Forgetting Sunscreen

Perhaps the humidity and heat got to me. I don’t know how else to explain my epic fail.

Before I come clean about my lapse in sanity, I should preface this. I’m religious about applying sunscreen every day, especially on my face. Even if I’m just going outside for a few minutes, I don’t leave home without it.

That’s how I’ve gone my whole life without having a sunburn and why I’m so chapped now that I blew it during a recent beach day.

Yes, while enjoying a gorgeous afternoon on Kailua Beach a few weeks ago, I decided to forgo a rash guard and completely forgot to re-apply sunblock.

What was I thinking? Obviously, I was not thinking. It didn’t hit me immediately. I thought, “Uh-oh, I may have gotten too much sun.”

Understatement of the year.

By the time I got home, the weight of my bikini strap was like torture on my shoulders.

Thank goodness for Solarcaine and aloe. The numbing and cooling power of Solarcaine offered relief for the discomfort.

And, I hoped the aloe would prevent peeling. Wrong.

But, if that was the nastiest effect of my bad burn, I probably wouldn’t be writing about it. No, the worst was yet to come.

The whole week after the sun roasted my skin, I felt nauseous, dehydrated and dizzy. I couldn’t keep anything down.

Even water was hard to swallow.

The best way I could describe my state was like I came down with a bad case of food poisoning or the flu.

I didn’t actually make the connection that it was related to the sunburn until I caught a glimpse of myself walking by a mirror. Yikes. Blisters across my back.

Seeing that got my mind racing. Suddenly I felt itchy and had the desperate need to diagnose my condition with a Google search.

I grabbed my iPad and went straight to Google and typed “blister, sun, nausea.”

Seconds later, my suspicions were confirmed.

“Sun poisoning: Recognizing the symptoms; Treating the Symptoms.”

Man, did I pay the price for overlooking my sunscreen.

I’m especially angry with myself because I know the risks of sun exposure and I have no one to blame for myself.

As if I needed another kick in the face, it turns out my Google search had directed me to the “Dummies” version for recognizing the signs of sun poisoning.

If I didn’t feel like a dummy before, that added insult to injury.