Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

General Jellyfish Stings Treatment:

-rinse the area with sea water. Do not scrub or wash with fresh water which will aggravate the stinging cells. Do not pour sun lotion or spirit-based liquid on the area.
-deactivate remaining cells with a vinegar rinse. If no vinegar is available use urine, apart from Box jellies and Irukandji. Ask a mate for a golden shower! Really! Preferably male urine as it's considered to be more sterile.
-lift off any remaining tentacles with a stick or similar.
-If cells still linger, dust with flour and carefully scrape off with a blunt knife.
- after all tentacle sections have gone, pain can be treated with a cold pack and/or a local anaesthetic such as a sunburn lotion or insect bite treatment that lists '...ocaine' as an ingredient.
-if there is continued swelling, or itchiness, apply a light steroid cream e.g. Hydrocortisone eczema cream.
-if muscle spasms persist see a doctor.

That's from one site, but several other sources explicitly say don't use urine (if there are still tendrils in the affected area) because it will cause more nematocysts to discharge.

Apparently contact lens cleaner is good for deactivating the stinging cells because it dissolves them.

J.R. wrote:WOW JUDE !

You ought to get your own advice column in a magazine.

As to your reply, No.1. I think you're right. I seem to remember someone telling me that it is possible to buy magazines devoted to that pursuit !

the only problem JR is I don't know how I picked up this stuff - it all just pours out of my befuddled brain like a water fall..... I have so much "stuff" in my head, and yet I can't remember the most basic of things, like what I had for breakfast yesterday.....I know what the youngsters will say - "senility" - my doc woun't agree - I tried "early onset of Alzshimers" as I have had early onset for most of my problems - he just said that I was useful - "useful"? what the heck does that mean???

any how - am into overwatering everything as I know my son doesn't understand my joy of seeing my pansies, sweet peas, lilies, lavender etc in flower and will be packing everything out with newspaer later when the sun moves off the front so there is more water retention as this is the last bathful of water I will get from sarah's shower as tomorrow morning she has 2 Exams (chemistry - and she had me trying to test her on it! ARGH!!!) and then we are off, so it will be the first one down the pipe for a long while....

oh somehting I didn't mention - MULCHING - very good for plants - trees, fuscia etc..... soot from chimneys is VERY VERY good if you grow onions... (see what I mean about random "STUFF"????)

On the subject of jellyfish, I well remember my cousin getting stung by a Portugese Man 'O War in Gurnsey, (he lived their as a child).

Would have been around 1960. It was none too pleasant, I can tell you, and the offending jellyfish was only a baby. Looked like a pinkish blue cornish pastie with tentacles, as I recall.

The beach was cleared in pretty quick time.

My jellyfish memory is of taking my elder son to the school outfitters for uniform. We had returned from Borneo leaving husband and younger son there. The woman behind the counter said to me with great glee 'Oh, I see you've come from Borneo, we had a lady in last week - she'd left her little one behind, got stung by a jellyfish and DIED!'
Not what I wanted to hear!! My younger son was fine!

Chris my son got stug multiple times by a hoard af jelly fish when we were camping in Swansea (we are going back about 10 years!!) getting him to pee on himself was out of the question! He totally refused - luckily I had packed anti-sting relief, but the fuss he made you would have thought he was dying, until we got to the food - then I said perhaps he shouldn't have any.......... ha the jelly fish stings were nothing then!!! Last year there were blue jelly fish of the coast at Penrith - it was weird, I have to admit to being a wuss and getting out of their way and out of the water!

Portuguese Man O' War isn't a jelly fish!

Tim_MaA_MidB wrote:Portuguese Man O' War isn't a jelly fish!

?

It's a colony of siphonophores.

I remember 2 occasions in Jersey.

One was when was about 10 on Ouaisne Beach (shortest word with all vowels??) and the sea had hundreds of the little beggars - I wans't going in there.

The second time was at Plemont and a huge great thing got beached in a small rock pool - the lifeguards ad to keep people away from it all day.

Tim_MaA_MidB wrote:It's a colony of siphonophores.

So? It stings summat awful so if it is or is not a jellyfish doesn't really matter to the victim. ISTR one year when we couldn't go in the water for a week because there were so many Portuguese men-of-war in South Deven - in the 1960's

I'm amazed more people are not stung by weaver fish in the UK; we used to get plenty in the seine nets from the tourist-haven beaches but I never heard of anyone being stung by standing on one.

ok - enough about jelly fish please - back to water saving techniques etc.. we are on a boat in water from tomorrow, and I don;t want to have to ask DBTS to pee on me!

I hope the weather is better for you than it is here. Pouring with rain, (though I suppose a bit more water doesn't make much difference,) and 17degrees, chillleeeee.

Perhaps the authorities should institute trial runs of standpipe and tanker supply in the different regions for a week. This will test the system and perhaps, make more people aware of the consequences in store for them if they don't conserve water.

If anyone tells me there is a shortage of water I shall spit, frankly. Just packed daughter no. 1 off on a week-long school camping trip to Cornwall, and the rain is cascading over the roads and pouring into the drains. It takes a pretty formidable force to persuade an image conscious eleven year old into waterproof trousers, I can tell you. But I am the woman for the job. Lucky girl!!

Jude wrote:ok - enough about jelly fish please - back to water saving techniques etc.. we are on a boat in water from tomorrow, and I don;t want to have to ask DBTS to pee on me!

OH, come on Jude ! Be Honest !

Water, water everywhere, and not a drop.....

......bobbing around on the briny; Out of sight of everyone.

We do understand, you know !