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Burned
In this episode of 'I Survived the Wild Outdoors,' host Brad Matthewson shares a personal and painful experience with sun poisoning after a fishing trip. He recounts the gradual onset of sym...
Burned
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You are listening to I Survived the Wild Outdoors podcast.
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We're real outdoors men and women share their hero tales of survival.
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I'm your host, Brad Matthewson, and this is their story.
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Hello everyone.
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Today, I want to talk about a very personal story.
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One that I didn't know was possible and turned out to be extremely painful.
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What I'm talking about is sun poisoning.
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So it's not just a bad sunburn, but it's a serious reaction to the UV exposure from the sun.
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And it can leave you with blisters, fever, swelling, and flu-like symptoms.
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And I'll just read this little bit here.
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According to Web MD, sun poisoning is an extreme case of sunburn.
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That can lead to skin damage, dehydration, and even second-degree burns.
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Like what happened to me.
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So we're going to jump right into the story here.
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So I believe the date was June 23rd, was a Monday.
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My buddy Joe Jr., who's been on the podcast before, invited my brother.
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Myself and my father.
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We have a custom cabinet shop here in Hortonville.
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We actually did work for Joe.
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And for, I guess, kind of a thank you for helping him out and getting his cabinet work done in a timely fashion.
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He invited us out onto his charter boat, which is out of Manitwock, Wisconsin.
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It's all done in one of the great lakes, which is Lake Michigan.
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And we're going to go out and do some trolling for some salmon.
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So he does this as a side business.
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The biggest thing is you have to get up early.
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And we are, I think, approximately about an hour away from Joe.
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Hour and a half.
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So we were up at, I think, like, two o'clock in the morning.
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And we drove to the boat landing into Manitwock.
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And I think we got there, like, 3.30 in the morning.
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It was nice and cool in the morning.
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And we met Joe there.
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We got in the boat.
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And we were out trolling, probably, by, I think we had everything, like, in the water by about four o'clock in the morning.
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So it was beautiful and nice and cool out.
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We got to see the sun come up in the morning and the beautiful red and pink and orange sky in the morning.
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And the only thing was Joe warned us.
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He's like, oh, it's going to be hot today.
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So I was supposed to, they were calling for the 80s.
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But we were starting to catch fish.
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We caught a few fish right away.
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And we kept it out.
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The plan was to stay out till noon.
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But I think we end up having, I don't recall anymore.
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I think it was going to be 13 fish or something like that.
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It was a, it was a good day.
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So we're catching fish one after another.
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You know, it's kind of slow.
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You have little slow times and peak times where you're catching fish on the down rigger rods and the planar boards.
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And it's not something we typically do.
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So Joe was kind of, he's got, I think he was running like, oh, I don't even know.
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Like, let's say 10 rods or something.
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It was a lot of rods.
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So he'd see him go off and he's got him, he's got the nice thing is on his rod holder.
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He actually has numbers.
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So when he sees a rod go off, you can, he just yells, rod one or rod six.
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So you know which one to grab.
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So you did not try to describe which rod to grab.
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So kind of makes it a little bit easier than any of the certain rods.
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You have to crank in so you don't get tangles.
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It's kind of a, it's a, it can get a little, a little hairy sometimes of a fish gets tangled in a planar board or a down rigger.
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And then you get quite a mess.
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But it was a lot of fun.
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It's not something we typically do, but it's kind of one of those things where you know,
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we do it once a year and there's a lot of fun.
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You know, it was all too official with my dad and my brother, which we don't get spent much time together.
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I mean, sure we work together in a custom cabinet shop, family business.
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You see each other every day, but you don't get to really do anything outside of a work.
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Because you know, it kind of gets sick of each other, I think.
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It worked all day maybe, but, um,
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so when we was when we were out there, it was calling for like, e-degrees, full sun,
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and Joe asked if anybody wanted any sunscreen and, uh, no, you know, I had long sleeves shirt on and, uh,
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a baseball cap and glasses.
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And, uh, my brother and dad had the same thing.
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So we thought we were okay.
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But I remember when I was out there, my lips, my lips just kept getting drier and drier and drier.
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So the whole time I'm, I just, I always keep, um, like, chapstick brand, um, chapstick in my pocket.
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It's just a regular, you know, moisturizer for your lips, I guess.
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But being in, uh, in a woodworking business, it's very dry.
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And, uh, there's a lot of fine, particularly dust in the air.
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So my hands, I don't even care if it's in the middle of the summer.
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My hands get really dried out, like almost white.
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And same thing with my legs.
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They'll, uh, that, that fine, particularly, it saw us just, uh, it seems just a sucked the moisture right out of them.
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And it does the same thing on your lips.
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And so I'm constantly applying chapstick on my lips because my lips, oh, if you don't do that,
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uh, same thing with, uh, any little bit of lotion on your hands and also no surged to crack,
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and bleed even in the summertime, the winter time, it's really bad.
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So anyways, we're, we, uh, we wrap up about noon and the sun was just beating on us full bore.
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Even with a baseball cap on and sunglasses that it was, it was hot.
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It was, it was time to get back in.
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So we got back in and joke, uh, clean up the fish for us.
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We begged everything up and, and set our good buys.
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And when I got home, I, I told my wife, I said, man, I said, my, my lips are just, they don't feel right.
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She's like, will you put chapstick on them?
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I'm like, yeah, but chapstick on all day.
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And I had a hat and sunglasses on and she's like, oh, maybe you just got a little too much sun.
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And so that evening, I did feel kind of out of it.
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I did drink plenty of water.
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I'm, I'm really good at about water consumption.
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I try to get in a gallon a day.
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And even if I don't have it, then I'll force it down at the end of the day.
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So I had to have my gallon of water in that day.
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And so I didn't think it was dehydration at all, but I just felt pretty wore out.
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Maybe it was because, um, being outside all day and getting that much, uh, fresh air.
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When you're used to being in a, in a shop all day for 12 hours.
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So the next day is Tuesday.
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And I still felt just a little out of it.
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My lips still felt kind of tingly, which was weird.
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Um, but if that all, maybe they got a little, a little sun on them and they, you know, it'd be fine.
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And Wednesday, uh, about the same thing.
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I just felt kind of just didn't have, just didn't have full energy yet.
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I was still kind of wore down.
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And my lips still kind of tangled.
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I told my brother that too, even on Tuesday, I asked him, I'm like, how do you feel?
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He's like, oh, I feel fine.
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I said, oh, how do your, do your lips tingle?
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He's like, no.
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I said, well, do you feel kind of wore out or anything?
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He replied, no.
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So Thursday came Thursday was the same thing.
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I felt even more wore down.
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It's just seemed like now we were out fishing on this was Monday.
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And now I'm, now I'm on Thursday.
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And it just seemed like every day I just got progressively like less and less energy, which, you know, you think if you get, you know, you get heat stroke.
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I've had heat stroke before when I was a kid, where you've been out in the sun too long.
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And a lot of that is, is just straight up dehydration is not drinking enough.
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Especially back then, nowadays, I don't even know if it's possible to get dehydrated because everybody's got a water bottle strapped to their hips.
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But when I was a kid, you'd go out and play literally all day.
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And the only time you drank anything was maybe for breakfast.
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You had a little couple of orange juice at lunch.
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You had a couple of milk and then, and then maybe a soda.
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Maybe if you stuck one from the, from the, one of the neighbor's kids parents or something fridge.
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But you didn't have a water bottle strapped to you all day.
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And nowadays you got to everybody's guilty of it.
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It's a good thing. I mean, health wise, it's way better than drinking soda.
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That's for sure. But yeah, everybody's got a water bottle strapped to them.
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So, but yeah, heat stroke is mainly, I think, caused by dehydration is what, is what I've read on it.
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So I didn't think it was that, but yeah, I just felt worn out.
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Well, fast forward a little bit to Thursday evening.
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So Thursday after work, I get home with work from work at four o'clock.
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And now I'm like, just, just beat.
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I come in the house, I take a shower, my lips are still really tingly.
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And I got nothing.
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Like I have no energy at all.
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So I just kind of laid around a little bit.
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My wife made supper.
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And I'm like, I don't, I just don't feel good.
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Like my stomach, like I had a sour stomach.
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I wasn't hungry at all, which is unusual because I'm a big eater.
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Even though I'm not a big guy.
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Wait, why is I, I'm a big eater.
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And yeah, I just didn't feel like eating.
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I just felt tired.
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Body aches. I had a little bit of a headache.
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So I ended up calling them bad.
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This is probably about five o'clock.
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And I fell asleep.
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And I woke up at, it was like 12, 30, one o'clock in the morning.
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And now I just felt just, just wiped.
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And like, man, my lips, my lips hurt.
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And it just, it feel really weird.
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So I get up.
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I go in the bathroom.
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And my lips are like swollen.
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Like my top and bottom lip are like,
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every see those women who get those injections in their, in their lips.
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And they're, you know, like gigantic.
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They're almost like, I don't know, kind of clownish.
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A little bit is okay, but sometimes they do a little bit too much.
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I don't know if it's collagen or what they put in their lips, but,
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um, that's what my lips look like.
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They're enormous.
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And they're tingle them.
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I just couldn't figure it out.
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I'm like, what is going on?
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Am I allergic reaction to something?
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Like, I didn't take any medication or eat anything unusual.
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So I went back to bed.
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My alarm clock went off at four o'clock in the morning.
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That's what time I get up for work every day.
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I mean, I'm at the shop by 20 after four.
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I literally live probably like, you know, a mile from the shop or a little more.
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So I wake up and now I'm, now I'm really spent.
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Like I got no energy.
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And my lips are like pain.
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Now it's pain.
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Now it's just not tingling.
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They're just like pain, like a burning, burning sensation.
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Sorry.
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And so I go in the bathroom and I look and I'm like, oh my gosh.
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My lips are even bigger than they were when I got up at 12.30, one o'clock.
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And I have these enormous blisters like on my top lip and on my bottom lips.
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So basically like kitty corner from each other.
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Huge blisters.
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So almost like a cold sore.
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So I've gotten cold sores before maybe once every couple of years.
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I'm really stressed.
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I might get a little teeny one.
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You throw a little brief on it.
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Boom problem solved.
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But this was more than that.
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It was like, it was literally like these almost, I don't know, I don't know.
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I don't know what to say.
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Water blisters.
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But yeah, that's almost like, they look like like what I don't want to describe this.
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Almost like a bee hive.
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You know, little, little, little honeycomb said, imagine like that, all these little sacks,
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like on your top lip and bottom lip.
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Extremely painful.
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And so I'm like, I'm freaking out.
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I'm like, what the heck?
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I'm going to know if I get a allergic reaction to something.
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And so put a little bit of a brief on it, which not going to do anything.
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And I go back to bed.
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So my wife gets up at like six o'clock, comes in the room.
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And she had fell asleep on the recliner with my three-year-old.
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That night she, my three-year-old wakes up every night pretty much.
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And sometimes my wife ends up falling asleep with her in the recliner.
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So she comes in there and wakes me up.
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You're late for work.
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And she looks at my lips.
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She's like, what happened to your lips?
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I'm like, I have no idea.
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So we get up and they look bad.
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So I end up calling nurse direct.
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And I talk to them.
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And they tell me to get into the local clinic in Appleton.
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So I make an appointment.
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I get in there probably about 10 o'clock.
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And they look at my lips.
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And they tell me that I am suffering from sun poisoning.
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And I have second degree burns on my lips.
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I'm like, well, how is that even possible?
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I'm learning, I got SPF, or not SPF.
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I'm sorry, I should have.
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I had taps to it, and I had sunglasses.
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I have a hat.
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I'm covering up my somewhat of my face here.
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And so they want to explain, well, the petroleum in the chapstick,
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almost basically acted like if you're putting butter on a turkey
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or taking baby oil and put it on yourself outside where it almost intensifies the UV rays of the sun.
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And actually burnt my lips.
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Literally burnt, I had blisters on the top and bottom of my lips.
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That's what it was.
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Blisters.
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So recommended obviously next time make sure you have the proper protection for your lips in big hats.
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And like a SPF 30 plus chapstick.
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Because apparently, whatever is in this regular chapstick, you have the sunbeats on you.
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And so throughout the day, I was just making things worse.
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So I'm putting my lips feel dry.
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So I'm putting chapstick on.
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And that sun is basically shining on my lips.
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And it's that petroleum in there is basically like heating up almost like almost like fryer grease like oil.
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You're just basically you're heating it up.
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And then I'm adding to it and it's getting hotter and hotter and it's slowly burning through layers of skin.
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So I end up going in like I said to the doctor and I end up getting.
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Now I should have I should have rolled this down by then I end up getting a prescription for something.
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I don't remember what it was, but they give me a prescription.
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These pills were good size and I had to take them for like a week.
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And it was to help because I was also get had some sort of reaction.
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I don't know if it was from the chapstick or whatever, but I was.
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I got a allergic reaction from it from it.
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And it's also has to do with the sun poisoning.
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And that which caused my lips as well.
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So I don't know if it was like an anti histamine or something that that they gave me.
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I think it was.
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And I end up I think it was about a day and my lips went back to normal size.
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The blisters dried out.
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And about a week's time inserted you know I scabbed over and started a heal up basically under no one.
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It took about two weeks for my lips to completely be gone.
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Even to this day I have.
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So I had on my bottom lip and my top lip is where I had these blisters.
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But on my top lip to this day I have still have a red.
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Like I think it's probably scarred I suppose because it burnt through so many layers of skin.
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So let's wrap this up with what I learned and what I wish I knew earlier.
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Sun poisoning isn't just a dramatic way to describe a bad sunburn.
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It's a real condition caused by intense UV exposure where your skin reacts.
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With more than just redness you get blisters swelling headaches fever and nausea.
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Almost like the flu.
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In my case it also led to secondary burns on my lips some scarring and a miserable week week and a half of recovery.
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One big thing I didn't realize our lips are especially vulnerable because they have very little melanin.
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That's a pigment that helps protect our skin from the sun.
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Plus the epidermis the outer layer of skin is much thinner on our lips than on the rest of our body.
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That makes them one of the first places to burn.
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So how do we protect ourselves?
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Well we need to use lip balm with an SPF of 30 or higher and reapply it often,
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especially when you're sweating or eating.
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You need to wear SPF clothing long-sleeved wide rimmed hats and neckgators.
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These can block harmful UV rays without the mess of sunscreen.
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We need to apply a broad spectrum sunscreen to an exposed skin and don't forget spots like your ears, the back of your neck and hands.
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This isn't just about comfort, it's about long-term health.
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Repeated sun damage can increase your risk of skin cancer, especially if you're outside regularly like I am.
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If you want to learn more about the sun, now I'll get an impact your skin.
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Not just with burns but with serious health risks.
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Need to check out episode 40 titled What's That Spot.
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I had an awesome conversation with Canadian fishing guide Thatcher Haybird,
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where we dove into the different types of skin cancer caused by sun exposure.
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And how you can spot the warning signs early.
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It's a must listen for anyone who spends a lot of time outdoors.
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I hope my experience can help people out there from having to learn the hard way like I did.
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And remember to stay safe out there and enjoy all that Mother Nature has to offer.