Doctor’s Tips for a Pain-Free Beach Trip

For beach-goers who step on coral or are stung by a jellyfish, family physician Dr. Glenn G. Soppe has some advice.

Soppe, a resident at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center who also works at PromptCare in Huntington Beach, has written tips for swimmers, surfers, divers and others who may have “noxious encounters with marine life.”

Among the suggestions the 29-year-old doctor offers in the August issue of American Family Physician:

* If you are stung by a jellyfish, brush off the tentacles, soak the wound in diluted vinegar and don’t flush it with fresh water because that will only make it hurt more. Other remedies for jellyfish stings include covering the wound with alcohol or Adolf’s Meat Tenderizer, but “generally, vinegar works the best,” Soppe said.

* If you step on a sea urchin, flush the puncture wound with hot water, remove the urchin’s spines and get a tetanus shot. (These injuries can be prevented by wearing shoes or neoprene booties in shallow water or tide pools, Soppe said.)

* Coral can produce “razor-sharp” cuts that may become infected. Injuries from coral should be cleaned with hydrogen peroxide, and the surfer or diver may need to consult a physician.

* If you step on a stingray, immerse the puncture wound in very hot water to reduce the pain, then visit a doctor for a tetanus shot.

Shuffle Your Feet

But Soppe also suggested a method of “stingray prevention”: If you shuffle your feet when you walk through the water, the commotion in the sand will alert the stingray and allow it to swim away.

Soppe has spent part of his medical residency studying the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of ocean-related injuries. As an avid swimmer and surfer, he also had plenty of personal experience to draw on.

He remembers surfing in Australia and being stung by something called a bluebottle, a smaller version of a Portuguese man-of-war. Surfing in Mexico, he got urchin spines in his feet. In Hawaii he cut his feet severely on coral.

And, in Australia again, when he was 22, he had a memorable encounter with a swarm of jellyfish.

The first sting didn’t bother him much, Soppe said. But the next four or five brought burning pain and left his skin irritated for several days.

These days, Soppe has a healthy respect for the aqueous creatures, which are commonplace along the Southern California coast. And he advises bathers who notice a lot of jellyfish in the water to get out. “They do come in swarms,” he said.

Soppe in his journal article also describes an area of medicine he calls “aquatic dermatology.”

Among the problems are skin rashes from the chemicals used in masks, goggles and bathing caps. These rashes can be treated by topical steroids and antihistamines, he wrote, but they can be prevented if the wearer selects materials made with nylon or silicone.

He also took note of a common infection known as otitis externa--”swimmer’s ear.” Doctors can treat the painful condition with an antibiotic solution. But the condition can easily be prevented if the ear is dried well after swimming or surfing.

The best tool for doing that? Soppe recommends “a multipurpose” one--a hair dryer.

Pass the Word

While Soppe’s journal article was addressed to doctors who are members of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Soppe said he hoped they would pass along his recommendations to the swimmers, divers and just plain old beachcombers who are their patients.

That’s what he tries to do at the Huntington Beach clinic where he practices now. “Preventive beachgoing,” Soppe calls it.

Ocean-related injuries and infections “are not part of the regular medical school curriculum,” Soppe noted. So his journal article offers a compendium of some commonplace injuries as well as some more exotic problems.

“A lot of us work at little emergency rooms here and there. And this (a jellyfish sting or other problem) comes in Sunday afternoon, and what do you do with this stuff?” Soppe said.

“Commonly, doctors aren’t informed” on some of these problems, he said, although most do have enough “common sense” to know how to treat these conditions well.