Attacked by Slimey Mack

[tsea]

Here is my tale.
I woke up with pain in finger and was sick and had a fever so i assumed spider bite and went to GP and was given Antibiotics. Called poisions hotline and went back next morning to GP as it got worse and turned black and yellow. I was sent to hospital. Resident says not a spider and asks what else i've been doing. Infection spread up my arm past my elbow.
Had spent previous day at Narrowneck reef with wife and young kids having fun catching bait
Mentioned got jabbed by dorsal fin of Slimey. Had operation to clean up under local. Spent 9 days at Robina Hospital(which has fantastic staff). Had another operation to cut away dead tissue. Had 2 IV antibiotics 4400mg every 6hours (62 in total).
I am home now and feel like crap but at least i kept my finger.

You get spiked by fish all the time and think nothing of it. I got unlucky. Much the same as any other puncture wound can introduce bacteria.
Maybe the slimey new he was destined to be bait and thought he'd get in first.

I was thinking maybe i need some tool from the tackle store to grab fish to dehook ........the missus says its called a glove.

cheers
TC

[iricangi]

Did you get a staff infection?

I got a small cut on my toe in the sea one day, 4 days later i was 1 hr away from dieing in the hospital.

Hip operation to remove the staff + learn to walk again and im all better!

Small cut in the toe and it reduce me to a limp then a paraplegic for a day before i was operated on. Constantly still get cramps but at least im alive.

Glad to hear your situation ended good to.

[Richard]

Knew a good in a little outback town i was living in (Richmond) who got a spine from a freshwater, fork-tailed catfish in one of his joints on one of his fingers.

Two days later he was on an RFDS plane flying out to Townsville with a very serious case of blood poisoning.

Funny how seemingly inocuous things can have a big impact on your body if they get the right spot.

glad to hear you pulled through TC

Richard

[ffejsmada]

That's not a tale mate, that's a friggin' saga!!!:o

Glad to hear you're on the mend, pretty unlucky I reckon.

Every time I go fishing I'd say I get spiked. Guess we all should be a bit more careful after hearing that!!

Cheers, Jeff.

[tsea]

It was some kind of strep. I feel pretty lucky at the moment. You can't protect yourself from everything.
cheers
TC

[Chimo]

Hi Guys

That brew of thirds metho, baby oil and detol with a few drops of Tea Tree oil that we used on the charter boat we were on at the Swaines seems to work. They had bottles of the brew on deck for the whole time we were on the reef and while many of us got spiked no one got any infections.

Thats not to say that they didn't get crook and die later but no one told me ....... I keep some of the brew on my boat and I feel its worthwhile. Maybe it could be of use to you too? Also good a fixing insect bites and it seems to work as an insect repellant too. Probably best to not get it on the bait tho.


Cheers
Chimo

[Ausfish]

Glad to hear you got through it.

Best to keep a bottl;e Tea Tree Oil with you, fantastic for marine spikes, coral cuts, etc, etc.

Just put a few drops on as soon as you can and a couple of drops a day for a few days.

[Cammy]

Geez what a drama you went through for a little spike, glad you got through it !

Cam

[fishnbum]

yea glad your better mate same thing happen to my mates wife but she waz cleaning out a dirty fish tank with a little cut on her finger she waz in redlands hospital for over a week and had to get some cut out she all good now cheers

[tsea]

Thanks Guys for the support.
I re read my first post and it definitely is a saga. Should have mentioned a bit more about those lovely nurses........

I really didn't know how common this type of thing is with bacteria via puncture or cut. I have now heard a few stories of dog and cat bites and also a knee injection that have had far more serious outcomes than mine.
The thing in my mind is what if it had happened to one of the kids.

I like the sound of the magic brew. We were just talking about that last night and thinking what immediate actions could have been taken.
I just said 'ouch you got' me and rebaited the kids outfits. Just washed my hands in the deep blue sea to get the bait smell off and off we went.

thanks again
TC

[Noelm]

had a similar thing (sort of) happen to me way back, I was on Whitsunday Island Fishing and got a tiny scrape/cut on my Shin from a rock in the water, a week later I had a hole in my Shin that you could see the Bone, in Hospital for a bit, some sort of "special" bandages for a few weeks, a bit of a dig out by the Doctors every couple of days, and all was good, I still have an indent where it was, pretty scarey when you consider that it hardly even made a mark or any blood when it happened.

[nigelr]

Back in the early 80's a mates' younger brother died from getting a cut infected while surfing on Sydneys' Northern Beaches. Only a teenager, very, very sad.
Tsea, you were unlucky and lucky at the same time.
Staph/strep and the 'superbugs' are definitely very, very serious issues, and infection is far more common than people realise, perhaps.
Cheers, glad you are on the mend!

[Scott nthQld]

after reading that I might have to take a bit more care I reckon. After every trip my fingers end up like pin cushions with line cuts, fish spikes, raker cuts all over. Good to see you're on the mend though.

I've always got a bottle of the brew onboard (without the metho), not for disinfecting anything though, but the best damn insect repellant you'll ever get.

[stonecold]

Jeez mate sounds nasty and could quite easily have been much worse. I had a bit of scare when you could still fish at Julian Rocks at Byron Bay, (now a marine park) Spent all morning catching snapper and squire, ended up with our bag and let dozens go. Along with catching and cleaning that many fish came those pesky spikes that you normally dont think much of.
4 days later and all the little puncture wounds had become festy, didnt matter how many times I cleaned them, bathed them in tea tree oil or detol they just continued to grow. The sores weeped and eventually I thought I'd contracted some sort of backpacker carried exotic disease.
I flew into the docs and he stuck me on antibiotics which cleared them up within days but when a sore starts out as a little puncture would and finished the size of a 5c piece it gets a little concerning. There wasnt just one there were dozens....leprosy came to mind!
Anyway glad to hear your good now.

[wilcara]

Far out! Guys, your'e scaring me, jeez.....

[Jackinthebox]

Just put the knife straight through my finger last night while cutting up a frozen mack tuna for bait. got home and scrubbed it with a clean toothbrush and antiseptic paste.

Some nerve damage but tendons still intact, got the tetanus shot and two lots of antibiotics as there was bits of tuna on the knife when it went in and marine bacteria is the good stuff that causes serious infections like the ones mentioned above.

Not too happy about the double dose of antibiotics though as they destroy your beneficial gut bacteria as well.

Didn't even feel it when the knife went in as my finger was a bit numb from holding onto the frozen tuna.


Score : Tuna - 1 : Me - 0

[themissus]

Glad to hear your on the mend. You don't tend to think much of a fish spike after the pain stops. Will be putting a bottle of tea tree in the glove box of the boat this weekend. Thanks for the heads up.
My aunty works at Robina Hospital, I'll pass on your comments, they often only hear negative feed back.
Cheers Kim.

[Dirtysanchez]

Sounds like Ausfish could be putting out Ausfish rubber gloves now to go with the shirts ? :-*

I knew about the fish tank scunge, I copped that once and lost a finger nail from some putrid infection, now I wear some cadaver rubber gloves my firey mate gave me.. you can't be too careful ?

Glad to hear you came thru in one piece
:o

[tsea]

You gotta love those beneficial gut bacteria. I really miss them.
I saw the orthopod this afternoon and he is happy although i question the use of "still a bit manky" as genuine medical terminology. A great young man.

I asked about the magic brews and he feels that any of these used as antiseptics immediately after injury can only be positive in helping reduce infection chances.
No old wives tales.
Well guys i'm all done and have to wait for skin to form before i can get the old viking out again.
Life just throws little challenges sometimes.(stuff happens)
Thanks for the support.
Seeya out there
Cheers
TC

[Benno1]

good to see you back in one piece and in good spirits Tsea...appreciate the post...i will be a hell of alot more careful in the future when handling any fish...thankyou :D

(Mrs Benno1)

[baitmaster]

heyy

my grandad who is now dead was fishing in wivenhoe dam wen he hooke a fork tailed catfish that they were going to use for red-claw bait and when he was pulling up he dropped the rod back down and gave it one last strong pull upwords and it flew out of the water and its whole back fin stabbed him just a mm below the eye and 10 mins later back on shaw racing to hospital and couldnt go fishing for another 6 weeks wasn't pleasant to be around so thats my story

pat

[Angla]

Thats a shocker to the system. I'm a bit anal about the wearing of a fillet glove to even take off a slimy mackerel. Now I feel so much better about it but I will add some of that brew to the boat as an extra precaution.

Chris

[GAD]

Good to hear you're alright , TSEA , reckon I just found another thing to add to the first aid box . hmmmm gonna need to get a bigger first aid box , then may need bigger boat to carry said box .

Greg

[el_carpo]

Thanks for the reminder. I'm sorry to hear you had to go through all that. I hope you get better soon.

A while back, my dogs got into a fight and in the process of breaking them up, I got bit on the back of the knee. I washed it out with antibacterial soap and poured hydrogen peroxide over the puncture wounds and thought that should do it....WRONG!!! My leg swelled up like a balloon to the point where I couldn't bend my knee. It was almost a week before it stopped draining gunk. My error was not going to get it treated at the hospital. The washing and peroxide killed the germs at the surface but the wounds were deep and thus so was the infection. Not fun at all.

I'm going to have to try that tea tree oil you guys mentioned. I've never heard of that. As clumsy and careless as I sometimes can be, I need all the help I can get.