The not so fun trip to the Florida Keys

When I was a teenager I had acne pretty bad. I went through lots of different cleansers and medications to get it taken care of. Most of these medication had side effects that were pretty low key, mostly just drying out my skin, until the new one I started taking right before our vacation to the Florida Keys. The prescription bottle said not to be in direct sunlight while you are taking the medication. This would be a problem seeings how we were headed to the sunshine state. We asked the pharmacist what the side effects would be and she said I would probably just sun burn easier. I am a fair skinned red head and am no stranger to the sun burn, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Day one of our trip I decide I am going to go lay out on the beach outside of our condo. I don't know why I did that. I never ever tan. I burn and then turn white again. My son has inherited my skin coloring, he also has white hair, we call him the translucent boy. Anyways. So I layed out in the sun for a while until the heat and humidity become unbearable (about 15 minutes). Later that night I started feeling all itchy. I looked at my arms and I had little red dots on them. We thought they were bug bites. My uncle said it might be from sand fleas. Well, that right there would keep me awake all night as I thought of little fleas coming out of the sand to nibble on me.

The next morning we hit the road and headed to Key West. On the way there my lips started feeling strange. "Mom, are my lips swelling?" I say. And she turns around and laughs and says yes, they are totally swollen, and my fingers were starting to swell and resemble little sausages. We knew something was definitely wrong. We called my doctor back home and she said it sounded like I was having an allergic reaction to the medication I took. I needed to find a doctor right away and get a steroid shot and benadryl before my throat closes and I die. So, here we are in tropical paradise, I am swelling more and more every second and we have to hunt for a doctor. My mom and I went searching for a doctor while the rest of my family toured the island. The first doctor turned out to be some guy that fixed bicycles and handed out Viagra (they called him Captain Courageous), so we searched for another one. We finally found a clinic and I was given a steroid shot (which I was very concerned would make me grow a beard or chest hair. I don't want to me a man! Fortunately it did not.) I was also given a shot of benadryl.

We left the clinic and went to go find the rest of the family. After we walked for a while I looked down at my shoes and my ankles were so swollen that they were completely overlapping my shoes and socks. It was cankles to the extreme. I had to get my shoes off right away. We bought me a pair of sandals so that my feet could keep expanding with out my shoes getting in the way.  Needless to say I was miserable about now. I was still itchy and the little red dots had turned into horrible looking welts that itched so bad I could hardly stand it. I am shocked I didn't strangle anybody.

We eventually found the rest of the family and decided we would go eat some lunch so I could sit down and be out of the heat. By the time we were done eating my feet were so completely swollen and the most horrible shade of purple you had ever seen. I couldn't even walk, they hurt so bad. My uncle had to carry me to the car. For the rest of our stay in the Keys I had to stay completely indoors. We were there for a couple more days and then we traveled to North Carolina to visit my Grandparents. While we were there I started having horrible chest pains, I thought for sure I was having a heart attack. We ended up in the ER and I had to get an EKG. They couldn't figure out what was causing the chest pains, but it must have been something with the steroids or the medication I was trying to get out of my system. I don't know for sure. After staying with my grandparents for about a week or so we headed back to Florida to finish our wonderful ( I am being sarcastic) vacation. I still couldn't be in the sun so I basically stayed indoors and watched cable TV while my little brother got to do everything. He even went fishing and caught a baby hammerhead shark. Whatever Douglas.

My throat never did close up and I didn't die. We all made it home safe and sound. Although I must say that the Florida Keys will forever be tainted in my memory. I can't see myself ever going back. Oh, and my acne eventually went away too. And no, it wasn't because of the medication that caused this whole adventure.