Jelly Fish

I must say that normally I feel like my “luck” in life is pretty average. I wouldn’t consider myself a super lucky person, but I normally wouldn’t say that I’m unlucky either. However here in South Africa I think my luck has kind of been in the dumps. Let’s take this last Friday for example. I started the day off great, volunteering at the crèche, working with the kids and just loving life. Since it was Friday we got off early so a group of us decided we were going to go surfing! I was super pumped and couldn’t wait to get out there and give surfing a try. We made our way down to the Surf Shack, suited up in our wet suits, received the safety talk from the owner Dave and headed down to the beach. We had an informal instructor who walked us through the process of standing up and we practiced a few times on the sand and then we headed into the water. At this point I was 100% positive that this was going to be the best experience ever and that I’m gonna fall in love with surfing and as a result insist on living near a beach for the rest of my life. So I paddled out about 100 feet, turned my board around, waited for the wave to come, and tried to stand up. CRASH. EPIC FAIL. I fall into the water, my first attempt not as successful as I’d hoped. As I come out of the water I realize that my face is literally burning so bad it feels as if some one is holding a hot curling iron to my face. In my mind I’m thinking “What the heck! I think I got stung by a jellyfish!!” but then rationally I know that the chances of that happening so close to the shore are so incredibly slim. Sure enough though my face won’t stop burning, so I turned to my friend Brooke and say “My face is burning is something wrong with it?” and then before I knew what was happening my eyes started swelling and it was getting tougher to breathe. At that point I knew I had to get out of the water, so I held on to my board, lifted my feet up and let the waves take me to shore. The next little bit is a blur but I somehow made it out of the water, up the beach, across the road and into the Surf Shack without being able to see anything. Dave instantly realized something was wrong either from the sobs that were escaping my mouth or because my face was swelling and was crimson red. Haha. Instantly they started treating me for a jellyfish sting, but what was hard was that it wasn’t just a small sting, it literally covered my ENTIRE face. I guess that’s what happens when you face plant into a Jellyfish’s tentacles. I had hot towels then cold towels on my face, they were smearing cream all over it and I even had some little African kids offer to pee on my face for me. Haha They gave me an antihistamine when I told them I couldn’t feel my arms and then they tried to offer me alcohol, insisting it would make me feel better but I quickly turned that down. I instantly knew that I wanted a blessing so I asked them to find my phone and dial Michelle for me. All this time I am still 100% unable to see and I was in SOOOO much pain. I was trying not to cry, but huge sobs kept escaping out of me. I talked to Michelle, said I had been stung by a jellyfish and that I needed a blessing and she said she’d be there in 20 minutes! What a blessing and a relief it was knowing they’d be there to get me so quickly. Then I started to panic because I still couldn’t feel my arms, so I said “I NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS WET SUIT”. Well.. I don’t know if any of you have tried to get out of a wet suit when you CAN see, but getting out of one when you CAN’T see, and your in excruciating pain is possibly theeee most difficult task I’ve ever attempted. I stood under the shower for a bit, put my dress on over my suit, wrapped up in a towel and waited for Michelle to get there. I’d being lying if I said I wasn’t thrilled to see her, and I think I practically fell into her arms when I saw her. Anyho… Bishop and Michelle took me back to my house to get a change of clothes, then off to their house for a hot shower, some Aloe Vera caked onto my face, and a blessing. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the pain to go away. It took a good while (like 7 hours) but with time it slowly started to fade and by the next morning I was 100% back to looking normal, with just a little tingling and sensitivity left. Needless to say anyone at the beach should really look out for those Jellyfish. They are viscous little creatures who can cause an individual a great deal of pain. Don’t for a second think that this will keep me from surfing again though. That one little attempt has me hooked and I can’t wait to get out in the water again. However… If I get attacked by a Jellyfish again though I think I’ll take it as some kind of sign that maybe the oceans not for me. That would break my heart though, so let’s all keep our fingers crossed that that won’t happen.