Fire coral? For over a week???

[sharky60]

It is defiantly a "coral poisoning" (rash) of some sort.

Looks like she touched a "hydroid" or black coral, I usually come home with these "battle scars". Yes, it takes a couple weeks for it to completely clear up.

Cortizone for the itching is about all you can do, mine usually turn a dark purpley-pink before going away.

 

[boulderjohn]

Looks like she touched a "hydroid" or black coral

Maybe I misread this, but a hydroid is not a black coral. Or did you mean she must have touched one or the other?

 

[ggunn]

I learned about touching coral, any coral, when I put my hand out to prevent being tossed into it in a surge in the Red Sea.

My Lesson The Hard Way came way back before I was diving. I was snorkeling out behind La Perla (now Blue Angel) bringing up starfish, hermit crabs, snails and stuff for my 6 year old daughter to watch crawl around in the "baby pool" behind the hotel. I turned over a rock and saw what I know now was a bristle worm, and I picked it up. Big mistake. I was pulling those tiny nearly invisible spines out of my hand for days.

 

[Peter69_56]

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

I touched something like that at Truk. Tried vinegar but it didnt do a lot. Then I tried an age old cure, I peed on it, and it stopped the pain very quickly. It didnt cure it but it stopped the pain. When I got home I tried some corterzone cream and that finally got rid of the rash which had then turned into a nasy drying skin patch but now with no associated pain. The corterzone cream cleared it up. Now some 6 weeks later although the skin is clear, I do get occasional itching on the area.

I am assuming the ammonia in the pee neutralised the poison initially.

 

[morecowbells]

I have learned to never touch a mooring line. Every time I do, it leads to this awful rash on my hands which persists for weeks. The steroid creams and Benedryl were not effective. The rash often looked worse than it felt. Annoying, but not bad enough to start the oral steroid route(for same reasons you mentioned At night I applied some antibiotic ointment to avoid a secondary complication of infection. It may take a few weeks but eventually the rash will disappear.

 

[ggunn]

I have learned to never touch a mooring line. Every time I do, it leads to this awful rash on my hands which persists for weeks. The steroid creams and Benedryl were not effective. The rash often looked worse than it felt. Annoying, but not bad enough to start the oral steroid route(for same reasons you mentioned At night I applied some antibiotic ointment to avoid a secondary complication of infection. It may take a few weeks but eventually the rash will disappear.

While we were at Blue Angel a couple of years ago there was a rare "backwards current" incident and a couple of snorkelers got pushed into the fencing that surrounds the stingray pen. The next day they had a pattern of red rash that looked just like a hurricane fence on their backs.

 

[selo]

She's got nothing on me! This is what I got 7 years ago for not paying attention with a fast current. It took 5-6 weeks to go away although it was not itchy or painful. Just ugly. Apologies in advance.
Best,
Selo