Kayak Trip of DOOM
Jul. 15th, 2013 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetOkay, maybe "Kayak Trip of DOOM" is slightly hyperbolic. It was still pretty bad.
Yesterday, my family took a two-and-a-half hour car trip (one way) out of town to go kayaking. We did not have a very good time.
The time estimate we got for the kayak trip itself was three hours. We took four hours, plus half an hour to stop for lunch. Most of the time difference could be attributed to the depth of the water, in that it wasn't very deep. We got stuck several times on rocks or sand. Dad rolled his kayak three times, Mom twice, and I once - plus this time when I had gotten out of my kayak to pull it over a shallow bit on foot and got half-dunked where the current was stronger and the water deeper. I spent the entire time needing the restroom because there hadn't been so much as a porta-potty where we parked, and there certainly wasn't anything anywhere along the river, and I didn't feel like attempting to navigate the adventure of Needing To Sit To Pee while wearing wet clothing. If I ever do this again - and that's a pretty big if - I'm totally investing in a Go Girl.
On top of everything, the sunscreen I bought turned out to be ineffective. While my arms were safe (they usually are), and my head was protected by the wide-brimmed floppy hat I tend to wear (minus the button band, since I didn't want to lose it/them), the tops of my legs and feet both got totally roasted, as well as, in a total first for me, the backs of my hands. I took pictures to show people, but I've got a couple of pink bulbs set up in my room, which made the burns a bit difficult to distinguish.
The affected skin is painful, hot-to-the-touch, and tight-feeling, making walking and related activities (stairs, etc) something of a chore. The amount of burn I got also leaves me somewhat nauseated from time to time. I'm combating the burn and affects with a combination of things: moisturizing lotion, used tea bags (a tip from my aunt in Texas), ibuprofen, ginger ale for the nausea, and this post-burn treatment stuff my dad graciously picked up from Hy-Vee for me. This evening, I'm planning to try a remedy a friend of mine found on the 'net, featuring aloe leaves, coconut oil, and honey. It's somewhere on this site, though she didn't share that specific link. While the remedy originally calls for an old t-shirt, I'm guessing it had torso burns in mind, so I'll be substituting an old pair of pajama pants and a pair of socks I don't much care for. I did have to go out and buy all the ingredients it called for - we had only one aloe plant and it is teeny-tiny; I have serious doubts it would survive more than one leaf being plucked, let alone have enough juice to cover the burned areas on my legs and feet. Also we had next to no honey and absolutely no coconut oil. Still, I can't imagine either the honey or the aloe plants will go to waste if this doesn't work, and I'm sure I can find something to do with the coconut oil.
Long story short, if anyone wants me to go kayaking ever again, they had better be prepared to 1) Promise me that no part of the body of water we'll be kayaking over will be anything less than two feet/sixty centimeters deep (aside from the shores); and 2) Bribe me.
Coming up next, some pics to make me happy. Because this sunburn is terrible and I hate it.
Yesterday, my family took a two-and-a-half hour car trip (one way) out of town to go kayaking. We did not have a very good time.
The time estimate we got for the kayak trip itself was three hours. We took four hours, plus half an hour to stop for lunch. Most of the time difference could be attributed to the depth of the water, in that it wasn't very deep. We got stuck several times on rocks or sand. Dad rolled his kayak three times, Mom twice, and I once - plus this time when I had gotten out of my kayak to pull it over a shallow bit on foot and got half-dunked where the current was stronger and the water deeper. I spent the entire time needing the restroom because there hadn't been so much as a porta-potty where we parked, and there certainly wasn't anything anywhere along the river, and I didn't feel like attempting to navigate the adventure of Needing To Sit To Pee while wearing wet clothing. If I ever do this again - and that's a pretty big if - I'm totally investing in a Go Girl.
On top of everything, the sunscreen I bought turned out to be ineffective. While my arms were safe (they usually are), and my head was protected by the wide-brimmed floppy hat I tend to wear (minus the button band, since I didn't want to lose it/them), the tops of my legs and feet both got totally roasted, as well as, in a total first for me, the backs of my hands. I took pictures to show people, but I've got a couple of pink bulbs set up in my room, which made the burns a bit difficult to distinguish.
The affected skin is painful, hot-to-the-touch, and tight-feeling, making walking and related activities (stairs, etc) something of a chore. The amount of burn I got also leaves me somewhat nauseated from time to time. I'm combating the burn and affects with a combination of things: moisturizing lotion, used tea bags (a tip from my aunt in Texas), ibuprofen, ginger ale for the nausea, and this post-burn treatment stuff my dad graciously picked up from Hy-Vee for me. This evening, I'm planning to try a remedy a friend of mine found on the 'net, featuring aloe leaves, coconut oil, and honey. It's somewhere on this site, though she didn't share that specific link. While the remedy originally calls for an old t-shirt, I'm guessing it had torso burns in mind, so I'll be substituting an old pair of pajama pants and a pair of socks I don't much care for. I did have to go out and buy all the ingredients it called for - we had only one aloe plant and it is teeny-tiny; I have serious doubts it would survive more than one leaf being plucked, let alone have enough juice to cover the burned areas on my legs and feet. Also we had next to no honey and absolutely no coconut oil. Still, I can't imagine either the honey or the aloe plants will go to waste if this doesn't work, and I'm sure I can find something to do with the coconut oil.
Long story short, if anyone wants me to go kayaking ever again, they had better be prepared to 1) Promise me that no part of the body of water we'll be kayaking over will be anything less than two feet/sixty centimeters deep (aside from the shores); and 2) Bribe me.
Coming up next, some pics to make me happy. Because this sunburn is terrible and I hate it.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-19 02:28 am (UTC)Second degree burns on my legs, my roommate had to go to the ER and has severe second degree burns that have pretty much taken off the top layers of skin on both her legs.
Guess we should both just stick to our hermit-in-front-of-computer activities as the outdoorsing went rather badly.
Try taking a tea-bath. Just get 4 bags of green tea (you can use other, but it stains less), run about 1/3 of the tub hot with the bags and let it steep. Then do 2/3 cool water until you get to a luke warm/cool you can stand putting your legs in. Enjoy this bath, then air dry and apply aloe to the burn. It really adds a bit of relief to the burn areas.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-20 06:39 am (UTC)I did suggest spelunking to my mom as a possible "adventure" alternative, since she really likes making family adventure plans. No sun, temperature controlled, SCIENCE; what could be better? I'll even probably end up wearing long sleeves, which should help prevent scraping in the event of tripping and falling.
I think I may try that tomorrow. Blisters have just started showing up in the past two days, though they're (currently?) itty-bitty.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-20 02:54 pm (UTC)A few little blisters is fairly normal, and I know my tea baths really helped the ones on my shoulders difuse.