Is It Leprosy! NO! Something More Sinister!

[Boxer]

Last week, before riding through the mountains with JB, I began pulling weeds and vines out of an area that we plan to make a stone and garden sitting area beside our house. I worked in the area for two days and got it pretty clean. The process is now on hold while I recover from the dreadful poison ivy I encountered during that two day project.

Look at this photo. Can you pick out any poison ivy? Don’t despair! I could not either. That’s why I’m suffering now.


Here’s the area that I cleaned out last Monday and Tuesday.

The poison ivy was interlaced with all that regular ivy you see here. I was wearing gloves but not long sleeves, thus the forearm exposure.



Before I realized it was poison ivy last week, I had already begun scratching the first infected area like crazy. This one little spot grew to this.


Nasty huh? I have been applying Caladryl clear to the blisters for 4 days now and it only worked for a while so I ended up having to apply it about 5 times a day!
Well, last night I went on line and did some research on the subject and found a product which purportedly will wash away the Urushiol oil from deep inside the skin and stop the crap in its tracks.


After locating a store that sells it I went out this morning and got some. Get this: $40 an ounce tube. I coulda bought some riding gear with that! Anyway, after the first washing the itching has STOPPED! The blisters seem to be receding instead of growing. This is the same spot of the original sore.


I know it still doesn’t look great, but it has stopped itching and the blisters are indeed drying up fast.
I tell you what. If you go camping out in the wild, you better watch out for this poison ivy stuff. I’m convinced the devil put this stuff on earth!

[jb44]

Phil,

That's nasty stuff. We have it surrounding the NC house, and Mary is currently fighting her own infection from working in the garden.

Between the PI and the kudzu, sometimes I'd like to request an Agent Orange strike on the area... it's a jungle out there...

http://www.cattail.nu/ivy/ivy_index.html

jb

[toner87]

I have felt your pain! I wiped out IN poison oak on my mt. bike a couple years ago... Road rash infused with poison oak put me in the ER. Agony!
T.

[DJ Downunder]

Yukky-poo...I'm glad we don't have that down under...nasty..

DJ

[wncbmw]

Can you pick out any poison ivy?

Lower left corner plus some scattered throughout. Typical three leaf cluster, radiating from the center. Leaves look like box alder tree leaves but they form on a limb, alternating leaves.

Those dendrology classes from 30+ years ago did come in handy!

Tough case Phil. I don't get it as bad as I used to but my wife does. I would rather get it myself than listen to . . . whoops, did I say that outloud?

[Boxer]

Lower left corner

You won the prize. I have a sticker for you next time I see you.

Everytime I go out to pull weeds or something (did I say my backyard is a jungle?) I check on the internet to see what it looks like. Yet when I go outside, there's about 20 gazillion plants that seem to qualify.

Can you say 'Roundup'? or as JB suggested, Agent Orange!

[rph802]

That Zanfel is amazing stuff IF AND ONLY IF it is used according to the directions!! It's pricey but well worth it for relief. There is another similar product called Tecnu but it needs to be used within 8 hours for any significant effect but it takes longer than that for the rash to erupt and by then it wont be of much use.

[wncbmw]

If you have a severe poison ivy problem, I say get the Roundup! Kill them all!

[rdsmith3]

If you have a severe poison ivy problem, I say get the Roundup! Kill them all!

Roundup kills the plant, but is the oil still present? I always wondered about that.

[Boxer]

From everything I've read on the subject the last week, the oil in the stems and vines is like 20 times more potent than the leaves. You should never burn it but technically that would be the only way to really get rid of it. Roundup, I suppose will do the job if you get it all on the vines and roots, etc. I also learned that you can eradicate it by pulling every last root and vine out of the earth and burying it somewhere after it has died.

Update: The Zanfel has offered some relief but not as advertised. I'm disappointed. Not worth $40 after all, as far as I'm concerned. Someone told me this morning that Vicks Vaporub is also good for soothing the burning and the itch. Will try that today after my latest application of Caladryl wears off.

It's been itching for a week now...I only have 2 or 3 more weeks of it. Hope it's gone before I ride north toward Vermont.

[OneShot]

The last time I got in that stuff, I used Aveeno skin lotion with oatmeal, but i guess any lotion with oatmeal will do. Took the itching and pain down to a dull burning--much more bearable. Hope this helps.

Cheers!

[RatBastard217]

Two years ago I was cutting some of the swales in front of my property with a weed wacker. A few days later it started! I thought I had gotten into some poison ivy or similar. About a week of suffering and it still wasnt going away. I too tried one of those expensive remedies. Didnt work! I was working the midnight shift at the time and had had enough. To the ER I went. Worth every penny! A shot and prescription cream and I was on the road to recovery.

Interesting note though. The ER nurse though it was probably Brazilian Pepper Tree. It turns out is from the same family and just as nasty. Its a weed down here and taking over.

[socalrob]

I'm a land surveyor. Poison Ivy in the east, poison oak in the west, I've seen it all, had it all, know what it looks like all 4 seasons of the year.

The best defense against the dreaded Oak (in the west the Poison Oak is more toxic, in the east the Ivy is more toxic, I will refer to it as Oak here for simplicity) is to avoid contact. If you know you are going into an infested area (which in the west is limited mostly to shady north facing slopes and/or understory of Oak trees) I would buy paper painter suites & duct tape the ankles to your boots & the sleeves to your gloves. The paper hoods help too. Do not touch your face or neck. When out of the area strip off the suit & wipe down with Technu lotion. Go home, strip at the washing machine (your wife / SO will not like getting oak from handeling your clothes, & she will), and take a good shower with the Technu soap. If you are careful you will have avoided the Oak.

Remember, the sap residule will stay on your tools, boots, car seat, & any stuff you allowed to touch anything that touched the oak.

Whatever you do, keep the sap off of yourself. It will turn black & is exceptionally bad stuff. For this reason I would never use a weed wacker, which can pulverize the sap into an airborne toxin. Also, the worst case my brother ever had was from contact with smoke from burning poison oak (a hillside fire). Ask any wildland fire fighter. Do not burn the stuff!

In the spring time Oak blooms, & is IMO most virulent.

If you have a bad case, a shot or two at the ER or doctor's office will knock it down quick.

Do not "touch yourself" if your hands have oak residue, & your SO will not like getting the itching rash "down there", so you may need to have some self control.

The cause of the itch is hystomines in your skin. As long as the histomines are there you will want to scratch. I have found that holding the affected part of your body under the hottest stream of water you can stand in the shower will cause your body to release all of the histomines at once, which does 2 things, 1, it takes your body about 12 hours to build up the histomines again, so that there will not be any itchiness for about that long, and 2, the sudden release of all those histomines is an intense feeling that borders on sex. Almost a painfull pleasure its so intense. Just be carefull not to burn yourself with the water. A shower massage works very well. Crank up that water heater, aim that almost scalding water right at that rash. Gives me shivers just remembering.

The only way I've ever found to speed the healing of the rash is to go to the ocean & swim in the ocean, let the salt dry on your skin, & repeat several times. Do not get sunburned. For me, without the beach, takes about 2 weeks to heal. With the beach a time or two will heal in about one week.

Good luck.

[R4R&R]

I have a friend that seems to get 'infected' by poison ivy every year, typically in the spring. All you need to do is mentione it to him and boom - he has it all over! It's like he rolls in it. Anyway, he complains to his doctor enough (he does have bad reactions) and they give him a cortizone shot and goes by-by.