On day three, I woke up feeling so much better! I was ready to do whatever Nancy had planned for us. Now, it is important to note, that some people wake up at 6:30am on vacation. I am not one of those people. My roommates were amazing. They saved a hot breakfast for me and I carefully chose what I thought my stomach could take.

We were going to spend the day on the beach, just outside the house. It sounded perfect. I was going to read and nap and take ten million pictures.

I was standing on the beach with my fellow Texas Aggie, Stephanie. She is not an ocean person. I teased her about going into the water and told her she should go for it.

Nancy and Stephanie were up ahead and Annie and I were taking our time deciding if we wanted to get our hair wet.

Pretty soon, the crash of the waves called us outward. We were laughing and jumping and trying our best to body surf. Suddenly, Stephanie said that her toe hurt really badly. We decided she had cut it on a rock, but it got incredibly worse within seconds.

The next few hours became a blur. As I tried to get out of the ocean I was laughing because I just couldn’t get on my feet and I looked up to see everyone rushing towards Stephanie. Her toe was turning black. She had been stung by a stingray.

Melissa, our ever calm general knowing exactly what to do, immediately drove up to the hotel resort to request a medical team.

Seeing how everyone was gathered around her, I rushed to take a two minute and 27 second shower, deciding that if they did take her to the hospital at least one of us needed to be in something other than a bathing suit.

I’ve never seen anyone in that much pain. Ever. I’ve photographed births before. This was even more painful, I’m sure of it.

Our hearts were breaking for her. The medical team showed up (and was absolutely incredible). We called her husband, a doctor. He confirmed what they were giving her and what they told her she needed at the pharmacy. Melissa and I set out on an adventure to Rock Island, the closest town with a pharmacy. Now, remember, Melissa had just driven Nancy to get me medicine the day before. I’m pretty sure they thought we were crazy.

The drive through the jungle was incredible. There was no shoulder and more than once, children and their mothers would step out onto the road, seemingly coming from nowhere. When we arrived at the town, the pavement suddenly ended. There is no word to describe these paths that were not roads.

They were so helpful, in town.

When we got back, she seemed to feel much, much better already. We gave her the meds and settled in for the day. I had planned to make dinner there at the house, so that made things very easy.

The medical team came back to check on her and all was well. She was still in so much pain, but getting better.

We were all giddy about our plans the next day. We were going into town to tour Mazatlan!

To be continued…