Another Freak Accident – To Burn or Not to Burn

Another injury to add to my travels unfortunately…

Lionel and I were on the beach last night with some friends. We had a beer (literally one beer and one whiskey/coke) and watched the fire show. Lionel and Nathan, another DMT, went to have a closer look and a bit of the rope hit them. I went over to them to check they were ok and after that I walked back to the beach. The fire guys didn’t see me and they lit a skipping rope on fire and threw it at my direction by accident. It hit my legs and suddenly my legs were on fire. Burning. The flames reached my hair and singed the ends. I remember thinking, ‘I’m on fire, I’m in fire, Oh my God, I’M ON FIRE!’ I instinctively ran into the ocean and started rubbing my legs that still felt like they were burning.

I laid in the ocean for half an hour as everyone ran ice on my legs as I yelled in pain. The Thai Fire guy came over to apologise but couldn’t do much. We finally found a pharmacy that was still open and bought Silverderm and Aloe Vera gel. At this point I was crying from the pain and trying to smear the cream all over my legs. It was still burning from the inside and Nathan and Lionel got ice from a nearby food stall. This relieved the pain so we sat outside for an hour as I rubbed the ice on my legs. Two Aussie guys passing by asked what happened and then advised us that ice wasn’t a good thing for a burn. It can actually further damage the skin – which I think is what has happened.

We went home and that’s when the pain really kicked in. I was hyperventilating, freaking out as I saw the blisters start to form on my skin, and wanting to pass out from the pain. Lionel tried to calm me down and as I sat under a cold shower he tried to call the medical clinics for help. No one was answering. I guess that’s what happens when we live on an island.

We were able to borrow a motorbike from a friend and Lionel rode up and down to see if he could wake a doctor up. I stayed and continued to run cold water down my legs. Lionel returned and said that he woke some doctors up at several clinics and all of them advised that they would just put Silverderm and Aloe Vera on to treat me. As we had these at home we decided the best thing was to keep running water over my legs so that’s what I did for the next two hours. The pain was excruciating. Finally around 2.30am, i dried and lathered up with aloe vera gel. I watched Meet the Fockers 3, (why did I subject myself to more pain?) and then fell asleep.

Today I’m on bed rest, lathering up my blisters with anti-bacterial cream, and the dark rashes with aloe vera gel. The pain is not as intense, nothing like what I had felt last night, but it still stings like tiny pin pricks. More scars to add to the collection.

I’ve got such rotten, rotten luck! Considering I’m the most cautious person ever I really don’t know how I keep getting hurt. When the fire guys brought out the fire skipping rope inviting people to jump it, I turned to a friend and said, ‘Ha, I would never do that, it’s so dangerous!’

No diving for me for a while then. 🙁