhibited the firing quite effectively. As a result of this research vinegar became the standard treatment for the box jelly and 'vinegar stations' where even placed on beaches in northern Queensland so people could access it in an emergency.

Now this research was very specifically carried out on the box jellyfish, not on other species. Over time I noticed that people where advocating the use of vinegar for all types of jelly fish stings. I found this interesting since i had not come across the reseach to back up this practice, but figured that someone had done the work but had not published it in the medical journals that I read. However i was wrong to assume the research had been done - rather it was a case of people inappropriately extrapolating from box jellyfish to other species. It seems there was never any research to support the use of vinegar for species other than the box jelly. This type of assumption that what works for one will work for all others is of course not valid.

It is only in more recent years that the reseachers have looked into this issue and found that whilst the vinegar is still recommended for the box jellyfish it was not the ideal treatment for other jellyfish stings.

I am sure I would have a copy of the original research paper on the use of vinegar for box jellies tucked away somewhere, but I don't like my chances of finding it anytime soon!

Dave.

 

[ianr33]

I have heard that the cooling water output from an outboard motor can be used in a pinch as a source of hot water. Any truth in this?

 

[Diver Dennis]

Hi Hank,

By doing so, one again would be creating a significant osmotic differential, simply in the opposite direction. By the same principle, this might disturb undischarged nematocysts, causing them to release.

The best course of action probably would be to thoroughly rinse the affected area with water taken from the same general location where the diver was envenomated.

Helpful?

Regards,

DocVikingo

Good point Doc...

I was on a dive a couple of weeks ago and while waiting to take photos of the guys coming up from deep deco, I counted 6 different types of Jellies in the water. I had a number of stings on my face, neck and ears. I used Hydrocortisone which worked well.