Attack of the Man-of-war.

Mari and I finally got to hang out today! We went over to Hukilau to swim and use the GoPro camera in the water. It was a little windy but the waves made for some fun in the water.....

All was fine, dandy, and fun until...out of no where...my skin started to sting! I realized I was being stung by what I assumed was a jelly fish on my arm. My first thought was "Oh, there it was, my first jelly fish sting on my arm..." Then before I could say or think another word, I could feel it stretching across my back toward my left arm, wrapping itself around my arm, coming back across my stomach, back around my lower back, and down my legs. I couldn't get it off me! It was literally wrapping itself all around me and burning me as it did! I was yelling for Mari to get it off of me but when she tried, it stung her hand. I kept trying to get it off of me, twisting and grabbing but I couldn't. And to top it off, I dropped the GoPro camera in the ocean! I was freaking out!! I finally somehow got the (what I later learned) man-of-war jelly fish off me, swam down and snatched the GoPro off the ocean floor and swam into the shore line grimacing in pain. It literally felt like my skin was set on fire. When we got back onto the shore line, I could have swore that the manowar was still on my. I thought I could feel it still stinging me over and over and over again. I honestly didn't know what to do so we grabbed our stuff, ran across the street to Mari's house and I jumped in the shower in hopes to rinse off the burn. Mari looked up online suggested remedies, none of which she had available at her house of course. My friend Katie suggested she spray me with Windex because the ammonia would help with the sting. Lucky for me, her Windex contained vinegar! One of the ingredients suggested online but we didn't have. So Mari sprayed me down and I laid face down on her couch and just let the burn slowly decrease. It took about 45 minutes until I felt some sort of relief. 

Here are a few pictures of my battle wounds:

It doesn't look nearly as bad as it felt, and I am not trying to sound like a baby! It killed!!! And I felt so helpless because I couldn't do anything to make it go away! Tonight was Pono's vocal recital so I just threw on a sweatshirt and went all itchy and scratchy and did my best to ignore the burn. 

He did such a wonderful job at his recital!!!

All in all it was a pretty crazy day and surviving a manowar attack is definitely something I never thought I would deal with but I can say I survived!!! HA!