Poison Ivy

[Roda]

Once again I have gotten into poison ivy. I got it for the first time the summer of 2005 and have had it every year since. Until I got it the first time, I was stupid enough to think I was immune. Mind you I never went near it knowingly, just never had it. Well, let me tell you summer of 2005 was horrible. I was cleaning out the woods in my back yard when several days later I broke out all over. I wanted to scratch myself raw. I went to the doctor for some relief and the only solution they offered was steroids and I opted out because of breastfeeding at the time. Low and behold three + weeks later it finaly resolved. I had a mild case the next two summers and last summer I got it bad again. I actually took the steroid pack that time and it did help. My eye was even swollen. I looked ridiculous. Well, I ventured out to trim hedges on Sunday and was very mindful of where the poison ivy was. I thought I took necessary precautions with gloves etc. but nooooo, I got it again. The weird thing is I noticed my first itchy bump and blister within a couple of hours after trimming. I think I must be getting more sensitive the more exposure I get or I got scratched from the bush I was trimming (it has sharp pointy leaves) and it had better access. I now have it on my wrist and stomach. I don't remember touching my stomach, but obviously I did. My husband has found the whole thing amusing and can't believe I got into it again. I told him I was done trimming the bushes until he can kill it or he can do it himself. At least the back yard looks great!

[GFinDC]

I didn't seem to get poison ivy either, even when my older brother got it being in the same areas. I think it is important to wash your clothes after being exposed, and maybe get new gloves too. My understanding is it is an oil that can spread and be carried on clothing or pets fur too. When we were kids our hand me down treatment was to crush osage orange leaves and rub them on the rash. Not that I could find an osage orange bush anywhere around here. I think washing with a good soap is recommended to get the irritating oil off the skin. I suppose your tools might have traces of the oil on them also, maybe even from last year.

Sure sounds like fun - not!

[mushroom]

Ahh, the joys of poison ivy. Obviously you two are from the mid to eastern part of the country. Out west we enjoy poison oak just as much. It was one of the reasons for leaving California. I had a cat who seemed to wallow in it and delighted in sharing, even though I gave it a wide berth (the poison oak, not the cat). Like you, Roda, I was totally unreactive to it the first time I was exposed, literally battling my way through it as we were walking the boundaries of a piece of property we were going to buy in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But every successive exposure I reacted worse and worse. I was good for at least one burst of prednisone followed by tablets every summer until I finally became intolerant of prednisone altogether (and injected corticosteroids). I used to react systemically to poison oak and would break out in welts all over my body--it would travel through the blood stream and drive me insane (and out of California).

The nice thing about Lake Tahoe is the elevation is too high for poison oak, and Nevada is too hot and dry. Now all I have to worry about is West Nile virus, and swine flu. At least I am leaving flu season behind here in New Zealand where swine flu could mutate into something nasty given half a chance.

Hope you are feeling better soon, and stay out of that part of the yard for goodness sake!

[ravenwoodglass]

The advice to wash your clothes is a good one. I would strip as soon as I got inside if you can. Fels Naptha soap is a good one for washing your hands and I would get some rubber gloves to slip over your gardening gloves and dispose of them ASAP after working around it. Also be very careful if you burn any wood that comes from an area that it is growing in. One of the worst cases I ever had was from a campfire. Poison ivy is more of a chemical burn than an allergy and it can be very severe if you happen to be standing in the smoke and breathing it in.

I had DH misdiagnosed as poison ivy as a child, my Mom and doctor couldn't figure out how I got it even in the winter but it doesn't sound like that is the case for you. I did get poison ivy on top of the DH one year, the doctor said the thought I got into poison sumac on top of the ivy but since it doesn't grow in our area he didn't know how it happened. Boy was he clueless.

The decreasing dose pack of steroids was the only thing that helped and I wouldn't worry about taking it if it is just a once a year or so thing. Definately better than my grandmothers 'cure' for my Mom back in the 1920's and 30's. She used to scrub the rash down with a scrub brush and then pour salt on the open wounds to dry it out. Mom said it worked but I can only imagine the pain.

If you can afford it I would hire someone to get it out of your yard or insist that hubby take of it pronto. It will likely take multiple doses of an herbacide and pulling and I would not do it yourself.

[JNBunnie1]

I recently got hit with a real nasty case of poison sumac, so I have some advice.

Try bathing in hot water, so hot you can barely stand it, every time the itch starts to get out of control. IT makes your skin dump it's histamines, so it will itch fiercely while you're doing it, but you'll have a few hours of relief. When you're first exposed to the oil, you need to use cold water and Fel's is good, so is Tecnu brand poison oil remover. I also used steroids, I had it on my face and neck and my throat was closing, so I didn't have much of a choice. BandAid itch relief cooling Gel was the ONLY thing that helped kill the itch, not hydrocortisone, not calamine, not tea tree oil, not aloe. But my case was REALLY bad. Some of those other things, including baking soda baths/paste, and clay baths/paste may help you.

[Roda]

The thing I find funny is that as a small kid and teenager I would live in the woods and build stick forts and play in the creek. This was in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania and we had a 60 acre farm that was surrounded by the Allegheny National Forest. I never got it then and I would go trecking everywhere. Now I am in Eastern Tennessee and live in town and get it from my backyard that by comparison is very small. Oh the irony! I thank everyone for the advice and a lot I have followed over the past summers. I typicaly only get it once a year, and it is usually after doing yard work. After I get it I usually say the heck with it and that is that. I have been sucessful in removing it except from this one area and it is going to pose a problem because there are alot of nice shrubs and plants growing there also and I would hate to loose those too. With the lack of rain last summer I already had lost some rhodedenderon and had a couple of pine trees die. I just hate to loose my trees and plants. So next step is to have the hubby tackle the issue. He has only had it once since we have been together and married (12 yrs and counting) and it was only a tiny spot. I figure he is either more tolerent or smarter than me. Dummy me for the longest time had trouble identifying what it looked like. I feel confident now I can spot it! I don't even want to fathom what kind of reaction I would have if someone burned it. I have heard you can get it in your lungs and can be pretty sick. My neighbors when they moved in had some brush behind thier house that they wanted to burn. I flat out told them don't do it because there is a lot of poison ivy back there as well. They finaly this year cleaned it up and ground the stumps and low and behold the neighbor lady got poison ivy all over too.

[Roda]

I told my husband a couple of days ago that I wanted one thing this year... to go one whole season without getting poison ivy. Joke's on me! Hubby and I were out trimming in the yard together. He knows about my sensitivity to the stuff, so I was staying in the "safe" part of the yard. He even took care of the bushes that were infested with it. I even went as far not to pick up my trimmings and put them on top of the pile in the wagon. Well, I have come to the conclusion I must be the most ignorant person around when it comes to this stuff. I still got it. Mind you it is only a few blisters, hardly worth mentioning, but still none the less. The butt kicker is that my husband is fine. I told him that he was in charge of cleaning the tools and washing our clothes as I was not touching them. Duh, it just dawned on me I could have gotten it from some of the shared tools.

[ianm]

Fortunately I seem to be immune to poison ivy but for my brother all you have to do is say the words and he breaks out really bad. Funny how the immune system works.

[purple]

I new some people yrs ago that couldn't get rid of it until they cleaned their car seats.

[JNBunnie1]

I new some people yrs ago that couldn't get rid of it until they cleaned their car seats.

That stuff gets on EVERYTHING!!!

[Roda]

I new some people yrs ago that couldn't get rid of it until they cleaned their car seats.

Car is not a problem. Only get it when we work on the bushes. The clothes we wore are still waiting for the hubby to wash. BTW he did get a few spots on his arm. I'm suprised it took that long for it to break out. He was really in it. It is not really bothering him to much. He is taking zyrtec for other allergy symptoms so I think it is helping that too.