Almost Everything You Ever Wanted (or Didn't Want) to Know About My Sunburn

I suppose I should get around to blogging the "main event" of my San Diego trip. It all started on Thursday, the first day I was there, when we went to the beach. I got a little pink on my shoulders. No big deal, though it did hurt a little bit which I thought was odd for the amount of burn. But anyway, then Friday I guess I was indoors more or wearing less revealing clothes or something... I don't know. Saturday we went to Legoland for Jakob's 4th birthday. Everyone kept commenting, "Katie, you're getting burned. Do you have sunscreen on?" I waved them all off because all I could see was what was left from Thursday. Besides, it was cloudy and I was only outside for like half a day. And sheesh, I wanted a tan. I work in a store without even any windows. I never see the sun in the summers anymore. I haven't been tan since I was like 14. In college I actually wore coats and pants to work all summer because the AC was so high. Anyway.
After awhile I noticed that maybe I was more pink than I had been and I allowed my mother to put some sunscreen on me. Uhhh, I think I was a little late. By that evening my dad was saying things like "Geez Katie, I can hardly look at you."
Well, Sunday, I went to the zoo. All day. My burn got worse. Funny thing. My remedies were cold cloths, swimming, cool showers, aloe, etc. Sleeping was painful because I couldn't move without my skin moving too.
Monday I went to Sea World. By this time, I can't move. Getting dressed Monday morning was the most painful thing I've done in a long time. I couldn't carry anything on my shoulders. And it was hot, so I couldn't really wear sleeves. I was wearing sunscreen, but I started to blister anyway. Golly it was enjoyable. Oh the odd thing is that it was mostly my chest that got burned. I had been wearing a camisole that day. My shoulders and back got burned (I had a line down my back from my ponytail. Very attractive). My arms were a little red. My forehead got a tiny bit. But mostly my face and arms, feet and legs were just fine.
So going through the airport Monday evening people looked at me like I was some sort of monster (in fact, Emily called me Telly Monster because I was purple). Emily also was using me as a heat source.
I managed to go to work Tuesday and Wednesday, just wearing minimal clothing (my apologies to the public). Darrin, the UPS delivery guy, took one look at me and exclaimed, "Were you just not being responsible or what? I mean, you seem like a responsible person, but....!" I was at this point using the "It was cloudy and no one else got burned" to keep people off my back.
Tuesday morning I had gone to the doctor. Figured I should. I happened to see the PA. She gave me some silvadine cream and told me to take lots of advil. Here's a fun fact about silvadine: When exposed to the elements (I never figured out if it was light or air that did it) it turns black. So then I'm two colors I'm not supposed to be. And it turned out that the burn was second degree. Goody. The cause? A medication that I'm on. I remember my doctor mentioning briefly that I should stay out of the sun, but I didn't pay much attention because I never go in the sun anyway, right? Also, it's a pretty new drug. There isn't even a warning label about this on the darn package. Or in the handbook. Sheesh. This is basically the first summer of the drug, so I was basically a guinea pig.
Then Thursday morning came. I woke up at five a.m. in more pain than I thought possible. I had been sleeping with the silvadine on and decided to take a shower and get some of it off. Did that, but my gosh-- my skin looked awful. I tried putting aloe on, and it burned so bad I thought I'd die right there. I called my parents' house. No answer. Mom's cell. No answer. Dad's cell. No answer. Emily's cell. Finally! (It is 5:30 a.m.). I am crying. She got my mom and my mom told me to call the on-call doctor. Dr. Madsen told me to either go to the ER for pain meds, or wait for the office to open at 7:30. I figured that I could wait in the ER or in my bed for the same amount of time. Somehow I managed to drive to the Dr's office and then I just sat in the waiting room and cried until they came to get me, so I could cry some more in the examining room. I think everyone was kind of in shock at how bad it was. They wrapped me up in gauze, gave me four different pain meds, and let me fall asleep. I had to call my mom to come get me because I couldn't drive on pain meds. And I had to call in sick to work. Call in sick for a sunburn! Do you know how ridiculous that felt?
Anyway, I slept all day at home. All day. Hours upon hours. Some friends came over to watch a movie. I saw almost five minutes of it before I was out cold again. I had Friday off, and didn't argue about that.
Saturday I went to work, all wrapped in gauze up to my neck. I did manage to go to a wedding that night with minimal pain, but I over-exerted. Which is maybe why I have a cold now. I am still exhausted but have finally stopped peeling and am now several shades of brown instead of red and purple with white spots and black streaks.
So, it wasn't so much a "sunburn" as a photo-toxic chemical reaction or something like that. Whatever it was, it was icky.
The End.