Burned (By Stupidity)

At long last, a day at the lake. Just what I had been wishing for!

For 5 hours, I swam and played with my nieces and a friend. Five hours of sunshine, water, and relaxation. It didn't occur to me that I should put some suntan lotion on. I don't know why, since I ALWAYS wear it when I'm outside. Even when someone told me I was looking "pink", even then I didn't whip out my bottle of Hawaiian Tropic. Nor did it cross my mind that two of the medications I take say to "avoid prolonged sun exposure." Oops.

Several times, I swam out as far as I could go without being hit by a speed boat. No one goes out that far, the water is deep, and it's fairly quiet, I like to swim out there and just float on my back. No balls being thrown over your head, no rocks to step on, no 10-year-olds wanting to cling to you because they can't touch the bottom. While I was out there, I realized I had a pounding headache and an upset stomach. I blamed it on sea sickness and slowly swam into shore.

Once I reached land, I peeked into my bathing suit top to find out what was itching me. I was covered in sand, sludge, and green algae that looked like fur. Disgusted and done with swimming for the day, I went to the showers, which are public, so I had to lean forward and let the freezing cold water splash down the front of me. I went into the locker room to change and that's when I realized it wasn't sea sickness that was bothering me. I was burnt to a crisp.

I saw that my entire body was lobster red, and realized I could reach around to take my suit off. Disrobing was a lengthy process, complete with ouches and AUGHS!!! I came home and basically coated myself from head to toe with aloe gel, then took 4 ibuprofen. I then took an excruciating REAL shower.

I never get simple sunburns. At the Creation festival in 1997, I got sun poisoning which required an ER visit, several days spent in bed, and sitting in ice. Three years ago I got so burned while visiting Atlantic City, I had chills and flu-like symptoms the whole way home, and then my shoulders turned into giant orange blisters. At the time, I hadn't had my breast reduction surgery yet, and I couldn't wear a bra because of the blisters. I could possibly get away with going to a job bra-less now, but definitely not then. As a result, I missed almost a week or work.

I suspect I will make some dermatologist very wealthy one day. Pin It