Learn From My Mistake

Horribly awful, yet hilarious story about my sunburn.

The hilarious part:
I am stupid
The horribly awful part:
Intense pain

What happened:
Just two days after my severe sunburn (the one I received from our 20 mile bike ride) on my arms, I was getting Talmage and myself bathed one evening.  The hot water ran out and we were getting very cold.  I switched into hyper speed, and without using a single one of my brain cells, grabbed my loofah squirted some raspberry body wash and scrubbed my left arm and right arm real quick.  THEN the pain started coming. DUH!  I called for Cody to get Talmage and got out and dried my arms off and thought if I put lotion on them then the burning will go away.  NOPE!  It made it worse and (Cody told me the science part later) it started itching very intensely.  He said it was a bunch of histamine being released all at once, because my skin was so irritated.  I washed off the lotion and rubbed Aloe Vera on it, which did diddly squat for me and the rubbing motion egged the histamine to keep being released from my skin.  I thought I was going to go into to anaphylactic shock (but I didn't). Cody came running in because he heard me whimpering and moaning, rubbing and blowing on my arms.  "STOP!" he yells.  He found some Benadryl, made me pop 3 immediately, got two bags of ice and started numbing my arms. Relief lasted for only seconds at a time, wherever the ice was located, the rest burned and itched. We worked on this for about 30-45 minutes, before the medicine started to kick in.  But every few seconds a little histamine reaction here and there would pop up and make me tense all my muscles.  I had to FORCE myself not to itch (that was some of the hardest mind and body control I have had to deal with in a long time).  I felt like I had turrets for about 3 hours afterwards, because of the muscle spasms from the intense skin irritation and itching that I couldn't relieve.  I can honestly say, that the pain I felt and my reaction to this problem was WORSE than my labor pains, no joke.  SO.... if you didn't already know this or aren't paying attention next time you get a sunburn, DO NOT EXFOLIATE!  You will be sorry.  I deep down knew this, never rub a sunburn, and was stupid enough not to pay attention.  I just didn't realize how insanely your body can react to what you might think is the simplest action.  I learned my lesson, I will NEVER forget sunscreen again.  I will REMEMBER to treat my body with as much respect as I would treat my babies body.