Lessons ...Sunburn

Things I've learned about sunburn.

1) try to avoid it. Use sunscreen if you're going to be out.

2) "after sun lotion" is NOT for sunburns, it's for tanning...It will bake the sun burn and make it 10 times worse.

3) stick with aloe. AVOID butter based lotions they literally bake your burn and make it much much worse!

4) keep the burn victim in a cool room, almost too chilly. Lowered tempeture makes the pain and hot sensation easier to handle. And the body doesn't have to work as hard to cool off.

5) DARK dimly lit rooms are best when the burn is really bad. Stay out of naturally lit rooms as much as possible.

6) listen to your instincts.

So my husband got a sunburn this week. We went to the beach on Tuesday and he sprayed himself down everywhere but his back. There were 7 other adults who could have helped him, but he forgot to ask and got first and second degree burns all over his back.

If that wasn't bad enough we got back from the beach and his parents said "Oh here, we have some really awesome lotion for sunburns, try this." It said "After Sun Lotion with Aloe." I looked at the bottle and my instincts said "wait that's for TANS!" but it did say it had aloe and aloe's good for burns right? Anyway, they insisted that it always cleared up their burns super quick and it was awesome stuff.

So they lathered my hubby up several times that day with this after-sun lotion. His burn got worse and worse and by the 2nd night he was in so much pain he was in a fetal postion on the floor barely able to breath from the pain. That is NOT like my husband, he does not complain about pain generally. He may comment on a cool new cut he got at work, just to gross me out. But he doesn't complain. He was acting like I was when I was in transition with Amity.

I called our health insurance nurse- line and they recommended that he go in to urgent care. So my brother-in-law and I drove him to urgent care and the doctor was quite impressed with how badly he was burned and baked. I feel so bad that I didn't speak up more and insist we stick with aloe. I feel so bad that he got baked. But hey, lessons learned. I'm sure having the thermostat for the house set at 82 for the majority of those 2 days really didn't help his sunburn either. I feel like we did every single thing we possibly could WRONG. We found keeping him as cool as possible stopped the very worst of the pain. Keeping him out of direct light (even inside) helped as well.

So there is my list of things I have learned about sunburn. And to watch out for my hubby more. I get so focused on the kids I forget that he needs me to look at for him too.

Lessons learned.