I just got off the phone with Nigella Hillgarth, the executive director of the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
She gave me a little personal medical advice about my stingray injury that I’ve been complaining about all day: Go to the doctor.
“Ideally, you need to go to the emergency room when that happens,” she said.
If not, then immersing your foot in hot water will also help ease the pain, but won’t necessarily stop your foot from becoming infected.
This information is important to loyal readers, Hillgarth says, because stingrays are especially prevalent in San Diego’s coastal waters during the summer months.
“All indications are that they come into shallow waters in the summer to mate,” she said.
My advice: find the closest pool and go swimming there.