Sunburn inferno! Ouch!
Yesterday, I finally got around to planting my baby tomato plants. They are gorgeous, all 17 of them. The weather was perfect – just cool enough to be comfortable and just hot enough to help the tomatoes. So yesterday, I wore a sleeveless shirt. It was just hot enough to need it.
I checked often to make sure my white, white shoulders were doing OK. And I liberally applied sunscreen and often stopped to lounge in the shade. None of that mattered. About 2 hours after I came inside my shoulders were deep, deep red. Lobster red. Fire engine red.
Painful red. I hate being sunburned; it’s just a miserable feeling. You’re both hot and cold. There’s no way to get comfortable. And forget sleeping! Oy.
I’ve been applying Aloe gel I keep in the fridge for kitchen burns. And I’ve been slathering on Neutrogena’s After-Sun treatment.
I’ve been looking up treatments for sunburn on the internet and I found a nasty surprise: sunscreen increases your chance of getting malignant melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. WTF? Oh sure, sunscreen helps with the two carcinoma types of skin cancer, but it increases your chance of getting the nastiest type. Lovely. Apparently, the only way to prevent skin cancer caused by the sun is to wear a burqa with UPF 50.