We’d gone kayaking very early in the morning, and it was overcast. Still, I should have known better. I only wore a half wetsuit instead of the full suit which would have extended to my ankles.

This is the result:

In 24 hours huge blisters formed, my skin was unbelievable painful.

I tried to tough it out for the next two days. Then the swelling began. And I lost my ankles entirely.

Four days later it wasn’t getting better -- it was getting worse. That is when I realized I was going to need to see a doctor. Which I did, a GP. She seemed somewhat alarmed and sent me to a dermatologist to see if they could provide better burn treatment so the scaring would be minimized. At that point we were talking about scars and longer timelines. Like how I was going to get on a plane in two weeks without screaming in pain for the duration.

The dermatologist was very nice, she drained the more gigantic blisters and prescribed half a dozen medications, painkillers, antibiotics, burn creams. Then she asks me if I might be self conscious about leaving the office with bandages.

This is where I should point out that I couldn’t bear to have anything touching my skin, so I’d worn a skirt to the office. I’d walked through the clinic, up the elevator and into her office with unshaven, bare, oozing blisters like some type of refugee from a leper colony.

So I explained that I thought I could live with the shame.

I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have deeper burns or more skin affected. Because I can tell you that there were days when I would spend a good 5-10 minutes preparing myself mentally for standing up, then a minute or so of pain so intense I could barely breath as the my lymphatic system adjusted to the change in orientation. It was positively excruciating.

So the lesson is if you’re ancestry is half northern European don’t go out on the water without a full wetsuit. And even then it’s best to wait until dark.