[chandigz]

Well I have to say that I have experienced near death palytoxin poisoning. It happened during a move and it happened fast. I was waiting for my buddy to show up to help (11:00am)and I had a ton of ugly slimy palys taking over on several rocks so I decided to pull them off while runnnig them under hot water to kill them. I thought "I should be wearing gloves" but they were already at the new place. Oh well I thought. I've handled lots of zoas before without gloves and I have no cuts on my hand and I'm running them under hot water washing away any toxin. Big mistake. I guess I gouged my finger in the process of ripping them off and was squishing them into into the open wound. Within minutes my lungs were really irritated and was constantly coughing. We got the tank moved and filled with water and my buddy had to go(1:00 PM) By this time I really really wasn't feeling well and my lungs felt like they were on fire. I sat down on the couch passed out and woke up a couple of hours later sicker then I had ever been; severe cold sweats, vertigo, nausia, shaking, respritory distress, racing heart and just about every symptom possible.(3:00pm) I was so messed up that I was dellusional. I remember thinking I should call someone to get my live stock into the tank but I was so incapacitated that I couldn't get off the couch to get to the phone or the tank. Around midnight I managed to crawl on my hands and knees to the tank and eventually dump in my two tupperwear totes of coral and a bucket of fish that had been sitting for over 12 hours. Some how I ended up in bed and was comepletely messed up till late afternoon the next day when symptoms started to disapear(4:00PM next day). I've never come remotely close to being that sick. I felt like I was dieing the whole time. Weard thing was at the time I never thought to call for help or that I might have had palytoxin poisoning. I slept it off and the next day thought of possible paly toxin poisoning and after resarching and talking to a doctor I discovered that I had had an extreme case of poisoning and should have been in the hospital because I could have easily died. I was that close. What were the chances that I had to have the highly toxic ones and just happen to try to remove them without gloves and cut my finger that that day. Just be carefull you never know. Worst part wasn't that I almost died but that I woke up to a completely wiped out tank.