Fire coral? For over a week???

[Jayfarmlaw]

My wife touched the reef on Barracuda in the current. She said her hand stung when she hit it. The general consensus on the boat was fire coral. My reading about fire coral is that symptoms go away witching 24 hours and hot water or vinegar help with the symptoms. Hot water makes it worse and the rash is spreading. It started as a dime size spot on her knuckle. Over a week later and it looks like this. Any ideas?

There are no anaphylactic symptoms and my usual advice would be "call DAN" which we will do if it persists through the weekend. I'm not sure a local Oklahoma doctor would know much about Carribbean reef mechanisms of injury.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Jay

 

[Joneill]

My wife touched the reef on Barracuda in the current. She said her hand stung when she hit it. The general consensus on the boat was fire coral. My reading about fire coral is that symptoms go away witching 24 hours and hot water or vinegar help with the symptoms. Hot water makes it worse and the rash is spreading. It started as a dime size spot on her knuckle. Over a week later and it looks like this. Any ideas?

There are no anaphylactic symptoms and my usual advice would be "call DAN" which we will do if it persists through the weekend. I'm not sure a local Oklahoma doctor would know much about Carribbean reef mechanisms of injury.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Jay

It looks like a fire coral sting to me and it is not uncommon for it to take time to resolve - From DAN:

"It is not uncommon for the rash, itching and burning to recur after these symptoms have resolved initially because tiny, microscopic fragments of living coral can remain in the wound. In addition, a cyclic immune response (redness, inflammation, itching and swelling, itching or burning) can persist for a few weeks after the incident."

DAN Asia-Pacific DAN DOC-Coral Stings

 

[northernone]

Ouch. Sorry to hear it.

The photo appears like what happens when I brush the green prickly coral. (Coral contact = bad)

My worst was 5 weeks until the rash was gone.

I have since discovered Aloe vera seems to speed the healing process.

Regards,
Cameron

 

[fmerkel]

Probably not fire coral. There is a innocuous looking black lacy hydroid there, delicate, fluffy, soft looking. It's easy to brush the back of your hand on it during a drift. Simple touch feels initially like fire coral. You don't have to bash it, just touch it. Happened to a whole group of us.
The pain goes away in not too long like fire coral, usually by the end of the dive so you tend to forget it. Then the rash that looks like your picture starts showing up, usually the next day. It just gets worse and worse over time with no other insult.

Almost everyone ended up on steroids, either prescription cream or if a really bad case oral prednisone. You could try some over the counter steroid cream but it's probably too puny to do much. Benydral cream might help, wouldn't hurt, but again probably too puny. Calamine lotion is useless.

Just tell your Dr. you want to try some Rx steroid cream, strong stuff. It's mostly safe so there shouldn't be an issue getting that.

 

[shardison]

I hit one when I was there... The black wispy fan coral (looks like a small bush with no leaves).... Was cruising along on Paradise reef kind of "tree top flying" through the coral when I saw it coming up... tried to pull out, but brushed it with my arm apparently.... I was wearing a full suit so I didn't get stung initially, but when I got back to the resort and peeled the wetsuit down, It fired into the back of my hand.... The whole back of my hand had that same looking rash for several weeks afterward. I put Cortizone cream on it the entire time I had it.

Not something I wish to do again,

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

Thanks for the responses... FMerkel, she said she thought it was black....

Oh Sweet Baby Jesus.....not prednisone!! We call it Bitchisone. My daughter and I will just have to get a hotel for a week...lol. Somehow we will manage. Fingers crossed a steroid cream will work. All. Fingers. Crossed.

Thanks again everyone....

Jay

 

[nodakdive]

Probably not fire coral. There is a innocuous looking black lacy hydroid there, delicate, fluffy, soft looking. It's easy to brush the back of your hand on it during a drift. Simple touch feels initially like fire coral. You don't have to bash it, just touch it. Happened to a whole group of us.
The pain goes away in not too long like fire coral, usually by the end of the dive so you tend to forget it. Then the rash that looks like your picture starts showing up, usually the next day. It just gets worse and worse over time with no other insult.

Almost everyone ended up on steroids, either prescription cream or if a really bad case oral prednisone. You could try some over the counter steroid cream but it's probably too puny to do much. Benydral cream might help, wouldn't hurt, but again probably too puny. Calamine lotion is useless.

Just tell your Dr. you want to try some Rx steroid cream, strong stuff. It's mostly safe so there shouldn't be an issue getting that.

Years ago I brushed the black lacy hydroid. It got better over time, but a long time. I think I had the rash for a couple months? I never treated it and even a couple years later it would react, very faintly, in lake water. No reappearance of rash, but I could feel the burning itch for a few minutes.

I was diving with a friend who'd been diving all over. He suggested, and he was right, urine. Instant relief, and it sped the healing process considerably. He told the story of a dive where he and friends got exposed on their legs and bellies. They were diving somewhere really warm and weren't wearing neoprene. He said that by the end of the trip, anything exposed to urine (heh. On them, their rashes from about the waist down.) was in far better shape than what wasn't exposed to urine.

By the end of my trip, the rash/boils were still there, but they weren't really bothering me anymore.

I was amazed at the instant relief, and amazed that it would still react 2 years after when exposed to lake water, diving up here.

 

[mediumone]

Some people are more sensitive to the hydroid that fmerkel mentions, and I agree, this is most likely the cause of the rash. I am one of those, while the rest of the family (3 others), have only a very mild reaction.

My rash spreads over time, and gets much worse.

Benadryl - tablets, pills, capsules or whatever they're called, will take care of it.

First time I got "stung" it continued to get worse and spread the first week we got back. Went to the Doctor, and he diagnosed it as a staff infection. He prescribed a cream, pills, and wanted me to wash the affected areas with a solution of bleach water.

The pharmacist that I went to was curious, and when I told him the situation, he was pretty skeptical, (without undermining the Dr - he'd married a Hawaiian woman, and spend years there), He suggested that I try the Doctors regimen, and if that didn't take care of it, to take the Benadryl. Full disclosure here, I didn't wash with bleach water, but the pills and cream didn't do a damn thing. After 3 days, decided to go the Benadryl route, and the results were clear by the next day.

I later kicked myself for spending $100.00 + on the visit and meds, when I could have spent $3.00 + on the generic Benadryl. To my knowledge, Ahorro pharmacies are the only place where you can get generic Benadryl in Mexico.

 

[nodakdive]

More posts appeared as I was typing.

Not kidding. Pee on it. Whatever embarrassment she might feel will be quickly replaced by relief from the itching/burning, and it'll go away faster.

 

[Brules]

That black spongy coral is worse than fire coral. I got tagged on my right knee last year in the current an arm of it flipped up and hit me - took 6+ weeks for it to resolve..........!