diverdoug1
Contributor
I was out last Friday doing my part to help irradicate the Lionfish overtaking Honduran waters. It was such a target rich environment of the coast of Roatan, that I had speared 16 Lionfish in the first 35 minutes of my dive. I alredy had 3 of them on my pole spear, and tried to make some room at the end of the pole to get # 17. Well, as I thrust the spear forward to shift the fish back, I over did it. I sent a doral spine completely through my thumb. The spine went in on the crease of my distal thumb joint, and came out next to my nail bed. The initial pain was considerable, but I knew I was in for a great deal more. I was concerned about systemic toxicity, so I proceded to my safety stop and surfaced. Pain and swelling in my hand rapidly increased over the next 90 minutes. My thumb eventually swelled to 3 times it's normal diameter, and my whole hand also had significant swelling. I treated the sting with hot water immersion, and took some antihistamines and tylenol (this was woefully inefective in treating the pain, but it was all I had, and at least I suffered few systemic effects). The pain peaked at 90 minutes, and did not decrease for another 4 hours. After that, the pain slowly decreased, but still hurts some six days later. I have had some painfull injuries in the past, but this was the most intense pain I have ever experienced. Some people seem to be less reactive to the venom, but I seem to be sensitive to it. Also, my puncture traversed deep tissue. Once I got to Florida 2 days later, I radiographed the digit to rule out retained spine fragments, and took a tetanus booster. After six days, all swelling in the hand has resolved, but I have some skin sloughing and joint pain. One moment of haste and carelessness has caused me a good deal of pain. Prior to this episode, I always thought someone would really have to be a goober to get stung. While this may be the case, and I may be guilty of "gooberosity", I also have a new appreciation for how easy it was to get stuck! Please be dilligent in protecting yourself from getting stuck.