Seabather's Eruption

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?