To pee or not to pee? Here's what to do if you get stung by a jellyfish

If I have a view of the sea and the temperature cooperates a bit, then I want to swim. By the way, you can't make me angrier than putting me in a swimming pool with a view of the sea. That salt on your skin, the waves, I find it delightful. Until I got stung by one of those jellyfish last week.

I grew up in a village on an island close to the sea, and then you know that you don't want to swim with an easterly wind. It is always teeming with small and large jellyfish. But I was in Malta, the thermometer shot well above 30 degrees, I had no idea about the wind direction, and I took a refreshing dive. Even though I heard someone say something that same day about the number of jellyfish. It went in one ear (I could make a bad joke about an ear jellyfish now) and out the other.

While bobbing around in the sea, I felt something soft against my leg and saw that it was the foot of my travel companion. Two minutes later, I was still bobbing around a bit and felt something against my forearm, but saw that all the body parts of my travel companions were far away from me. I splashed a bit awkwardly with my arms, which made me feel something painful around my upper arm, and then I paddled in a straight line towards the little stairs on the rocks. ‘A sting!’, I shouted. The man on the shore didn't speak Dutch, but made the connection between my cry and red arm and grinningly offered to pee on it. I growled angrily a bit and said under my breath that he could just pee on himself. But you do wonder: what actually works for a jellyfish sting?

As a sober Dutchman who had no active memory of a jellyfish sting, I initially tried to act tough. It felt like my brother was doing barbed wire on my forearm, and I was used to that from the past. But after about fifteen minutes, the pain started to pull through my arm, and I broke out in a sweat when I realized that I am allergic to almost everything that bites and stings. And imagine if it was a warship or whatever those things are called? I hurried to the hotel reception, where calmly but resolutely the card for a room was pulled from the breast pocket to scrape the stingers (?) out of my arm. Thank God no one started talking about urine. Just keep all peeing body parts in your pants after a jellyfish sting, because it's a myth that urine works.

First things first: what happens when you come into contact with a jellyfish? With its tentacles, a jellyfish shoots stinging cells with venom into your skin, and this can be itchy and painful. Peeing on it only provides some distraction but doesn't help at all. You'd better walk back into the salty water or rinse the sting with warm water (45 degrees). The right temperature is when you can just tolerate it on your skin, think of that really warm shower. What also helps is scraping your skin with your bank card; this way, you remove the stingers from your skin, reducing the itch and pain. This can also be done carefully with tweezers if you have them on hand. Then keep a close eye on it, as it takes about fifteen minutes, and it's not usual to have severe pain. Don't trust it? Then immediately consult a doctor, as people can go into shock if they are allergic or encounter a poisonous jellyfish.

I have fully recovered from my encounter with the Maltese jellyfish in question, except for some red spots. It was quite the intermezzo. But whatever you do, always check the wind direction before swimming.

Source: Red Cross & Quest