Trauma, Horror, and Tears

My Most Traumatic Experience This Year............

(Warning: The pictures are not pretty, proceed with caution, and don't blame me if they make you sick!) :)

Ok, so for people who don't know about the story, I went to California with my mom, my sister, and her 4 children to visit my sister who has recently moved to Huntington Beach.

The trip was going great, until the day at the beach. Ok, the beach was a blast, however, the sunscreen I used was a generic brand, and I was unaware that the generic brands don't really protect you like the big name brands.... so even though I had sunscreen on and I was re-applying, I got burned, I got FRIED!!!!

So the rest of the trip I was miserable, I had blisters on both of my legs (which I have posted pictures of), blisters on my chest, and blisters on my back (I do not have pictures of anything on my chest or back, but if you see me in person, you can see the 2 lovely scars on my back) therefore, I could not sleep, I could not lay down! I spent my nights trying to sleep in a sitting position on chairs, it was miserable.

When we got home from our trip on a saturday evening, I was dying. My feet were so swollen because the blisters were cutting off the circulation, and I could not feel my feet.... So at 11:00 that Saturday night, my mom took me to the ER and then.......

When they finally called me back and took me to a bed in the ER, the doctor came and looked at my legs and ripped the blister right off of my left leg, I started to bawl, it hurt so bad, then of course cause that was not bad enough, he removed the junk from the wound, shoved it in my face and said "This is just bacteria build up, this is where infections start!"

Thank goodness for the sweet nurse who finally spoke up and said, "She is clearly in pain, can we give her something?" Then of course the JERK of a doctor sighed and said, "I guess so."

While we were waiting for the morphine to kick in (by the way, I had to get the shot in my blistered arm) (before anything started to touch the pain I had to have 2 shots and 2 doses through an IV) the JERK of a doctor came up to me as I am in tears and says "Well do you just want to do this yourself, it is just like popping a zit." (And NO, it was not like popping a zit!)

So after the morphine finally started to take the edge off, the 2 nurses had to come and de-blister me and dress the wounds (I had severe 2nd degree burns). I felt it all and I was bawling, but at least they were sympathetic and were telling me "I am so sorry, we are trying to be gentle." They removed blisters from my back, chest, and legs.

After being skinned alive, I was sent home with a prescription for percocets (which were my best friend for a while), some ointments, gauze pads, tongue depressors, coban, tweezers, and scissors...... The Nurse sent us home after telling me that the skin around the wounds will eventually blister and I will have to remove them my self.

Thank goodness for my mom! She was such a good sport, she dressed the wounds on my back and chest, and for the first few days she even did my leg wounds, and it was not a fun job, but she did it anyway, she was the greatest, I could not have gotten through it without her!

And Shell, Just because this horrific experience happened when I was visiting you, don't think for one second I won't be out there again soon! (I will just bring Coppertone sunscreen!)

Now for the pictures.........

Here is a picture of the blister on my right leg, I took this in Vegas when we stopped there for the night on our way home.....
This is the blister on my left leg....
and here is another picture of the blister on my right leg....
Here is the open wound on my right leg (yes I have a lovely scar)
Left Leg open wound....
see how swollen my poor feet are.... (thanks to Aunt JoDee for taking me to get the fabulous pedicure, we went to Le Nails and the lady did a great job, I told her just to stay below the dressings, she was very nice and very gentle, and it felt great for my sad feet!)
Here is a close up, see all the little blisters, I had the remove those with the scissors and tweezers, I was bandaged from my ankle to my knee at one point!
Getting better..... (just a little leakage at this point)
YAY!!! All Better!! I wore dressings on my legs for almost a month! My back healed after a couple of weeks, my chest healed after about 1 week, but the legs!! Oi!

I am all better now and I will be the Poster Child for Coppertone Water Babies Sunscreen (that is the sunscreen that the EMT who was helping out at the ER told me was the best).

And what about that EVIL JERK of a doctor????? I filed a complaint with the hospital, the Doctor in charge of complaints in the ER called me and had me tell him what happened, then he said, "Well, I will talk to him." Yeah, thanks for nothing, JERK! Oh well, I did what I could, but I also told him that if I ever go back to that ER and he is my Doctor, he will not touch me! I will not go through that EVER again, talk about BAD bedside manner!!

So, that is the most TRAUMATIC and HORRIFIC experience I have had all year (lets hope nothing worse happens!)