The Day I Wish I’d Used Safe Sea

I got stung by a jellyfish. On my face.
I wish I had known more about jellyfish protection.

We were doing a tec dive in Singapore waters. I was completely covered – hood, mask, full length wetsuit, booties. The only patches of skin I had exposed were my hands, a sliver of skin between my wetsuit and booties, and the parts of my face not covered by the hood and mask.

I thought I was well covered.
I was wrong.

The plan was to go to 45m, the dive was to be over 1 hour.
Conditions weren’t great.
Visibility – about 2m
Current – Strong!

The current was strong, the water flowing by us, like a gale.
We descended with a line, so as not to lose each other.

The water was passing by so fast, that we were not able to react fast enough, if you were lucky to see anything coming your way.
I didn’t even see the jellyfish that stung me.

I was stung across my face. It really hurt! But I also thought it was bearable.
At some point in the dive though, it became an interference. My regulator kept popping out of my mouth and I had to hold it in.

I tapped Daniel, to show him my face. He gave a surprised squeak “EEP!” and subsequently we aborted the dive.
But we couldn’t ascend directly as we had to do our deco stops. For the 30 minutes we were hanging onto the line, we were sitting ducks for the jellyfish sweeping by.

It was both torturous and strangely entertaining.

I felt like we were in a real game of Space Invaders, but with no real defence.

We jostled to hide behind each other, to avoid getting stung worse than what we already had.
Daniel faced the current while Alan and I mimicked him when he swerved to avoid jellyfish.

But the jellyfish won! And we all got stung.
Me on knuckles and ankles, Daniel on his head, and Alan on his hands.

Finally we got back to the boat.

I was in pain; Hilarity ensued.

Daniel kindly offered to pee on my face.

I politely declined.

We applied stingoose to our stings.

My ballooning lips were already sausage-sized.

I looked quite funny.

They called me “Lap Chong” Lips – That’s Chinese Sausage.

I was laughing at the entire situation, and crying from the pain.

We had to take pictures.

I’m actually smiling in the picture, but with tears streaming down my face.

We still had another dive to do, which skipped out of course.
I tried to fall asleep on the boat, but really, I was just in pain for 2 hours.
Jellyfish stings burn 🙁

When we finally got back to land, me and my melting face went straight to the nearest hospital, with the hopes of some pain relief.
My face was still burning. The stinging was causing my eyes to water uncontrollably. But, since it wasn’t an emergency, I was told to wait around for an another hour.

Sighpie.

At that point, I was tired and in pain, and I just wanted some immediate relief.
So I decided to go home, self medicate and sleep it off. Most stings get better on their own and I thought to tough it out.

It got worse.

My face was so swollen when I woke up I couldn’t drink without spilling, and it was still painful! So I went to a dive doctor and sorted it out.

Eventually, the swelling went down, the pain subsided and the blisters healed.
And I was left with some slight scarring and a story to tell.

And the moral of the story: Will I apply jellyfish protection in the future?
My answer, an emphatic YES.

The organic Safe Sea Jellyfish protection is both paraben-free and oxybenzone-free.
So, don’t get stung like me.