Apparently the number of jellyfish is on the rise due to breeding conditions and climate changes. Not really an interesting tidbit by itself but it might have grabbed our attention TWO WEEKS AGO prior to vacation.

And good golly…the number 1 tip they list is going straight to the doctor because death can occur with some types of stings!

Luckily, we’re all here, safe and sound. But again, I ask you, WHY couldn’t this have been published 2 weeks ago?? (and how exactly do you know, at the beach and in the discomfort of getting stung, what kind stung you??)

Courtesy of Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia, here is how to treat a jellyfish sting:

Seek immediate medical attention. Death can occur within minutes with sea wasp and lion’s mane stings.

If you know for certain that the person has been stung by a Portuguese man-of-war or sea nettle, wash with salt water (ocean water is OK, but make sure you do NOT get sand in the wound). Protect affected area if possible. Soak the area with a solution made of 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water for about 30 minutes. This helps remove the tentacles. Rinse the area and then resoak with more 1/2 strength vinegar.

You may also remove tentacles by applying a paste made of flour or shaving cream and scraping the area with a dull instrument such as a credit card.

Apply a cream containing a painkiller, an antihistamine, or a corticosteroid.

And, ironically, do you know the number 1 tip for avoiding getting stung by jellyfish??

Check with lifeguards to find out if jellyfish are abundant at your beach this summer. If so, stay out of the water.

Yes, this is Murphy’s Law at its finest…

photo credit: dunk_

My family had a great time down in Hilton Head, SC last week. We always look forward to our big summer vacation although this year I was distracted with work so I wasn’t nearly as organized as usual.

The biggest worry was how to survive 16 hours in the car without killing each other! Even my youngest kept saying she was scared about vacation because of the long drive. For that, however, we had a plan!

Virginia Beach is exactly the half way point between our part of NY and Hilton Head so we planned on breaking up the trip by staying overnight there. We embarked on our journey at 3:45am (to avoid NYC traffic and so the kids could sleep for part of the trip) and we arrived at Virginia Beach around lunchtime.

We continued our trek to SC the next day (at a reasonable hour!) and arrived at 4pm, unpacked, had dinner, and hit the pool (nope, no jellyfish in the pool).

We own a timeshare through the Marriott Vacation Club so the resort we stayed at had easy beach access but even with that easy access, holy cow! What a production is was to get to the beach! Between the towels, the chairs (which broke after Day 2), the umbrella, the boogie boards, the sand toys, the snacks & drinks…needless to say, we have a new appreciation for those shopping-cart-type-strollers that everybody seemed to have.

What no one warned us about, unfortunately, was the fact that the lifeguards put up yellow Caution
flags when the jellyfish are in the shallow water. So there we were, hanging in the incredibly warm water, enjoying the sun and our time together, when my hubby gets stung. We had no clue what it was, figured it was some weird bug (duh!)

**Note: They only look this glowing red color in the aquariums. They might as well be invisible at the beach!

Then I got stung, not just once but multiple times, and then each of the girls got stung. No, we weren’t very smart about getting out of the water immediately but there were still other people in the water so we followed the crowd.

Only after we all got stung and got out of the water did my husband talk to the lifeguards and they confirmed that it was indeed jellyfish that stung us. However, it’s not like we had to rush to the ER for treatment. The sting is strong, like multiple bee stings or severe razor burn, but it fades after maybe 20 minutes.

But it was enough to kill the beach for that day.

My question is: do jellyfish leave a mark on your skin when they sting? I was the only one with red marks on my arm, which I assumed was from the sting, but nobody else has marks. AND, now that we’ve returned home, it’s red, puffy, itchy, AND spreading!

Me thinks this creeping crud isn’t from the jellyfish…

photo credit: Editor B

photo credit: dunk_