29 September 2012

The Sunburn Girl

There have been some developments since my last post. You know, how I mentioned I got fried? Well that was a wee bit of an understatement. It's probably best to say I got burnt to a crisp. My back and upper arms had a second degree sunburn.

Right after returning home from the day I did cold compresses for at least 30 minutes, cold shower and my roommate helped me by putting aloe vera on my back throughout the weekend. I was in constant pain and we couldn't get the burn to stop. Sunday night my roomie noticed a few blisters forming on the back of my upper arm and I knew I was in trouble if I was getting blisters, but honestly I didn't expect to go through what I did.


To briefly explain this a couple of the blisters were the size of a .50 cent piece and at least 1/2 an inch thick. I heard the nurse tell the doctor that these were the biggest sun blisters she's ever seen. I was taking ibuprofen for the pain and the doctor gave me some tylenol to take, but neither of these pills ever took the pain away. It just made it bearable to get through the day.  Every step I would take would just cause pain to go throughout my body.  You don't realize how connected the body is until something like this happens, everything you do affects your back.

My roomie was great in changing my bandages and putting aloe on me. Thursday night as she was changing the bandages we were talking about the blessing I had and how she was hoping for a miraculous recovery the next day. I told her "I had hoped for one too." But I also saw the Lord helping me through this week. There was no way I could have made it through without His help. And there were days I couldn't walk anymore and then all of a sudden a breeze would start up and literally push me on. I know some will say that that's a coincidence because I live next to a beach and there's usually breezes. But not to me. The time I needed it the most it appeared, that's help.

There was a lot of prayers for strength each day and just be able to make it to the end of the day. All I could do was take it a day at a time. Did I mention that I also started work through this? So it's not like I could go home after classes and rest for the remainder of the day. (Oh yeah, I may have gone a whole week without a bra... it hurt ok, I don't judge you! I got creative with an elastic belt, bra paddings, shawls, and shrugs to disguise the fact that there was no bra.)

Funny story - On Thursday I accidently popped several blisters so I went to the health center to see if they could just wrap them real quick. It was a different nurse than I had the first time and she was like, "Oh, you're the sunburn girl." I don't know how I feel about having that title. :-)

Honestly things weren't getting worse but they just seemed to be staying the same.  I didn't see an end in sight.  I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror Friday right before I headed home and I saw something pitiful. My eyes were dead, I looked haggard and exhausted. There was a big difference between the 1st week of school and the 2nd week. LOL

My roomie removed my bandages Friday after school and my blisters were all gone!   Saturday morning came and I felt like myself again.  I was happy and not in pain. I didn't cry when I took my cold showers (my sunburn was still hot all week so we kept doing the cold showers, cold compresses, and of course the aloe vera).  It was great!  I wanted to go outside again - the week before I didn't want to do anything, I tried to keep a smile on my face but I was miserable. I made myself stay in doors for the weekend with a t-shirt that I cut up the middle and wore it so nothing was on my back.

My back is still really red (but no longer hot) and itches like crazy but it's doing just fine and I'm making sure it's covered at all times I'm out in the sun - even if I have to wear a light jacket because my shirt doesn't cover up every inch that was burned.

So now onto the good stuff. I really like my job.  I'm working on campus at Print Services - it's a lot of fun and the people are really cool.

I have a bike now so I'm one of the cool kids getting around town and campus on my cruiser. Practically everyone has a bike here, it's pretty fun.


I went to the temple on Thursday and decided to make Thursday evenings my temple nights because I'm not even a 2 minute bike ride away from the temple, so I can go weekly.

Last night I caught the most beautiful sunset as I left the library.  Of course the pictures don't do it justice but the pictures are still pretty.



Last night we went to Kahuku Grill and watched a little concert.  They both were very good and it was a lot of fun.  I forgot my camera (because I was getting the sunset pictures off of it when our lift arrived and I quickly went out leaving my camera behind) so here's a reenactment:



I was too lazy to get my stylus and drawing tablet out, so you get a lovely drawing with the finger (haha!! a different finger) and the touch mouse.  The red x's are where me and my friends sat.

2 comments:

Laura said...

I'm so, so, SO glad your sunburn is better and you're able to have fun again. I love that you are going to the temple weekly and that you love your job, roomies, and school!

Nancy said...

I'm glad you're not a crispy critter anymore. All your itching is you healing, you'll probably peel like crazy!!
I'm glad you enjoy your job, that's important! I miss you!