the Scorpion King

 Scorpion Fish (photo from web)

Sunday evening the 19th of February, I had an encounter with a Scorpion Fish.  It was lightly hooked so I reached for the pliers and went to twist the hook up and out.  Well, Mr. Scorpion didn't like this and decided to give a nice twist and tried to flip off himself.  My normal counter reaction to not get hit by him instantly freed him.  He fell quickly off the hook.  It seems however that when I reacted to his Kamikaze attempt to get free I must have also retreated slightly.  His mad high wire dive back to freedom was interrupted by the side of TinTinBooBoo and while there on his new found perch above the sea with a choice to go either way, he chose inside the dinghy!  Funny thing about rowing dinghies they have a built in slip and slide.  Anything dropped at the rub rail instantly goes all the way to the center and the tiny two inch rib keel.  Of course this is where my bare feet interrupted his glorious slip and slide adventure!

Here I was in the dinghy with a scorpion fish that has just inflicted pain upon two of my toes, the Fisher King is snorkeling nearby and Gemini Dreams in anchored OVER THERE!  First was to eject the fish before I had any more pain so with the same needle nose pliers over he went!  Then "Tin!',  wait a bit "Tin!!"  a bit more as he was intent on his snorkeling.  "Tin!" and with a motion of my arm he came to the dinghy on double time.  I latter found out my intensity gave him the "SHARK" alarm in his neural process.  (later he said, "If it was a shark you would have just said to get on shore since it was closer...right?)  Now I had to row back to Gemini Dreams which really brought my heart rate up aided by the sting.  Damn this hurts... kind of like a hornet sting but worse.   By the time we were on board my toes and part of my foot had swollen.  Now where is the Benadryl? where is the baking soda? I have to get the water hot!  While Tin dug through the first aid hunting the Benadryl I got him to hand me the baking soda.  I made a slurry of soda to coat my wounds and help draw the poison out while hobbling along trying to boil water on the grill on a rocking boat in the wind.

Once the water was hot enough I poured some in our bread pan and slammed my foot in it.  I poured in more baking soda.  I spent the next hour cursing, grumbling and switching out the water to keep it as hot as I could stand.  It went from a constant burning severe pain to sporadic with random intensity.  Now that the pain was tolerable I went below and noticed I was calm and my heart rate was about normal.  Double checking the wounds now for broken fin fragments and other issues all looked good.  We then treated with Neosporin to help keep out the other infections.  Next was to spend the next few hours watching House with the foot elevated.

It has been over two days now and all looks good.  But trying to keep it treated and still snorkel and fish is a challenge.  The joints in the two toes he stung are still a little stiff.   Overall it could have been a lot worse,  we could have been a very long way from Gemini Dreams or who knows what else.  Now I just have to keep an eye on it for staph and other issues.

Here is the disclaimer!  IF STUNG BY A SCORPION FISH GET IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION.  ALL KINDS OF THINGS CAN GO WRONG AND YOU COULD DIE!  The above worked for me, I have no allergies!  It may not work for you YOU MAY DIE! SEEK IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION!  Any Questions? just one? Oh Okay.... GO TO THE DAMN ER!

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