I Am Terrified...........continued

Ok, so we floated the river, the kids had a great time, we made it to solid ground and obviously the good Lord wasn't ready for me yet, no matter how certain I was that the float trip was my last day on Earth.


We were all pretty tired after that little jaunt, so we went on home, had some dinner and pretty much relaxed for the rest of the evening before hitting the sack.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt hot and feverish as I headed for the bathroom. In addition, my skin felt sore, so I knew I was probably a little sunburned. As I stumbled into the bathroom. I turned on the light, looking in the mirror to shock myself fully awake. What I saw was this monsterous looking red thing staring back at me with swollen eyes, a couple of green slits of color where there should have been irises. And since it was Summer, I was wearing only the skivvies I usually sleep in during hot weather. I'm pretty fair skinned and what I was seeing was the white, and I mean white, outline of a tank top on my chest, continuing all the way down to about five inches above my knees where my cutoffs had stopped, against the backdrop of the reddest skin I have ever seen on a human being. I wasn't sunburned, I was deep fried! That was the day I learned that an overcast sky, on a hot day in the water, does not guarantee protection from the sun.


No wonder I was hot! I touched my skin and was sure I could fry the eggs for breakfast on my upper chest if I could lay down on my back. I turned on the shower to a cool temp, hoping the water would take some of the burning out of my skin but the spray made me cringe in pain. I got out the aloe gel and asked my husband to rub the areas that I couldn't reach. The cooling effect was great for a few short minutes. As the morning wore on, I felt sicker and sicker and the pain was almost unbearable. Not being able to stand it any longer, I asked Archie to take me to the emergency room. I was very weak, feeling like I was going to pass out by the time we got there.
It was agony getting out of my clothes, but the doctor had to see what was going on with me.


He looked at my skin and told me that I had second degree burns and that the faintness was from severe dehydration. He left, bringing back a quart of Pedialyte. He told me it was nasty but that I needed to force myself to drink the whole quart right then. He was right, it was NASTY! I gagged it down and within fifteen minutes I felt a thousand percent better....except my skin. He told me to drink lots of fluids, take some aspirin for the fever and pain in my skin and to keep applying the aloe gel. I went home, got naked, and laid in my bed with nothing to cover me but air (I couldn't stand anything to touch my skin) for several days.

Now I could have born all of this with grace and dignity if it weren't for the fact that our house was on the market for sale. Archie, a realtor, had called the MLS service to tell them not to allow any showings that week. Unfortunately, not everyone got the message. We had floated the river on Saturday. On Tuesday, Archie had taken the kids fishing or something, so that I could have a day of peace and quiet. I was still laying naked and uncovered on my bed, my bedroom door shut. I was apparently dozing when I suddenly opened my eyes and stared into the faces of three strangers, two men and a woman. For what seemed an eternity, we stared at each other, speechless and wide eyed. Finally, I heard some kind of an apology and a "we'll come back another time.", followed by the slamming of the front door.

Was I embarrassed? Certainly! Did I find the incident hysterically funny, followed by a fit of uncontrolled laughter? Of course, I did

I peeled like a moulting snake for the next few weeks but we sold the house the a little over a week after I had my surprise "viewing". Those folks must have been impressed! LOL

Life is good!