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

[Dargo]

When I work in the woods I cover-up... this means I wear my gauntlet welding type gloves and long pants and shirt... also a hat and will put on Ivy Block on my face...

The number one thing I learned to NEVER touch any part of your body... ever... while out working in my woods

I don't do any ground engaging activities if the ground is dry and dusty.... a couple days after a rain is the right time for me...

I have a designated hazardous waste disposal site on my property... it is a narrow and deep wash loaded with Poison Oak where I drag all the long vines for disposal with my loppers...

Heading out now... wish me luck.

Smart man. No kidding. I will do the same in the future. Apparently my body has changed. Literally (yeah, I know it's not smart) my next door neighbor and I rubbed poison ivy on our arms in grade school to try to get out of school. I went to school and he spent 2 days in the hospital! Earlier someone mentioned age, well, I'm right at 50. If your body changes at 30, I'm glad I got an extra 20 year reprieve. I've been in the stuff with no gloves and short sleeves as recently as last year and never got a single twinge of an itch. Clearly, those days are over. This stinks!!

I did have my daughter buy Zanfel yesterday. I think she got it at Walgreens. Unfortunately, I think I waited too long and I'm still itching like mad. I don't know if it's the poison ivy or the steroids, but now I start feeling sick when I'm in the sun. I planned on trying to work outside today. It's not working out too well so far.

Thanks again for all the helpful comments and for not laughing at me. I just thought I had some genetic immunity to it. My father or my grandfather never got it and they were in the woods plenty. I've been kicked out of that club I suppose.

 

[buckle97]

Earlier someone mentioned age, well, I'm right at 50. If your body changes at 30, I'm glad I got an extra 20 year reprieve.

I was 28 when the change hit me. I have always worn long pants and gloves when working outside but never had to be particularly careful around poison ivy. I was cutting and removing some pretty big poison ivy vines growing up an oak tree in my pasture and the next day I wished I hadn't done that. Scalding hot water will keep me itch free for about 12 hours. Whenever I get poison ivy now I have to take a scalding hot shower first thing when I get up and right before bed to stay comfortable.

 

[GGB]

I swear-I'm getting itchy just reading this post!!!!

Been there, done that.....I'm not laughing-I feel your pain!

Hope you're feeling a little better by now. Glad to here that you went to the Doctor.

GGB

 

[kco]

Like some others I developed an intense sensitivity to poison ivy in my early teens. The first severe bout was so bad that my face swelled like a balloon and my eyes were just slits. I missed a week of school.

I believe I had another bout a year later tha was not quite as severe (not sure--it was in the mid 1950's).

At the start of a couple of following years (again not sure how many times) the doctor gave me an injection. It was in the upper arm, and that arm would swell and itch like crazy for a couple of days. It seemed to work as I never got severe poison ivy after that.

But who knows--maybe I just grew out of it.

 

[Car Doc]

I can spot PI a mile away if I am on the hwy or a dirt road it doesn't miss my gaze. My wife doesn't even doubt me any more I have proved it so many times. And I still get into it sonofa I hate that stuff.

 

[dodge man]

YES, the steroids make you sensitive to the sun, its a side affect, stay out of the sun. It can also keep you awake at night, and give you very vivid dreams and nightmares. It can also cause weight gain, mainly by increasing your appetite, but another positive side affect it helps make your breathing better.

I consider myself an expert on poison ivy and estimate I've had it as many as 100 times. Of those 100 times, most have been very minor, but maybe 12 have been pretty bad. From an expert, I'll say that once you have it, nothing helps but the steroids, and the very hot shower. I go to a dermatologist now, and he says the regular doctors give you to many steroids, that a lower dose works just as good and have less long term side affects. I'm to the point he won't give me the steroids unless its pretty bad since I've had so many. The long term affects of them aren't good. He has given me a very strong steroid cream that works good if you don't have it real bad.

As far as the allergic reaction goes, you are immune to it the very first time you get in it. A fairly large percentage of people don't get it at all, about half. If you are allergic to it, the more you get it, the easier you get it. If you stay out of it for several years, you won't get it quite as easy. And like a lot of allergies, they can come and go as you age.

Good luck and I bet the steroids kick in soon and when they do, it goes away in a hurry. Make sure anything you touched while you were in it gets washed real well.

 

[Dargo]

I consider myself an expert on poison ivy and estimate I've had it as many as 100 times.

OMG Then I'm a BIG wimp! This first time ever is still driving me nuts. I definitely have the blisters on my forearms, inside creases of my elbows and behind my knees and other unspeakofable places. That's still a mystery to me.

I think the steroids may be helping a bit. If not, I'll just take more Benedryl and try to sleep through it!

P.S. No matter how much I may have argued with anyone here or anywhere, I promise I wouldn't wish this horrid itching plague on any of them!!

 

[lockhaven]

Many years ago I worked as a park ranger, glorified brush remover. we got into poison everyday. This is what we used and I still use it when ever the poison strikes. Jewelweed, Poison Ivy Treatment from Nature

 

[MarkV]

Dargo, sorry man, the first time you get it when you think it doesn't affect you is terrible. Happened to me at 53. Can't ever remember having it before then so I never paid it much mind. I cut some trees heavy in vines and boy did I get it. I know how you feel! For what it is worth, at least it doesn't sound like you had the need to relieved yourself in the woods. I did.

MarkV

 

[groundcover]

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 !