Owies

It wouldn't be a vacation without the injuries that come from sun and sea....and we're all wounded....

We are all covered with mosquito bites - and I'm highly, HIGHLY allergic to them....recalling last time, the same thing happened. My legs are covered in huge, HUGE patches of red, inflamed skin. It looks like some horrible skin condition - and they don't just itch....they HURT. I wake up in the mornings and can barely put weight on my legs....the skin feels like it's going to just explode. I know..TMI. But I'm trying to provide a description of what it's like. I've been reading all about 'Skeeter Syndrome' - it's real...and I have it, it seems. I'm sore and they won't subside - no amount of cortisone will help. And I now remember - where it does me absolutely no good to remember - that what finally helped last time we were here was Bendryl cream, which I wasn't able to find here. Still the same story. It was so bad that I bought the liquid Benadryl and swabbed it on the bite areas, hoping it would work. It didn't. My legs were just covered in sore, red, itchy, painful lesions AND sugary, sweet syrup which then attracted ants! Lovely!

H. and B. went SCUBA diving this morning - and H. encountered fire coral - stung his knee pretty badly. All that's left is a small, red welt - but at one point, B. said it looked like H. had a second knee - the area swelled up massively - and then calmed down. Poor H. also got a very bad sunburn on his first day here - it's now blistered and still sore. He tried to cover the area where his tanks would be with bandaids - and when he had to pull them off, it took a bunch of his skin with the bandaids. The poor kid spent the afternoon on the couch feeling 'miserable'. It hasn't helped him that the first night here, he left his red Converse high tops on the patio - forgetting that this is a ground floor unit - and they were stolen! They were the only shoes he's brought - so he's been borrowing pairs of J.'s for now.

J. just returned from la Pharmacia with the crema the dive master recommended for H.'s knee - and it works wonders on bites as well! So hopefully, we'll turn a corner on the bite front. B. is absolutely covered with them - dozens and dozens of bites. He doesn't get the massive, spreading welts I get - but he has a lot more bites than I do.

Still, we spent the late afternoon enjoying burgers, fries and cocktails on the chaises and enjoying watching the world go by. There are people from all over the world here and it's fun to watch people.

We're already planning our return - 10-14 days next time and the only thing making me hesitate on staying longer is the thought of poor Chloe being at the puppy spa too long....

H. and B. are heading into town for some night life. I let it go....they are both pretty responsible and stick together well when they're out and about. H. told me the first morning that they were offered any and all variety of illegal substances in town - and declined them all and got the heck out of the place pronto! H. is heading to the in-town Converse store to get a new pair - and these, he will carefully leave inside.

For all the injuries and owies (H. said 'Mom, I have a bad owie'....like he used to when he was 3), we're still managing to have a great time!

It's really dark in here - and I realized I still have my sun glasses on. Time to get cleaned up post-beach.