I have had both incidents, and when I got stung, it was terrible. I would have to say sunburn, for the cancer's sake, and because it hurts longer, but the jellyfish, what happened was I was in Cape Cod with my family and I was swimming. I had sand inside my bathing suit from being buried, so I went in mid-deap and took off my suit so nobody could see. The suit was a one-peice, and I was fully naked in the water when I felt as if I had been stung by lightning. You know the feeling when you jump into a hot-tub when you're cold, and it stings sooooo bad if you do it quickly? Well it's that but 100 times worse. I hated it. I went screaming out of the water into the open beach...naked...(I was 15!) and then people came to help. I was crying in agony on the sand. The seirious pain lasted 20 minutes. After that, I felt like knives were being stuck into me in indivual spots, for a small shock every 30 seconds. That wore off after an hour. If you get stung, take Benedril! It makes it all better! As it turns out, that's not the normal amount of pain, and when we went to a doctor to examine my marking, it was actually a giant jellyfish that stung me, and it was most likely fighting something else off. Scary, eh? (Yes, I live in Canada) (Jokes)
Two days ago I was stung by a jellyfish. I was wearing a wetsuit but pretty much my entire body felt like it was being stabbed by needles. Each individual spot wasn't awful but putting it all together it was a little difficult to move. It still hasn't totally gone away, my muscles twitch occasionally now but it is getting better.
i said jelly sting because there are a lot of jellies that cam kill in minutes... the box jelly for instance can kill in under 5 minutes unless immediately cared to
Box jellyfish can kill. So for sure jellyfish could be worse. Luckily most just sting. But sunburn hurts too. Look for sunscreen with mexoryl in it. that one is the best.
Having experienced both a jellyfish sting and a really terrible sunburn, I vote for sunburn. It lasts longer and covers a greater area. Just a tip for jellyfish stings - meat tenderizer. I used to carry some in my dry box when I was still diving in Florida. It really works! :)
This is a terrible sunburn. I'd say the girl in the pic, has the worst sunburn I have ever seen. Never been sunburned bad before. Jellyfish, probably would be less painful than her sunburn.
Would it be THAT jellyfish?!
Because the ones here in Halifax are just little saucer-sized oilspill looking floaty things... but that beast is terrifying!
It looks like a face with tenticles coming out of it's mouth!
I swear that's that pic of me sunburned! I'm from the beach originally, and I'm fair skinned, even with sun block, I burn and blister. Takes forever to go away!
If you get really sunburned, all over your body, and not at just a small part of your body, as you will be of a jellyfish, I think that sunburn is much worse. But getting burned by a jellyfish is much more scary, ha ha, so I don't know.
I've had two extremely bad burns from the sun. One ended up being a first degree burn, the other a third degree burn. Both times I was unable to move for weeks. With the third degree burn, there was still major problems because of it for about a month and a half after. So although I've never been stung by a jellyfish, I would have to say the sunburn is a million times worse.
I'm not sure which is worse. Neither of them sound appealing. I like to swim, and I like to lie in the sun with good coverage like an umbrella and a hat. So as far as prevention goes, I think I can better avoid a sunburn than a jellyfish sting.
never been stung but as far as i know as a sting has no real consequences. i mean cancer, peeling, reddness, sensitivity to touch and if it is on your face you can't cover it up too easily- how can a burn not be worse?
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