Sea Lice!!!

[Knavey]

chrpai once bubbled...
Why did you go to a nurse practicioner instead of a Dr in the first place? Insurance requirement or something?

I'm also suprised she ever heard of Sea Lice. Did you suggest it to her?

The Docs office has him and a nurse practitioner. I have the choice of seeing either one, but over the years I have used her instead of him.

I did suggest it to her, since it was a reasonable conclusion based on the evidence that she was given...

Week of diving in the keys

Borrowed a wetsuit

Developed AFTER I made my first dives.

It was no biggie really. Just discomfort for a period while it ran its course.

 

[Saturation]

DocVikingo once bubbled...
Interesting tale.

Another item that can be learned from your experience has to do with treatment when one actually does have seabather's eruption (SBE; "sea lice"). Repeatedly using a mixture of vinegar, ammonia & water days after the rash has appeared is both ineffective & inappropriate.

To be beneficial, the application of vinegar or ammonia containing compounds must occur immediately after the diver becomes aware that s/he has been stung. This action is designed to deactivate the toxin. Using such substances days after the rash is already fulminant indeed could aggravate the condition.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

Hi DV:

Purely by chance, I found that Windex with Vinegar had just enough concentration of active ingredients and works nicely. Cleans windows too!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

From my understanding of sea lice and my personal experience with it, using a wet suit to prevent sea lice is null. Sea lice tend to get caught in bathing and wet suits.
I was at a dive club meeting last year and the topic of sea lice came up with about 10 of us suffering from the weekends jaunt to the ocean. Basically there is nothing that you can do to prevent it, creams applied beforehand are useless, and the sea lice apparently even survive the wash and dry cycle of the clothing they were attached to!
Fresh water "jolts" them and that is when the stinging begins.

 

[Saturation]

scuba_jenny once bubbled...
From my understanding of sea lice and my personal experience with it, using a wet suit to prevent sea lice is null. Sea lice tend to get caught in bathing and wet suits.
I was at a dive club meeting last year and the topic of sea lice came up with about 10 of us suffering from the weekends jaunt to the ocean. Basically there is nothing that you can do to prevent it, creams applied beforehand are useless, and the sea lice apparently even survive the wash and dry cycle of the clothing they were attached to!
Fresh water "jolts" them and that is when the stinging begins.

Hi SJ:

A well fitting wet suit or skin with intact neck and wrist seals should not let water freely circulate once the initial layer of water enters the suit. Once the sea lice have entered the suit, however, finding and removing it requires surfacing. In addition, a hood provides the final way to plug a loose neck seal.

As I chill easily now and dive very often, I never dive without a suit or hood. Where lice or jelly fish roam, I also wear gloves.

In dives this year, where my fellow divers were infested with a sea of lice on exposed portions of their shorties, and some around their necks, I had a few stings on my cheeks. A quick squish of Windex with vinegar fixed most of our problems before we docked.

 

[clootie]

I was diving in the Caribbean around Saba and Statia two weeks ago... had a 3mm wetsuit, but with short arms. Anyway, on a couple of dives, I felt tiny jellyfish stings on my arms and hands as I surfaced. I immediately sprayed with the vinegar mix that was helpfully marked "for stings" on one side and "for fish and chips" on the other, which certainly helped. But the marks from the first day still hadn't faded, and I got more on the other arm towards the end of the week's trip, so when I got off the boat I hit the pharmacy. Picked the strongest hydrocortisone cream off the shelf, and asked the pharmacist if that was what he would recommend. "let me get you something a little stronger, looks like you've had a pretty strong reaction to them". The cream made a huge difference, particularly on the newer welts, but the old marks are still lingering, though at least not itchy.

One thing about the earlier posts you helpfully pointed us to Doc V, from your Rodale column, you mentioned that the welts appear 4 - 24 hours after swimming or diving. Well, they certainly reddened overnight, but mine were visible pretty much immediately - it wasn't hard to tell where to spray the vinegar solution. The boat staff had said they didn't get "sea lice" in that area, but I guess I managed to find some anyway. I'll use the "purge" trick, next time I'm in the area, and take the remainder of the cream with me!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

A quick squish of Windex with vinegar fixed most of our problems before we docked.

What is the windex:vinegar ratio? If it works, I am carrying it on my next dive!

 

[Saturation]

clootie once bubbled...
I was diving in the Caribbean around Saba and Statia two weeks ago... had a 3mm wetsuit, but with short arms. Anyway, on a couple of dives, I felt tiny jellyfish stings on my arms and hands as I surfaced. I immediately sprayed with the vinegar mix that was helpfully marked "for stings" on one side and "for fish and chips" on the other, which certainly helped. But the marks from the first day still hadn't faded, and I got more on the other arm towards the end of the week's trip, so when I got off the boat I hit the pharmacy. Picked the strongest hydrocortisone cream off the shelf, and asked the pharmacist if that was what he would recommend. "let me get you something a little stronger, looks like you've had a pretty strong reaction to them". The cream made a huge difference, particularly on the newer welts, but the old marks are still lingering, though at least not itchy.

One thing about the earlier posts you helpfully pointed us to Doc V, from your Rodale column, you mentioned that the welts appear 4 - 24 hours after swimming or diving. Well, they certainly reddened overnight, but mine were visible pretty much immediately - it wasn't hard to tell where to spray the vinegar solution. The boat staff had said they didn't get "sea lice" in that area, but I guess I managed to find some anyway. I'll use the "purge" trick, next time I'm in the area, and take the remainder of the cream with me!

Hi C:

You can get 3 types of reactions from the sting: immediate due to the toxins, delayed due to the toxins, and finally a type of 'allergy' caused by the body's immune reaction to the toxins. The third type may occur immediately, and in severe conditions, lead to a full body allergic reaction. A clue to the 3rd type of reaction is that it happens quickly, may spread beyond its initial site or enlarge greater than the original sting, and responds to anti-allergy style medications like antihistamines and steroids like hydrocortisone.

 

[Saturation]

scuba_jenny once bubbled...


What is the windex:vinegar ratio? If it works, I am carrying it on my next dive!

Its a weak solution, under 0.25% but also contains eythlene glycol as the 'alcohol,' also known as antifreeze.

It was on the boat when I got stung on my cheek, did a spray, felt the burn, and it was gone. Other times I had used the more potent 50:50 alcohol:vinegar mix, and it works too.

Note its cheaper to make your own mix.


http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~jsmith/MSDS/WINDEX-VINEGAR.htm