Last week I went to Cancun last week for a work conference. To make a long story short, even though I slathered myself in SPF 30 and sat under an umbrella by the pool, I still burnt myself to a crisp on Friday. Most of my sunburn is pretty much healed and out of the painful zone, however, my left leg and foot obviously got it the worst. It's still really red, and my ankle is swollen. This happened on the plane ride home, but I assume it's from the burn. Any tips on how to get the swelling to go away and the burn to heal faster? I've been doing everything I know - soaking it in cool bath water, applying aloe non-stop, and the past two nights I've elevated my leg with pillows and applied ice and cold compresses. I wake up in the morning and the swelling has gone down - not gone, but down, but then when I come to work and sit all day, it gets really swollen again.
Help - I'm sick of wearing flats and being in pain. Any suggestions? Has this ever happened to anyone else?
This happened to me on the last day of my honeymoon. It sucks. Nothing I did reduced the swelling, I think it just has to go away on its own. I found that when I first got up in the morning, my legs looked normal, but after about 5 minutes of standing, they would swell again. I think mine took about a week to fully go away. Sorry!
This happened to me on the last day of my honeymoon. It sucks. Nothing I did reduced the swelling, I think it just has to go away on its own. I found that when I first got up in the morning, my legs looked normal, but after about 5 minutes of standing, they would swell again. I think mine took about a week to fully go away. Sorry!
Yep - same thing for me! I wake up in the morning and the swelling has gone way down, but by the time I get to work, I'm swollen again. I'm just glad that I'm not the only one this has happened to. I was starting to feel like the swelling was never going to go away. So thanks for easing my mind at the very least Bastet!
This is going to sound crazy, but my mom is allergic to the sun and gets extremely bad sunburns because of that, anyway she will soak a washcloth/towel in milk and apply it. Something about the milk will remove the sting. I can't say for sure it works, but I know she does it a lot.
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"Despite all your best intentions, sometimes, fate wins anyway."
I second the milk compresses. I got a bad heat rash last summer, and my derm told me to put a bowl of milk and ice cubes in the fridge and make cold compresses with it every few hours. Apparently, milk has a pH balance that won't dry your skin out like water. And it also felt really really good.
And the swelling is normal - once I burned the top of my feet so badly that I couldn't stand for several days. It was so embarrassing! Once I stood, all the blood rushed to my feet and it was excrutiating. I had to literally crawl around the house.
I'm so sorry this happened to you! I hope it gets better soon!