Oldgreybear
Bronze Member
All of us swear by this stuff, but we can buy it locally at the fee store in Farmersville. But it does work!
Feel free to laugh..poison ivy first time ever. Help!
- Thread starter Dargo
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keegs
Veteran Member
Dargo..I'm guessing you're in your early thirties...reason I say that is that's when I developed an allergic reaction to poison ivy. I'd try not to scratch it, put some otc topical lotion and take some Benadryl. It usually lasts 10 days or so but the worst of it will be over in a few days.
GGB
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If you have a severe case (which for me is almost any bout with poison ivy), get to your Doctor ASAP. Let him/her decide what is the best course, but be sure to ask about a prednisone dose pac (a form of steroid) if they don't bring it up. That may or may not be appropriate for you, but that is about the only thing that gives me any decent relief from all the itching without the drowsiness of Benedryl or similar products.
Good luck!
GGB
Good luck!
GGB
Zxyrthe
Silver Member
Funny story - growing up, one of my mother's friends had a son with "behavior issues". He was truly crazy. An eight year old with an unchecked temper - full on rage, if your cat's missing it's probably buried in his backyard - crazy.
My younger siblings had built a fort out of recently cut saplings and overgrowth. Psychoboy felt compelled to destroy it. So he did.
My siblings rebuilt their fort this time carefully incorporating a generous amount of poison ivy interwoven throughout the structure. Psychoboy bulldozed through again and d@mn near ended up in the hospital a few days later. A Trojan horse of pain and suffering!
His mom couldn't keep him in check but they sure did.
My younger siblings had built a fort out of recently cut saplings and overgrowth. Psychoboy felt compelled to destroy it. So he did.
My siblings rebuilt their fort this time carefully incorporating a generous amount of poison ivy interwoven throughout the structure. Psychoboy bulldozed through again and d@mn near ended up in the hospital a few days later. A Trojan horse of pain and suffering!
His mom couldn't keep him in check but they sure did.
retiredmgn
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DR. visit fast. Chances are it's in your bloodstream and you can get drugs to help alleviate. Of course you can go by the old home time remedy, "Don't scratch your poison ivy". Don't ya just wanna smack people at this point who give that sort of advice? When I was a kid I'd just look at it and break out all over. Now I can swim in the stuff all day and it doesn't affect me.
Forget OTC stuff. See your Dr.
Medical science has come a long way since calamine.
Forget OTC stuff. See your Dr.
Medical science has come a long way since calamine.
RobertN
Super Member
Technu works great if you use it right after exposure. I always have it at home. We also have it at the fire station; wildland firefighting you'll get poison oak for sure.
Since you were out in it, quarantine your clothes and shoes; you got that oil on that stuff too. Wash them separately, with Technu added in addition to laundry soap.
Chalomine can help with the itch. Best I ever found, was the lye soap my Grandmother used to make.
Be careful, cause the oil gets on the tractor, the mower, handtools, dogs ect. I have caught poison oak off the tractor, a month after I had done some work. Went to change filters and fluids, rubbed against tractor, and presto a case of the itches...
In the future, if you are worried about it, wear long pants/sleeves(I have coveralls...). Technu and Avon make pre-exposure creams that help a little.
Since you were out in it, quarantine your clothes and shoes; you got that oil on that stuff too. Wash them separately, with Technu added in addition to laundry soap.
Chalomine can help with the itch. Best I ever found, was the lye soap my Grandmother used to make.
Be careful, cause the oil gets on the tractor, the mower, handtools, dogs ect. I have caught poison oak off the tractor, a month after I had done some work. Went to change filters and fluids, rubbed against tractor, and presto a case of the itches...
In the future, if you are worried about it, wear long pants/sleeves(I have coveralls...). Technu and Avon make pre-exposure creams that help a little.
Take some antihistamine. I have also smeared cough syrup with antihistamine on some of the worst sores. It worked pretty well.
I used cut up diapers as bandages for the weepy sores. They were the only thing that would absorb enough fluid....
I used cut up diapers as bandages for the weepy sores. They were the only thing that would absorb enough fluid....
ultrarunner
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I'm super susceptible... always have been.
Zanfel is my first treatment. It is expensive and you need to follow the directions because it is a medicated removal scrub.
The alternative is injection of pill pack from your Doctor.
With the injection... people typically notice improvement within the first 24 hours and duration of being miserable is reduced by half to 2/3...
Most are steroids... so they are not to be fooled with lightly.
Too late now...
First, be able to recognize it.
Second, avoid skin contact.
If contact... treat immediately before oil has a chance to bond.
If I know I have been in it... I follow a whole decontamination process of washing exposed areas, cool shower with underwear on... the two worst places are privates and eyes... unless you get it in your lungs, mostly from burning... which can be fatal.
I feel your pain and no how miserable it is...
Folk remedies that can help are...
Benadryl/Antihistamine
Lye Soap
Swimming in highly chlorinated water
Cold... had a moderate case as a child... family was going to the snow... being in below freezing temps was much better than being in hot weather.
One more... Cashews are closely related to Poison Oak and I used to get hives from Cashews... the herbalist Doctor suggested I try homeopathic approach... start by eating a single cashew a day and gradually increase... I can now eat as many as I want without reaction and I believe I am no longer as susceptible...
FYI Clothes with poison oak sap that are laundered will come out looking like someone has taken a black sharpie pen... American Indians used it to dye things black.
They say everyone is susceptible... it is just a question of degree and exposure
Zanfel is my first treatment. It is expensive and you need to follow the directions because it is a medicated removal scrub.
The alternative is injection of pill pack from your Doctor.
With the injection... people typically notice improvement within the first 24 hours and duration of being miserable is reduced by half to 2/3...
Most are steroids... so they are not to be fooled with lightly.
Too late now...
First, be able to recognize it.
Second, avoid skin contact.
If contact... treat immediately before oil has a chance to bond.
If I know I have been in it... I follow a whole decontamination process of washing exposed areas, cool shower with underwear on... the two worst places are privates and eyes... unless you get it in your lungs, mostly from burning... which can be fatal.
I feel your pain and no how miserable it is...
Folk remedies that can help are...
Benadryl/Antihistamine
Lye Soap
Swimming in highly chlorinated water
Cold... had a moderate case as a child... family was going to the snow... being in below freezing temps was much better than being in hot weather.
One more... Cashews are closely related to Poison Oak and I used to get hives from Cashews... the herbalist Doctor suggested I try homeopathic approach... start by eating a single cashew a day and gradually increase... I can now eat as many as I want without reaction and I believe I am no longer as susceptible...
FYI Clothes with poison oak sap that are laundered will come out looking like someone has taken a black sharpie pen... American Indians used it to dye things black.
They say everyone is susceptible... it is just a question of degree and exposure
retiredmgn
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I've heard of this remedy but it requires the final step of touching a match to the alcohol. Apparently it's not the alcohol on the raw weeping flesh that removes all thought of any itching it's the actual burning that takes your mind off it.
nikdfish
Platinum Member
+1 on see a doc ... (Last batch of weaponized poison ivy I got into had me getting the prednisone (sic) 1 week treatment.)
If you can find some TecNu skin cleanser or TecNu Extreme medicated wash, pick up a bottle and use it!. The stuff is one of the few things that can really clean off the irritant oils. If not removed, they just continue to get spread across your skin. If memory serves, the TecNu cleanser was originally developed for removing radioactive fallout particles from folks needing decontamination. Coincidentally, they found it worked really well for cleaning up poison ivy exposure. It can also be used to remove the urushiol oil from contaminated clothing. I heard it can even clean off skunk odor.
Nick
If you can find some TecNu skin cleanser or TecNu Extreme medicated wash, pick up a bottle and use it!. The stuff is one of the few things that can really clean off the irritant oils. If not removed, they just continue to get spread across your skin. If memory serves, the TecNu cleanser was originally developed for removing radioactive fallout particles from folks needing decontamination. Coincidentally, they found it worked really well for cleaning up poison ivy exposure. It can also be used to remove the urushiol oil from contaminated clothing. I heard it can even clean off skunk odor.
Nick
