So, let's discuss the remainder of my Memorial Day weekend and returning to work. As I mentioned, I got super sunburned. The drive back home was misery. Most of my focus for the last couple days has been on sunburn relief. On the drive back home, we stopped at a Buc-ee's for snacks. Yeah, this is how Texans do gas stations...
I bought beef jerky. Yum! And then we stopped at a CVS located catty-corner to the Buc-ee's for me to pick up some Solarcaine spray. The aloe just wasn't enough. So I dashed into the store to get out of the sun, bought a can, and headed back outside (and into the shade) to spray myself down while my friends laughed at me from the car. It sustained me for the rest of the drive. But by the time I got dropped off at my apartment, I could barely move because my shoulders and legs were so sore and tight. I even took the elevator up to the third floor of the parking garage because I just couldn't use my arms to pick stuff up and definitely couldn't rest anything on my shoulder. I felt lazy, but it was utterly necessary.
Once I got into my apartment, I dumped everything on the floor, and dashed as quickly as I could, which was maybe closer to a waddle, to the bathroom. I carefully peeled my dress off and took a glorious, yet shiveringly cool, shower. After patting myself dry, I sprayed down with Solarcaine again, but then faced the dilemma of what to put on my sunburned forehead. Up until then, I had been applying coconut oil to my face for the sunburn, but it didn't seem to be helping much, besides keeping my skin moisturized. I then remembered reading an article a while back about how apple cider vinegar can be used for sunburn. I had some vinegar/water premixed and stored in an old shampoo bottle for use as a hair rinse in the shower, so I put some on a clean washcloth and held it against my forehead for a minute. And it seemed to draw out the heat, and felt better than the Solarcaine. I wrung out the washcloth, added fresh apple cider vinegar and water mixture, and reapplied in the following cycle: forehead, right quad, left quad, right shoulder, left shoulder, chest, and the back of the neck. Repeat again and again. I'm pretty sure I spent an hour doing that, before laying down on my couch and not moving. And I had to mix up more of the vinegar-water mixture. I finally dragged myself from my lethargy to head to the movie theater with my lake friends to see Star Trek: Into Darkness (it was awesome). After a stop to Walmart for more Solarcaine, I got home, dumped 1.5 cups of vinegar into the bath tub, and took a 40-minute cool bath. I used coconut oil as a moisturizer post-vinegar, and went to sleep happy. I seriously think that the vinegar was the better pain relief for the sunburn. The Solarcaine seems to make me feel itchy, sticky, and then dried out.
For Monday's holiday, my plans of hanging by the pool with friends got changed to sitting around my apartment, chatting, watching chick flicks, and drinking mimosas (or water if you're me). I started and ended the day with apple cider vinegar applications. And food? I was too sore and lazy to cook, so I ate beef jerky for breakfast, snacked on bell peppers that one of my friends brought over, and had bacon and eggs for dinner. It was a good, lazy day, that probably should have been spent cleaning, doing laundry, or cooking meals for the week. But what are giant Tupperware containers of frozen leftovers for, if not for lazy days?
Want to know what else apple cider vinegar is good for? Check out my post on Natural Beauty.
No comments:
Post a Comment