What I learned the hard way...
... is that certain medications (i.e. medications that I am currently taking) have a side-effect known as photosensitivity. The medication somehow causes one's (i.e. my) body to react more strongly to sunlight than it would otherwise. In some cases, I read, the body actually responds to ultraviolet rays with antibodies as though they were a virus. So, if one were to spend half a day out in the Colorado sun covered head to toe in SPF 25 sunblock, one could still get a severe sunburn, the likes of which she has rarely seen.
Yes, this is useful information. It would have been even more useful a couple of days ago.
Yes, this is useful information. It would have been even more useful a couple of days ago.
posted by DenverSop @ 10:44 PM
3 Comments:
At 6/03/2008 7:23 AM,
Anonymous said…
OK, that explains SO many things. I hope you get to feeling better. BTW, they make SPF 50. I think it is good up to a 40 megaton blast.
~BPP
At 6/03/2008 10:46 AM,
Anonymous said…
Ouch! That's no fun at all. I feel sorry for you!
I got a sunburn like that for the same reason in 1994, and it was so awful that I even got sun poisoning and was sick for two weeks. It took about 48 hours for the worst of it to hit. SPF 45 didn't help me one bit. Granted, it was in early July at a lake in the Ozarks in Arkansas on a bright, 100% sunny, blazing hot day (the thermometer read 115 in the shade at 4 PM, by far the hottest day I've felt), so those factors didn't help. I took a preventive antibiotic to try to kill a recurrent sinus infection at the time, and it made me photosensitive.
Based on that experience, if you start feeling nauseated, get to the doctor pronto.
While you were getting that sunburn, did you have a good time at least? Where did you go?
At 6/03/2008 1:26 PM,
DenverSop said…
I was at WaterWorld - had a fantastic time. A nice escape from a stressful week.
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