Feel free to laugh..poison ivy first time ever. Help!

[Dargo]

Hope you get some relief soon Dargo ! Thank goodness you didn't burn the poison ivy, you think your day stinks now , that will really do you in ! Had an Uncle that got poison ivy, the itch was so bad that he scratched the blisters open with a wire brush and pored Lysol out of the brown bottle over it. Had to go to the hospital for the chemical burns but he said it beat the itching !

You're right, I'm sure glad I didn't stack it in a burn pile and burn it. With the tornado we lost right at 100 trees. I have enough black locust, walnut and ash that ought to last me 10 years if I can get it all cut and split before it starts to rot and get full of bugs. I was actually spared a lot because I only got into the stuff when I chain sawed the stump on our island to the ground. I used my excavator with it's thumb to just rip the rest of the trees out and stack them in the woods. Now I just need to figure out how to get another 50' tree out on my wife's island in our lake. It sure looks different!

Hot dang it, I'm scratching like nuts again! Lockhaven, I looked up that Jewelweed stuff but, being the 4th of July weekend, I hope to be over this misery by the time it would get to me. Thanks for the suggestion. I marked the page and will probably order some of that stuff next week anyway now that I know I not only get it but know I have it on my property. Thanks again to all. Ah, dang it, now I've scratched myself until I'm bleeding again!

 

[JohninCT]

Yep I get it too. I just had a bad case that I had to go to the doctor for. I got it all over my face and the area around my eyes swelled up. I looked like I had been in the fight ring and got punched out. He put me on the prednizone and it worked quickly. I agree with everything people have said here. You have to make sure that you aren't spreading the oil around and creating new patches. Shower twice a day with water as hot as you can stand it using Technu cleanser and dry with a new towel. Wash all the clothes. Change the bed linens frequently too. The Zanfel should help stop the itchy patches. Tecnu has a spray that works pretty good for the itch too. The hot water is key. When you're in it you will feel like itching like mad, but afterward you won't feel itchy. That's when you get the cream or the spray and get it on.

 

[ultrarunner]

It was explained to me that the hot water affects the body's histamine release...

You don't want to do the hot water on your first or second shower after exposure because open pores just help to lock in the oils.

If the allergic reaction goes systemic it will start to appear everywhere there is tender skin... inside the elbow and knees are favorites.

The sap is potent all year... the leaves vary, although I would say in my area they are at their peak now...

Water will wash off the unoxidized oil on tools with detergent and some use thinner.

The phone company used to give employee's a product called immune oak that came in vials you ingested over a period of weeks to build up the body's tolerance... I was told it was no longer available... still have a couple of vials from the 60's so I know it did exist.

Don't forget pets and livestock are excellent carriers...

Also, once the oil bonds with the skin the reaction is similar to a burn... the more severe is when the blisters and lesions appear with oozing...

Products like Zanfel work in part because it scrubs away the top layer of skin... so maybe that is why pumice cleaners can be effective.

Most people do not get it on first contact because the body is not yet sensitized...

Native American Indians and Islander like Samoans can have very high thresholds...

There is a Poison Oak removal company here that is all Tongans and Somaons... I've seen them use machetes and carry the vines out on their shoulders... they also get paid very well for the service....

Tomorrow will be better than today...

Don't wear any of the same clothes, at least for a while... don't want to re-expose...

If you see black marks like from a felt tip it is best to trash the clothing...

 

[tjc1989]

Zanfel is good, but expensive. I have also found that orange hand cleaner with pumice in it works well, too. Rub the pumice over the contact area thouroughly and then wash off. Its a lot cheaper.

I had it so bad once that the original contact area was on my forearm, but it penetrated deep and spread to my neck and leg through my blood stream.

Over 3 weeks of pure misery, trying cheap worthless OTC lotions. As soon as I bought the Zanfel, and discovered it had pumice and worked similar to the orange hand cleaner with pumice, I tried it next go round and had good luck.

The pumice helps wear away the top layer of skin and get rid of the oil in the poison ivy / oak, as does the solvents in the hand cleaner. Plus that pumice scrubbing the affected area feels so good......

 

[milkman636]

From the voice of experience: This is good stuff for getting the oil off your skin.
Treat Poison Oak, Ivy. Stop Itching, Stop Rash | TecLabs

They also make a good gel for treating the itching and oozing. Both products are available at my local drug store.

 

[milkman636]

Fels-Naptha

Here is another helpful product that is available in stores. I actually shower with this stuff when I've got into some poison ivy.

It helps to wear long sleeves or pants to keep the oils from getting on any of your furniture. Wash clothes right away after wearing.

My dogs would get into the stuff when I had a house in the woods, and I would get poison ivy from the dogs on occasion without even getting near the plants.

Round Up tough brush killer will kill the stuff in about 2 weeks after spraying, if you can wait a couple weeks to get into an area to work.

 

[dodge man]

Dargo, I've said I have had poison ivy maybe 100 times. Its not as bad as it sounds, probably 50 of those times have been nothing more than what looks like 6 to 12 bug bits. I've had it maybe 40 times where its pretty bad, but confined to a small area. Then maybe 10 times I've had it pretty severe, but only a couple of times as bad as you have it now. The one time I had it real bad it lasted about 4 weeks. I should have gone to the doctor for that one. I was in college at the time and you would have thought my parents would have suggested that.

Ultrarunners post above is spot on how the hot shower works. It sounds like an old wives tale, but it works and I've read so in a medical dictonary. My skin doctor says don't get the water too hot or you can actual burn your self a little bit and cause more damage. The scrathing and others things cause more damage than the actual poison ivy, but when it blisters really bad I've had scars from it that have lasted months.

 

[MNBobcat]

XS's 2 or 3 on the Zanfel. I have had that stuff from head to toe and in the lungs. I have even got relief believe it or not with Go-JO with pumice, the Orange kind. Quite by accident while at work, I used the stuff to wash my arms and hands to remove grease, about an hour I noticed my arms and hands quit itching. One of the older co-workers told me it was the Pumic aggregate that removed the oils. Don't know, but it helped.

I break the blisters open using a pin. Then wash and wash with chlorox bleach until all of the weeping stops. The next morning it will all be scabbed over and the poison ivy gone.

 

[troutsqueezer]

I live on 10 acres of poison oak, had it more times than I can count.

Easy way to get rid of the itching: Put your arm or wherever you have it, under running water as hot as you can stand it. It will feel like an ****** I tell ya. It's like scratching everywhere at once and after 5 or 10 seconds that good feeling will go away. Pull your arm out and dry it off. The itching will be gone for several hours or longer.

Cost = $0.00.

Oops, just saw someone else mentioned hot water. It really does work, even if that's all you do.

 

[groundcover]

"Leaves of three let it be, leaves of four eat some more" Homer Simpson :thumbsup: