Hey all, Ang here.

I hate that I'm in this position, but guys I'M IN THIS POSITION and need any help I can get. In return I would love to send those who donate whats left of my art inventory, i.e. a print or stickers or whatever I have left from the art that I sell, a free surf lesson or a discount on a Paragon surfboard as a token of appreciation.

On April 19th, I was hit by a stingray while I was out in the ocean teaching a surf lesson. I treated it as it needed and it seemed to be fine and nothing wrong with it for about 4 days after. On the fifth day, it looked a little irritated but nothing serious and I surfed on it. Shortly after I got out of the water, my foot started to swell and get discolored quickly. Later that same afternoon, my foot was the size of a football, after more soaking in hot water, icing and elevating my foot, my body went into a crazy bad fever and I was in a lot of pain. Monday the 25th, I went to an Urgent care clinic, because I don't have the best insurance. That experience was somewhat of a pointless nightmare. I received antibiotics from them and was told to do what I was already doing as far as taking care of it. I took 48 hours worth of these antibiotics...which BTW, I've lived on homeopathic medicine my whole life and haven't had actual antibiotics in a very long time. Needless to say I'm currently up to my 3rd week of antibiotics and my guts hate me! Anyways after the 48 hours, my mom came to check on me and asked me how long the redness was going up my leg?!?! From my pov, I could'nt really see it but It was definitely spreading into my system!

At that point I ended up in the ER now. An I.V. was put in and they had to pump more antibiotics into my system, they also drew blood to test it, took an Xray and let me know that the antibiotics that I got from a separate Urgent care were not the correct ones and not going to do anything for me. So rad! The computer was down the day I was at the Urgent care, so I paid for everything out of pocket that day for my visit, including the pricey antibiotics that didn't work. Back to being a test subject and science experiment in the ER...while I had tubes sticking out of my arms ( both arms at on point) and they had done all the were going to do to me, the lady from the front desk came up to me to inform me that my insurance wasn't activated. Fantastic! I was on the phone that day trying to solve the issue, but I'm currently in a lull while they are reprocessing my eligibility to reactivate my insurance.

The diagnosis from the blood test was a very bad Cellulitis infection, not only from the stingray but a combination of that and higher bacteria in the ocean (i.e. the bout of red tide we had for a bout 2 weeks in our water). The antibiotics were working, just verrrrrrry slowly and for about 2 1/2 more weeks I was in excruciating pain and couldn't walk on my foot. This pain was worse then when I gave birth! At the end of the 2 weeks of the worst freakin pain ever and being completely immobile, I was finally starting to walk, or more or less was just hobbling around with the help of a cane and whatever furniture I could hang onto. At this point, not to be too vulgar but the infection was starting to push out of my foot via the puncture area. I went in for the recommended "wound check" by the doctors and they said it was healing , just very slowly. They took a culture sample of what was oozing out of my foot and told me it would be a few days to know the results. Super gross btw.

Although I couldn't surf, I wasn't missing the annual Mother's day camping trip with my mom, my kiddo and my surf club, that was booked back in November. I was basically hobbling around the campsite and propping my foot up wherever I could. I just did a lot of sitting. One of the days I decided to wrap a bag around my open wound and lay in the sun on the beach for bit cause I've been very cooped up inside for too long , but that was a bad idea, because the amount of antibiotics I'm taking made my skin feel like I had a chemical burn all over my body that took 2 days to recover from (no it was not a sunburn).

Monday May 9th, I had finished up all my antibiotics and my foot was still pretty sore and swollen so I went in to see the doctor again and get a prescription refill. The doctor said based on the results of the culture test, that he was going to prescribe 2 more different and stronger antibiotics for another 2 weeks because the cellulitis infection has evolved in a STAPH infection.

It is Friday May 13th, the swelling has gone done a lot, my foot is healing but looks slightly discolored and is peeling like crazy all around the puncture area. I have to keep it very clean and bandaged because its still contagious and I have about a week and half left of this round of antibiotics. Shoes have been extremely difficult for me, and yesterday was the first day that I could get out of bed and when my feet touch the ground it didn't hurt when the blood got to my feet. That pain went on for 3 weeks. I also was able to get a regular flip flop on my foot yesterday...I still can't get a closed shoe on yet.

So I'm here and putting myself out there because this whole incident has mentally drained me, physically hurt like a mofo but has absolutely financially wrecked me. I'm very behind on bills. I had to not only pay for a lot of the medical expenses out of pocket, but I was not able to physically work both or either jobs for a solid 3 weeks and both jobs I work, I get paid under the table, so there was no workers comp (cause I did get stung while working) and definitely no sick pay or paid time off. I'm slowly getting back into working both jobs, but I'm still limited in what I can do (lifting several surfboard boxes is tricky) and for the surf school; I make more money when I can get in the water and teach, I'm still not allowed to get in the water yet with my foot...and if y'all didnt know, I'm a single mom. So It’s all hitting.

I would greatly appreciate anything to help out, I had a really hard time bringing myself to this level of even asking, so please send me a Dm, or a text or a if you donate and would like a free surf lesson, a discount on a surfboard, or a piece of art from me as my gesture of gratitude!

Much love and appreciation to all of you,

Ang

Caliblu Surf School • Manager/Head coach

Paragon Surfboards • Designer/Sales Rep.