Burn, Baby, Burn!

Today, I headed out during my prep to pick up a lunch salad in an effort to increase my daily intake of leafy green cuttings and clippings that are supposed to be more healthy than what I used to eat.

Down the stairs, across the parking lot, into my car, drive the mile to the drive-through, back to my worksite, across the parking lot, up the stairs, into my classroom. Took about 15 minutes for the little jaunt, but as I opened the bag to remove my salad, all at once my left arm was on fire and itching like the furies.

I looked down at my arm and saw large, beet-red welts covering the exposed skin on my left arm, and a smaller, less red patch on my right arm. And boy! did it itch!

I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and poured it over my arm to cool it off, which helped, and then kept water on the arm to stop the itching. It took about 30 minutes for the itching to decrease, but the redness and swelling persisted.

I googled skin irritation + sun and found out that there is a condition, called photosensitive dermititis, that is a reaction to the sun such as I had just experienced. It can be caused by changes in the body caused by topical ointments and lotions, as well as ingestion of medical substances and other items that may cause the body to become reactive to the sun. The only ingestion I'm doing on a regular basis is the diabetic vitamin pack, so don't know if that could have triggered my reaction or not.

On the way to my night class, I stopped briefly at home to again flush the surface with cool water and then slathered ointment on the area to treat the blisters, bumps and itching. I'm back home now, and my arm still itches like crazy, is still very red, and still has lots of ugly bumps on it.

So, looks like I'll have to find some lightweight long-sleeved shirts this year to protect me from the sun. I already stopped on the way to my night site and picked up a tube of sun screen for tomorrow. We have gone from the 70s to the 100+ in just about a week, and perhaps my skin just could not adjust that fast to the intensity of the desert sun.