> -----Original Message-----
> From: Krazy Kiwi
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 9:19 PM
>
> I was worried I
> might connect with
> them in the worst possible way so flicked off my
> torches & strobes and
> finned back to our boat.

I got stung by something the other day, and wonder if anybody can
help figure out what got me.  I was playing with my kids at the
beach here off the south China Sea, when I felt stabbing pain in
my foot.  I thought I felt something wriggle faintly under my
foot, but if so it was nothing big; what I was mostly paying
attention to, though, was the pain.  It was a lot like the first
pain of a jelly fish sting, but unlike a jelly fish sting the
pain quickly began to subside, until I no longer felt anything
but a faint soreness a half hour later.

On the beach, I saw four small puncture wounds in a diamond
pattern.  Three of the punctures were marked as if by ink under
the skin; perhaps some kind of black or purple dye, or maybe just
blood.  Not knowing if this was one of those things that would
make me drop dead when the venom reached my heart, I quickly went
to a nearby SCUBA shop, but the proprietor couldn't provide any
helpful information other than that, since I hadn't died and my
foot didn't swell, probably nothing would happen.

We tried to dig out what we at first took to be broken-off
instruments of pain imbedded in each puncture, but never were
able to get ahold of anything, and eventually couldn't even see
anything to pull out.  I thought maybe we were just seeing some
kind of dye trail from the surface of my foot to deeper in where
the pockets of color were.  Even the pockets of color were gone
by that afternoon, and I've had no further problems.

So, what got me?  I thought maybe I stepped on some kind of fish
with venemous spines, the SCUBA shop guy thought it might have
been a sea urchin (but I've never noticed any in the area), and
someone else said maybe a shell.

TIA,

Chris