Sounds pretty nasty, right? Well, it is - I've managed to find out first hand.
This is the part of the Cabarete story that I didn't tell before...now it warrants its own post. Our last night in Cabarete, I thought it would be fun to go for a night swim. I was right, it was lots of fun...except for the bites/stings that we kept feeling every now and again. Whatever was biting/stinging us, it was only millimeters big, and in the black of the water, we definitely couldn't see anything. I thought the were bug bites, and though annoying for sure, waved them off as a nuisance, no more.
The next day, though, as we drove back from Cabarete, I noticed that a rash was starting to form on my shoulders and a little on my forehead. It didn't itch at first, and I wondered what had managed to irritate my sensitive skin. By Monday evening, the rash was worse - red and slowly creeping down my back. Luckily, one of my guests is a nurse, and she suggested benadryl and some topical hydro-cortisone cream. I promptedly headed to the nearest pharmacy to stock up. Fast forward through a week of regularly smothering myself in hydro-cortisone and calamine lotion, it is now 7 days later and the rash is far worse. My back now looks like I slept in a patch of poison ivy (and it feels like it too), my face is swollen and red, and I have pinkeye (apparently, also a symptom of this allergic reaction). The itch and the pain and the swelling have put me to bed today, feeling rather ill, and seriously considering a trip to the emergency clinic for a dose of whatever they can give me to make it go away. what luck I have, right?
So, now that you have a rather ugly, vivid picture of a "seabather's eruption", you are probably wondering what it actually is that I managed to get messed up with. Well, let me tell you. Seabather's eruption is a highly pruritic (itchy) reaction to the stings of baby thimble jellyfish. Apparently, I have a hypersensitive reaction to thimble jellyfish toxins. The babies have nematocysts that fire (sting) at the slightest provocation - like a change in osmotic pressure (like letting the sea water dry on your skin, or rinsing off with freshwater), and even after the little bastard babies are dead, if their nematocysts are still on your skin, you can cause them to sting you posthumously - like by rubbing yourself dry with a towel. I was probably stung by an entire swarm of the little buggers, repeatedly, and I never even registered it at the time. So now, apparently I have to let this run it's course for at least 10-12 days...and pray to Neptune that this never happens again.
SO, there you have it. To make a long story short - Liz got attacked by baby jellyfish last weekend and now she looks and feels like _______. I'll just have to add "seabather's eruption" to the growing list of random things that have happened to me over the years. You'll have to admit, you are not the least bit surprised by this story, are you?
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
My first visitors!
...and other things that made me happy in the last week....
As if expecting my first visitors weren't exciting enough, last week I also received my HHE (household effects) shipment - nearly 2 months to the day after I packed up and left DC. I finally have my stuff, and it's AMAZING how good that makes me feel. It's not that I was missing individual things, per say (with the exception of my art supplies and my mattress), but it's the oddly comforting familiarity that I am so excited to have back. Now I have even more white walls to hang pictures on and consider painting - let the interior decorating begin!
The day after my place was re-populated by huge brown moving boxes, I went to the airport to get my first guests. My friend Leah (from grad school) and two of her friends were coming for the week, with only one thing on their mind - the BEACH! I hadn't been in a whopping 2 weeks either, so it was on my mind as well. We headed to the little town of Cabarete on the North coast, famous for its kite and wind surfing (and, ahem, its kite and wind surfers). Cabarete is totally different from Las Terrenas, and while I wouldn't say it reaches the same level of paradise, I loved it all the same. The vibe is young and laid-back, rasta and hippie and FUN...and we were sure to soak up as much of that as we could. All the restaurants and the bars open up onto the beach, which is where everyone hangs out from dusk until nearly dawn. They even had an international music festival the Saturday night we were there (it was pretty much all reggae, but on the beach...who needs more?)
I checked out the kite schools while we roamed the beach, since learning to kite and wind surf are on my DR bucket list, but it looked like too much of an investment for this trip. You need to go through a course to really learn, and it can cost a few hundred bucks. Looks like I'll just have to go back some other weekend, with that as the only item on my agenda. Even if I didn't get to go kite surfing, it was enough for me to be lazy on the beach for 3 days. Being with friends who are here visiting made it so much more like a vacation (very much welcomed) than when my DR friends and I go. funny how that works...
Now my friends have gone - back to their lives and work and the US - and I am back at work, with a very busy-looking fall ahead of me. There's lots to look forward to, though, so I hope it doesn't all come too quickly. and now I also wonder, who is going to be the next to come to Chez Liz?
As if expecting my first visitors weren't exciting enough, last week I also received my HHE (household effects) shipment - nearly 2 months to the day after I packed up and left DC. I finally have my stuff, and it's AMAZING how good that makes me feel. It's not that I was missing individual things, per say (with the exception of my art supplies and my mattress), but it's the oddly comforting familiarity that I am so excited to have back. Now I have even more white walls to hang pictures on and consider painting - let the interior decorating begin!
The day after my place was re-populated by huge brown moving boxes, I went to the airport to get my first guests. My friend Leah (from grad school) and two of her friends were coming for the week, with only one thing on their mind - the BEACH! I hadn't been in a whopping 2 weeks either, so it was on my mind as well. We headed to the little town of Cabarete on the North coast, famous for its kite and wind surfing (and, ahem, its kite and wind surfers). Cabarete is totally different from Las Terrenas, and while I wouldn't say it reaches the same level of paradise, I loved it all the same. The vibe is young and laid-back, rasta and hippie and FUN...and we were sure to soak up as much of that as we could. All the restaurants and the bars open up onto the beach, which is where everyone hangs out from dusk until nearly dawn. They even had an international music festival the Saturday night we were there (it was pretty much all reggae, but on the beach...who needs more?)
I checked out the kite schools while we roamed the beach, since learning to kite and wind surf are on my DR bucket list, but it looked like too much of an investment for this trip. You need to go through a course to really learn, and it can cost a few hundred bucks. Looks like I'll just have to go back some other weekend, with that as the only item on my agenda. Even if I didn't get to go kite surfing, it was enough for me to be lazy on the beach for 3 days. Being with friends who are here visiting made it so much more like a vacation (very much welcomed) than when my DR friends and I go. funny how that works...
Now my friends have gone - back to their lives and work and the US - and I am back at work, with a very busy-looking fall ahead of me. There's lots to look forward to, though, so I hope it doesn't all come too quickly. and now I also wonder, who is going to be the next to come to Chez Liz?
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