Saturday, August 31, 2013

Quarter Century Lessons: Hind Sight is Best

So the month of July I was doing 31 things in 31 days with some of my family. I had a big long list of things to do and not a lot of down time to do it in. One Friday I got off work so I could go on a breakfast cruise with my roommate. Since I had the whole day off I decided to mark off a few different things on my list while I had the time. One of them was going kayaking. Well, this is where it gets good. The morning was cold so I wore pants, but I knew I was going to go kayaking after the breakfast cruise so I wore my swim suit underneath that. Not thinking I only put sunscreen on my arms and neck. Well while we were kayaking we got caught in the wake of a fast boat that ended up dumping a ton of water on me and in the kayak. We ended up rowing to shore and flipping the kayak to rid it of the water. I also took off my pant and just wore my swim shorts. We continued on for a while but decided to stop and rest and get some 'happy rays'. We laid in the kayak for almost and hour just listening to music and taking pictures of the beautiful scenery. After we got back I rested for. A while then went on a horseback riding dinner ride. At this time I could already feel I was fried like a lobster, but I didn't know how bad it was. ...

Day one

I don't know if you can tell, but my legs and ankles were swollen. It was painful to wear pants and to walk. But I roughed it out, but I did complain a little. 

Day two
It's starting to get worse and more painful to walk. Stairs... Was a challenge, but my co-worker got a kick of of watching me tackle those. 

Day three
I now have second degree burns. That yellow on my right leg are blisters not aloe. So I called and complained to my parents. I was told to keep it moist and elevated above my heart. Here is what the daughter of an engineer (me) came up with....
 Needless to say I called out the next day. This went on for about two days more, well at least the having to elevate my legs part (sleeping was uncomfortable.) instill could not walk without pain. I wore skirts to work and then changed into my work pants for my shift only to change right back into my skirt as soon as possible. It was like that for a week and a half, until I started peeling. 


My legs inched so bad and it would hurt to scratch because I was still sunburned. It took about 3 weeks for me to shave my legs again ( I was scared of my razor) and about 4 and a half weeks before I was fully back to normal. 

So the moral of the story/lesson is hind sight is always best. But also to wear sunscreen even when you don't think you need it and everywhere no matter what. 


One funny story from this experience was when I was walking down the hall with my co-worker and she was walking way faster then I was hobbling, and I called out to her that she didn't need to wait up that I was coming, slowing, but I was coming. Unbeknownst to me my boss was right behind me and asked if I needed a wheelchair. I said that would be great. But sadly I never saw that wheelchair. But funny all the same. :)