50th b'day NY trip Day 5: Burn, baby, burned

I have been in a heckuva lot of discomfort all day. When the labels on your meds say avoid the sun, it's not a small deal...it didn't help that I hit the energy-wall, RA-wise. At least I had a good run during most of this trip, despite skipping the injectible RA meds so I didn't get sick from them and lose almost two days of my trip to that. But that meant I was probably going to run my energy meter down to "E" soon.

I could barely function until the afternoon on Tues, and then only for a few hours out visiting relatives in Bed-Stuy before needing to pass out at the hotel.

Today I slept so hard from fatigue today that I was hallucinating and couldn't even respond to the phone ringing. I felt like every part of my body was glued down to the sofa. I have no concept of what is going on in the world.

The sun over-exposure, despite hat and sunscreen, and sun vulnerability caused by the meds, has resulted in bad facial burn/allergic reaction.  My whole face hurts and my lips got very swollen. Once that went down, it went to cracked and bleeding. I can't eat without them opening up the tears and splitting more. This is horrible. As it was very hot, I drank constantly, so I didn't feel dehydrated, so I think it's the meds + sun.

Kate got me some aloe, which is giving some relief. Out of the various lip balms I've tried, it looks like the winners that cause the least pain and give most relief are CO Bigelow "My Favorite Lip Balm" and Aquaphor Lip Repair by Eucerin.

It's taking a lot of effort to even type this; the only reason I needed to get up is that my lips started searing pain again after absorbing all of the moisture from the above balms. Now I'll try to eat some soup so I can take Aleve.