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| My foot in hot water after the Stingray bite. |
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The story went like this. I was out surfing and doing quite a good job at it, I might add. I am finally finally getting to the point where I can stand up and balance, riding the wave all the way into shore. At one point I stepped on something that wobbled under my feet. I knew right away it was a stingray but it didn't sting me. For some reason, that didn't deter me. I mentioned it to Alex and he started shuffling around cautiously. Fifteen minutes later or so Alex saw one sleuthing around the ocean bottom. He told me he was scared and that we should leave. I said something like,
"Maybe stingrays aren't so bad. Although, it would be silly if one of us got stung after seeing so many of them".
Anyway we keep on surfing. I stood up maybe a solid 5 times before the incident happened. I was about waist deep pushing the board back into deeper water when I felt a painful slice on outside edge of my right foot. I started screaming immediately and did my best to get on top of the board and paddle back onto shore. I was petrified of touching the ocean bottom again. As soon as I got into clear water I started stumbling onto the beach, tearing my leash off in the process. I fell onto the beach to inspect my foot. It was covered in dark red blood. There was also trail of of blood coming all the way from the water line. I was screaming hysterically at this point. A passerby runs over and asks me if everything was okay. I realized that I should probably keep it together and calmly (but still crying) said I was fine. I waved over to Alex and asked him to come and help me, and we walked down the beach to the lifeguard station.
The 600ft walk to the lifeguard station was terrifying for me. It hurt more than just a little cut, and it was bleeding more too. I couldn't feel my foot below the angle. The numbing feeling was radiating up the longer I walked. I was terrified I would lose my foot over this, I didn't know. This was the worst pain I've ever felt.
So I get to the lifeguard puts me in his go cart and we go to the lifeguard stingray station. They put my foot in hot-hot water and I proceed to sit there for 1.5 hours. They tell me that the hot water denatures the toxin and removes the pain. As soon my foot hit the water I felt immediately relieved.
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| Selfie while waiting in the hot water. |
The slice goes across the bottom of my pinky toe and is about a centimeter deep. I can't put any weight on it today, and I can't even do push ups.
This ruined my weekend. Not only were we at the beach for a ludicrously low amount of time, but I wasn't able to go climbing the next day either. I don't think I'll be able to surf or climb this whole week, maybe not even next. It doesn't look like much, but its a pretty deep cut.
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| The stingray bite (buffy photobombed) |
So I think my blog is going to be boring for the next couple of weeks as I recover from my unimpressive injury. On the plus side (there is always a plus side) I can get a couple of things off my todo list taken care of in the time I normally spend having great adventures and loving my life. For example, I got a haircut and a manicure yesterday. I don't normally take care of myself that good.