nano encounters

I went swimming early morning on a nice February day in Penang, Malaysia. I was excited that it was a cool morning and a lovely beach. After about 10 minutes in the water, I was neck deep and having a nice time, when I felt an intensely sharp pain in my right arm. I felt something grab my arm, but wasn’t sure what it was, because I didn’t feel fish teeth sinking into me. Fought it off and swam to the shore as fast as I could all the way screaming with pain.

A friend was swimming near me and at first thought I was joking about being in pain, because previously in Langkawi, we had both felt the sting of the salty water several times over. When he saw me rush out of the water, he swam behind me and followed quickly with our beach bags.

Some hotel people were standing around the beach. One looked at me and said, that I had been stung by a jellyfish. He escorted me to the swimming pool area and had someone pour a bottle of vinegar down my arm. I asked why vinegar was used, and was told that they always use it for jellyfish stings. As he poured, I watched the physical changes in my arm. The skin turned red and hives popped up all over.

Yelping with pain, my friend, brought me a towel and I asked the hotel staff for a doctor. A hotel staff asked me for my room number. When I said we weren’t staying at their hotel, but at the one across the street, he said, “Then we can’t help you because you are not staying here. You need to go to your hotel and ask for a doctor.”

I don’t know if the shock of the jellyfish sting was more upsetting at the time or the fact that a person would not help me based on a room number. In my mind, it was an obvious step to take, to help a person in need irrespective of factors. We humans should be wired this way and it is sad if we are not.

In extreme agony and now angry that I wasn’t being helped, I yelled at the hotel people, “Why can’t you just help me? Please do something! Please call a doctor!”

I am not sure what they discussed amongst themselves in Malay, but then one hotel person got on his mobile. Next, he told me it was very important for me to take a taxi to a hospital where a doctor would be able to help me.

My friend told me to take a shower to get rid of the salty ocean water. Later we discovered that, it was a bad idea – fresh water after a jellyfish sting makes the skin worse. Fortunately, as I was in agony, I just stood under the water for a few seconds and then put on my pants and t-shirt over my wet swimsuit. My friend decided to take a shower next.

I called out to my friend to hurry up, then I briskly walked behind the hotel staff through the hotel garden and lobby area to the waiting taxi. After I got in, I was puzzled as to why my friend wasn’t behind us. I asked the hotel staff where he was and they said, not to worry, that they would send him in the next taxi to the same place.

I asked where I am being taken and was told, “To the clinic we always send our guests to.” This was another shock, because now I knew they had the vinegar ready and a hospital lined up for jellyfish stung people like me. In a nutshell, this sort of thing happened often.

Still in extreme agony and eager to see a doctor, I agreed to leave without my friend and told the hotel staff to please find him and send him along quickly. What I didn’t tell them is, that my friend doesn’t speak much English and that it was imperative that they send him in the very next taxi.

The ride to the clinic was a long one and even though the taxi driver kept talking, I was in no mood to engage in a conversation. In case I fainted or died along the way, I told him my hotel name and room number. Then I told him, that I didn’t have any money on me, because we had gone for a swim near our hotel and didn’t think we would need money.

As we entered the clinic area, the taxi driver said, he would wait for me. I told him there was no need to, especially since my friend was following in the next taxi. At the time I also thought, maybe the hotel already covered the taxi bill. However, I asked the taxi driver to kindly contact me later at the hotel room I gave him. He didn’t reply and I rushed into the clinic yelping in pain.

“Jellyfish… jellyfish!!” I cried out pointing to my arm as I entered the clinic. A nurse hurried over and took me into a room. Two nurses rubbed a cream (I think calamine lotion based on the pink color) all over my arm and told me the doctor would be in shortly.

To be continued…