Most days that we go to the beach we go to surf or play in the waves in a beach a bit further from my village. But one day in early August we thought that we might meet up with some friends at the lagoa, aka the lagoon, at our local beach. Even though there is not a wave, we thought the idea of spending the day with friends was great. After checking in on the ocean side of the beach and deciding it was too rough, we went over to the lagoon. Nuno went off with his two teenage mates for a play. Not 5 minutes later, I turn around to see that my baby boy is being carried back by the boys. I quickly ascertained that he had stepped on something. I assumed it had been a spider fish, which I knew to be terribly painful as my niece had suffered one. He was trying to be brave and not cry, but I  told him it was okay to cry as I knew it hurt. Well, the flood gates came open and he howled. I quickly threw him on my back and carried him to the lifeguard station. Just as we near the lifeguard I hear, “Nuno, what’s going on?” I look over wondering who it could possibly be as all his friends are from Cascais which is over an hour away. Low and behold it was one of his girl friends from school. She, her cousin and her granddad just happened to be out riding bikes as the grandparents have a family home on the beach. They stayed with  us to see what was going on.

Low and behold it was not a spider fish, but a sea urchin, or two, that he had stepped on. The poor boy’s foot was littered with spines. So many so that wherever the lifeguard touched Nuno’s foot, it hurt. I figured the best thing to do was to get home and carefully take them out myself while the child was distracted watching the telly.

Well, before I could run and grab our things, Nuno had an invitation to ‘play’ at his mate’s house. I thought it was just the craziest idea, but the grandfather insisted he go over and have lunch while I got my things, my car and ran to the chemist to get the right tweezers for the job. When I arrived to pick him up he was sitting comfortably in a cushioned chair with his foot soaking and being pampered. Even though he couldn’t run around he was loving being with his friend. This unplanned encounter then led to an invitation to her family birthday party. I couldn’t have been happier. Nuno has had a difficult time this year with some classmates and this little girl is great. A good person to have as a friend. As is he I believe.

When we finally got home, we did everything we were told to do, and even tried to get a numbing cream the next day, but even doing that, removal proved too painful. Now if it had been one or two I would have held the child and yanked it out, but there were at least 50 spines that went straight into his foot! We encouraged him to try removing them himself, which he did each day with minimal success. So we did something you may balk at. We decided to let them come out on their own. Something I thought would happen naturally over the course of the week. I was wrong.

Life went on as normal, but Nuno still had heaps of spines in his foot. That was until he went to take a this week, two weeks after the fact, to a sailing class. After a day with his foot damp from his boat shoes heaps of the spines came out. Here you can see one of the ones he found in his shoe. It’s crazy to me how big they are.

And here is a picture of his foot with the evidence of the ‘missing’ spines. It was a crazy ordeal, but as someone who likes to see the glass half full, I think it was really great that he got the opportunity to spend some time with a friend and getting to know her amazing family.