I was transferring my fish into a quarantine tank yesterday evening. While I was doing this I got stung (cut) by my blue tang's barb. When it first happened I just thought it was just a small puncture, but I soon realized that it was much more. So when the punctured happen it was painful, but it wasn't that bad. It was similar to a bee sting.. within about 10-15 min the pain started to get worse. Within a few hours the pain became unbearable. I caved in and went to the ER about 9:30 last night. I watched the swelling move from the puncture wound all the way down in to my hand over three hours after the incident. The doctor at the ER treated the wound as you would other toxins. They applied heat to denature the venom (toxin) and then gave me benadryl for the inflamation and hydrocodone for the pain. The 1st hydrocodone pill really didn't even touch the pain. The second one I took 30 min later took the edge off the pain.The also gave me a prescription for Ciprofloxacin to prevent any infections. They also did an xray to make sure no barb will still inside my thumb. As of now, a day later, the stinging has gone away but there is a burning sensation in my thuimb. Overall, feeling much better than last night.
I think it is important to share this experience so if this happens to others they may know how to deal with it.