lizatola

LOL! I have to add my own story in here, too. A few years ago we went on a family vacation to Tampa, FL and stayed in Clearwater Beach. We were heading out in the Gulf, AH and ds were out there and I saw something floating next to AH's head. I saw that it was his wallet and offered to take it back to shore. Well, I didn't know it was mating season for the stingrays!!!

I got jabbed by a stingray on the outside of my right foot. This was, of course, the first day of my vacation. The pain was as bad as childbirth and I did my lamaze breathing as the pain came in waves as the toxins spread up my leg. The lifeguards told us to go to the emergency room or urgent care to get x-rays to make sure the barb wasn't in there and AH fought me on this issue. I mean, 30 minutes prior I was sitting on the beach with blood gushing out of a puncture wound. He kept saying that I'd be fine and I don't need medical attention. SERIOUSLY???? Man, I was ticked and I finally forced him to take me to urgent care a few hours later. I limped around after being treated, had to stay out of the water, and wound up with secondary bacterial infections, nerve damage to my foot that lasted about a year, and a renewed appreciation for the stingray, LOL!

Now, this all happened 2 years after I had been to the Cayman Islands and had gone swimming with the stingrays in Stingray City! You'd have thought that these FL stingrays would have gotten the message that I am 'friend, not foe'. Oh well, lesson learned! A few months later I was in Cancun, Mexico, swimming in the ocean, and every time seaweed would brush my legs I'd freak out, LOL!