Afterburner

Now that my sunburn is getting better and the pain has gone down to were I don't have to take medicine to sleep at night, I do have a new situation that requires a little assistance. My skin is starting to peel and as it increases, my wife, against her will, is pulling out all the bits and pieces of that skin from all over my body. Pretty cool in some area's of my body. But as that skin comes off, a lot of my burnt areas are discolored a bit with a little sensitive. But I still have my wife to apply ointment to take care of that.

It's good to be married.

Sunburn

A few days ago, I went to the hospital for my sunburn. I was hoping that I would just get some cream from the local grocery store and that would be it. The response I got from the Hospital was something different. After one of the first Doctors has a good look at me, I became a traveling medical show and tell within the hospital. Sure, I was half-naked with women giving me ohh’s and ahh’s sympathy while the men were just laughing. I knew I would.

The first Doctor said it was sunburn but a second Doctor stated it was a combination of sun and wind damage to my skin. Nevertheless, they confirmed I have second-degree burns. Seeing, as my skin was hot enough to cook a steak, they had to cool me down first. Therefore, a young female nurse prepared to put a lot of cream all over my burnt areas. Normally this is something one would dream about or see in a porno movie. However, on this day, the last anything I wanted was anything or anyone touching my burnt areas. Just getting my shirt off at the hospital was extremely painful.

I was biting down on my teeth so hard I might have pushed a few teeth further into my gums as she was putting the cream on me. It’s not everyday one can say ‘Oh man, I can’t believe this is happening, I just want to die’. She had to put a lot of cream on me for it was melting the moment it was exposed to my burnt areas. I went from looking like Mr. Krab’s from SpongeBob Squarepants to Frosty the Snowman. Nevertheless, once the cream took out a lot of heat from my body and a few pictures later, I was able to leave the hospital.

Oh the joy. I have sunburn on my upper body area and after removing the heat part, I could go home with the pain part of sunburn. The Doctor was concerned that a few skin parts were located on the inside of my shirt. She contemplated giving me a steroid shot plus pain killing medicine. But once I got my shirt back on without passing out from the pain she just gave me a prescription for pain killers and more of the gel. Once home, I continued my adventure of trying to get some rest were I didn’t have to lay on my back, sides or chest area.

But oh those pain killers, once I took that first pill I didn’t care about the pain or anything relating to the pain. The only part I did not like about those pain pills was that I missed my TV show. In addition, waking up in searing pain from resting on a sun burnt area. And so I spend my time trying to not move my arms over my head or have anything or anyone touch me but with five cats and two boys who wanted to pick the yellow puss holes all over my back, it was not easy.

Just beachy

Long car rides can be exciting or they can be the road trip to hell. Either way getting there is have the fun. Surviving is the other half. I took my family to Havelock, NC for a few days. For me it was to visit a few places and second, to take my family to the beach for a while. Luckily, both of my boys have a Nintendo DS so they stayed quiet for an hour before they started complaining. My wife wanted to take pictures of every road sigh, water tower, and pretty much everything we drove passed.

When we finally got to Havelock and unpacked we all took part in a family nap. A few hours later, we ate, made a few phone calls and by the afternoon, the boys were playing in the ocean and my wife resting in a beach chair. So I stayed with two boys who wanted to swim to England. At times, they went so deep that even I couldn’t touch the bottom. Nevertheless, they swam around me like sharks on a Big Mac. As the sun was setting I was able to net in the boys then pick up a pizza and watched two boys complaining about having to leave the ocean and pass out from exhaustion at the same time. They fell asleep while eating dinner.

With a baby sitter on stand by, my wife and I went riding around with a camera in hand and a Wal-Mart near by. Nothing like taking your wife shopping so she can buy every postcard, key chains and whatnots made in creation. She also bought a few shot glasses for a friend of ours in Fukuoka, Japan. When we visited the Military base, she took tons of pictures of military equipment, badges, planes, guns and everything else in the place. She did enjoy the huge gun by the entrance. She wanted to buy it but we were a few hundred thousand dollars short.

Even though we were there for a couple of days, everyone had a great time and got to do many activities. One last trip to the beach and family outing before the boys go back to school. One more very long car ride listening to two boys complaining they forgot to charge up their Nintendo DS’s and a wife who didn’t charge up the camera battery. In addition, huge sunburn on my entire back, shoulders and belly area. If I paint my feet greenish blue I would look like a stop sign.

Through headaches, sunburn, a growing lack of money and non-stop complaining one would be screaming every curse word known to mankind. Seeing as I know many Japanese curse words as well, the eloquence would be grand. After returning home and having two boys running inside to start recharging their DS’s, a wife complaining about all the cats refusing to eat dry food while we were away and having to feed five Steven King’s Cu-Jo’s I was faced with a huge question growing in my mind.

As I with sunburn, unpacked the car and after settling down with the AC and TV on, I relaxed with another fan blowing on my back to cool down the burning. Could I go to work the next day with severe sunburn or stay home and keep applying ointment to my burnt area? I stayed home and planned to rest. Rest after I took my wife to the Post Office to pick up a package and a trip to the grocery store followed by two boys fighting over Lego toys. By this time, I wished I had gone to work instead.

But as I was finally resting with gel all over my back and shoulders watching NCIS on the USA channel, two boys came to me at different times saying they had a great time at the beach. They enjoyed shopping at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store, Wings beach store, looking for seashells, making sand castles and all the other activities. The way and how they said it was pure magical. My wife rubbing ointment all over me and two boys coming up to us saying they had a great time being together. It was not rehearsed or planned out. It was one of those moments where all the pain I was going through just disappeared.

I felt like I was king of the world.