Skin like Bacon

Last Friday I broke out my Pass of all Passes (a la Ashley and Doug) to go to Seven Peaks with Marie, MegP, Rochelle & Carly, and Alyssa.  I don't know what I was thinking (probably that I wanted a tan) but I decided not just to forgo the sunscreen, but to slather myself in tanning oil (literally, I was shiny). 

I was only in my suit for 2.5 hours in the sun.  I enjoyed the wave pool and the lazy river.  Rochelle kept commenting on how she felt like she was burning and needed to leave.  I left with her.  I could tell when I got home that I had a slight burn as well.  Yet I continued on with my original plans of going on the gallery stroll with Blake and Annette. 


Saturday my roommates decided to go to Seven Peaks again.  My burn was now looking pretty bad so I decided to stay home.  When they got home I pointed out to Marie that I thought I was starting to blister.  She said my shoulder looked like it was just about to peel.  But when I woke up on Sunday morning I found the biggest horror of my life: 

The biggest, most disgusting blisters were on my shoulder, filled with something that looked like yellow water.  They were like jelly to the touch.  I stayed home from church to nurse my wounds, something I've continued to do since then.  I spread Neosporin and douse with aloe vera.  I clean with water and wash cloth or Q-tip. 

While for the most part my blisters have gone down (no, I did not puncture them myself, I let nature take its course) my skin has been left to look like the tanning mom.  Sometimes in the right light with the blisters my skin looked like bacon.  But the grossest part now has to be this weird yellow line that has appeared around my right shoulder.  It's not colored from the aloe vera, as I have tried to gently clean it.  But it is a line of dead, yellow skin that ends where my current peeling begins.

This experience has been horrific, and has taught me something very important:  always, always, ALWAYS wear sunscreen!  As if I wasn't already paranoid about skin cancer now I actually have areas of skin that have been damaged enough by the sun to warrant an actual worry.  In fact, you should see what looks like a now precancerous mole on my right shoulder.