How do you know when a small cut requires antibiotics? I knew better. Never clean the bottom of your boat without wearing gloves. At our Offshore Emergency Medicine class, (Cruisers University through the Annapolis Boat Show), Jeff and I learned all about those pesky little critters that live in the Caribbean waters, just dying to get inside the smallest wound on your hands, arms, legs, or wherever they can. These microscopic guys can wreak havoc if you’re not careful. Well, we weren’t careful, and havoc was definitely wreaked. A bad infection can really ruin your day.
It all started when we left Grenada. We noticed Wind Therapy’s performance was a bit sluggish. We’d had the bottom painted not that long ago, but 5 months on the hard in the baking sun destroyed the outer layer of anti-foul. Apparently, you’re supposed to give the bottom a light sanding before splashing after a long haul-out. Live and learn. We jumped in the water after dropping the hook in Tobago Cays to check it out. To our surprise, we found that thousands of barnacles had created their own ecosystem on the hull of our boat, complete with about 3 inches of “green hair”, or “green carpet”, or “rug”, whatever you want to call that algae that gently sways back and forth with the waves.
Time to don the rash guards, fins, masks and snorkels, grab the scrapers and get to work. Wait! What about the gloves? Oh, we won’t need those. We’ll be fine. After about an hour of scraping, we were flagged by the National Parks Ranger and told, “There’s no scraping in the park!” Whoops. So, we moved onto the next island and continued scraping the next day.
Things were looking good, and we were smoothly on our way. Except – there was this teeny tiny little cut on my right index finger. I thought nothing of it. I’d washed my hands really well with soap and water after all that scraping. This will be fine. Until it wasn’t. It started to swell just a little, and then it began to turn pink. Well, I knew this wasn’t right and should have started antibiotics right then. I had them on the boat. What was stopping me? I thought, “let’s just see how bad this gets”. That was a dumb thing to do. My good friend, Kris, is a surgeon. I sent her a picture and asked for advice.
“Scratch it up really well to open it. Use HOT water and put alcohol in it. It’s going to burn, but you’re a big girl. You can handle it. Do that for 3 days and let me know what happens.”
I did. The weird thing is, it didn’t hurt when I put alcohol in it. That was a sign. Three days later, I sent her this picture. NOW is it time for antibiotics? Her answer was an emphatic YES!!!!
Luckily, we had good antibiotics on board, and the infection cleared up in a few days. Note to self and to all those looking forward to sailing the tropics – CARRY ANTIBIOTICS!!! Good medical care is scarce if not impossible to find on most of the islands. I got lucky.