sand fly nightmare while solo traveling

i am solo traveling thailand currently and have made my way down to koh phi phi and whew i was not expecting this. i decided to stay out on the beach early hours in the morning laying on a towel talking to friends etc and i decided to not use bug spray and woke up to this. (the picture is after a couple days it has intensified and now how blisters)

keep in mind i haven’t scratched at all and they’re actually covering my entire body with my feet being the worst. at first i thought they were mosquitos but after visiting a hospital i found out they’re sandflies and they said it’s a common problem for tourist as local people have immunity and others as well (my friend got a couple but no where near mine)

the hospital gave me cream that is an anti fungal/steroid and an antihistamine as well as prednisone. i have been using calamine but wow this is just horrible. the itching wakes me up at night. a total nightmare. all of the plans i had are no longer happening due to not being able to be in direct sunlight with the steroid or getting in salt water and my feet hurt to walk. thank god the thai people have been so nice to me and helped me out a ton.

i think it’s crazy there’s not more awareness about this because i just know that a lot of people on phi phi have had this happen knowing how drunk people stay out sitting on the beach late at night.

anyways if anyone has experienced this can you let me know how long i am expecting these bites to look totally horrendous and when they will stop itching? also, did you have permanent scaring? i know this would happen with scratching but i have not been. really just looking for advice ☹️

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