jellyfish 3-boys 0

On Monday, we started out our day by going to the beach.  The boys are getting very comfortable in the ocean.  Without hesitation, they run right out into the ocean.  They were in the water for about 30 minutes when my husband got stung by a jellyfish.  It had stung him on his right calf and then a little sting on the left calf.  I told him to see if the lifeguard had medicine for the sting.  He said he was fine and he went back out into the ocean.  A few moments later, Bob was stung.  He said that he was fine too.  He is so shy that he would rather be in pain then go talk to the lifeguard.  Bob returned to the ocean.  Then, SJ was stung.  He wasn’t as calm as my husband and Bob.  My husband took him to the lifeguard’s stand.  She sprayed them both with white vinegar and told him to put seawater (not freshwater) on it.  She said to stay out of freshwater until the stinging stopped.  They returned to our blanket and started building a sand castle.  Bob was still in the water.  He said he may have gotten stung more than once, but he was powering through the pain.  After some time, Bob joined them.  They were building for a while.  SJ seemed better and he wanted to go back in the ocean.  Bob and SJ went back in the water.  They made it another hour and the jellyfish struck again.  This time it got SJ badly.  He had a huge mark on his right arm and right side.  He was screaming.  The sand was so hot and his sting was hurting him badly.  I took him over to the lifeguard station and she repeated treatment.  While we packed up, Bob was a big help.  He went to gather some seawater for us to take with us.  We drove back to our house and repeated the treatment.  We got SJ out of his suit and in the house.  About an hour later, SJ finally was back to his normal self.  He said, “Mom, we should fire those jellyfish and get them out of the ocean.”  I wish it would have been that easy!