If any of you have seen my post in the "who are you" thread you know that I get up close and personal with some deadly creatures of the deep. Never in my life have I had the urge to venture near a jellyfish. Yet three days ago I came face to face with two common jellyfish around Hawii. The first was the beautiful Portuguese man of war, the other a Box jellyfish.
Can you guess what happened when I ran into the Box Jellyfish? I was stung while taking a picture of a small reef shark, which wasn't surprising, as box jellyfish are transparant. Yes the little devil snuck up on me and latched itself to my right arm.
Now, not all Box Jellyfish are lethal, but of course I didn't know that. Thinking I had minutes to live I struggled to shore and had help emediatly. I was given the usual treatment of vinegar but imagine the surprise of the lifegaurd when the jellyfish was still attached to my arm when the medics came. The jellyfish died on the way to the hospital and the medics removed it, lucky for me they also identified it as a lesser venomous jellyfish. The worse I was going to experiance was some severe pain and possible vomiting.
I got away with night full of pain and swollen fingers. And now three days later I'm back in my snuggly house in Oregon.